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Interviewees include Elizabeth Taylor, Armistead Maupin, Paula Prentiss, Heather Locklear and Linda Evans
Rock Hudson
Rock Hudson documentary examines his secret gay life
The private and professional life of Hollywood star Rock Hudson, who spent his entire career playing masculine romantic leads while secretly being gay, will be examined in a new documentary released this year.
German filmmakers Andrew Davies and Andre Schafer will premier Rock Hudson: Dark and Handsome Stranger at the Berlin International Film Festival in February.
"The film will reveal a gay star doing a secret balancing act between the heterosexual world of an obviously very male-looking star and the dark side of forbidden sexuality as a closeted gay man," the producers said in a press release.
The documentary features a star-studded list of interviewees among Hudson's friends and co-stars, including Elizabeth Taylor, Armistead Maupin (Tales of the City), Paula Prentiss, Linda Evans and Heather Locklear, as well as his assistant of ten years, Tom Clark.
The film examines Hudson's efforts to hide his sexuality at a time when the truth would have meant the end of his career. Hudson was someone "who always needed to tell lies", the producers said, adding: "Was he also lying to himself?"
Hudson, who died of AIDS complications in his Beverly Hills home in 1985, narrowly avoided being outed several times, with a short-lived marriage to his agent's secretary and a deal brokered with Confidential magazine among the compromises he had to make.
