‘Hollywood’: Who Did Rock Hudson Actually Have a Relationship With in Real Life?
The Netflix show, Hollywood shows Rock Hudson (Jake Picking) having a relationship with a black screenwriter named Archie Coleman (Jeremy Pope.) However, the Ryan Murphy show mixes fact with fiction. Archie was a fictional character so who did Hudson actually have a relationship with in real life? Here are two men who came forward about their past relationship with him.
Rock Hudson’s boyfriend in ‘Hollywood’ is fictional
Archie is a fictional character but the actor did turn to a real person for inspiration to play him. “James Baldwin was a big inspiration for me on his project, being that he was so cultured and ahead of his time,” Pope told Variety. “That felt like, if anything, that’s what Archie should be like.”
Hudson’s partner on the show might be fiction. But there are other areas of his life that is based on the actor’s true story. His agent, Henry Willson (Jim Parsons) was a real person.
“Henry Willson was a fantastic, crazy character,” Murphy told Vanity Fair. “He was a complete alcoholic. He drank crème de menthe. He was involved in the mafia. He had dirt on everybody that he would weaponize. And he would find these young guys who almost all came from horrible home situations—with broken marriages and absent fathers—and take them on as clients…He was a tormented gay man who preyed on tormented gay men.”
People might have learned more about Wilson. But who were the men actually in Hudson’s love life that didn’t make it into the show?
Lee Garlington claimed he had a relationship with the actor
Lee Garlington, who was a stockbroker, claimed he had a relationship with Hudson in the mid-’60s. He gave an interview about their time together in 2018 when he was 81 years old.
“We couldn’t take any pictures together, it was too dangerous,” he said according to People. “We could only take pictures of each other.”
Garlington said the actor “did not have the opportunity to live his life the way he wanted to and he had to go around hiding.” He added, “I wish he had been born thirty or forty years later. He’d be more relaxed and at ease and it would have been a happier life. He’d also be elated by how much has changed.”
Marc Christian also sued claiming Hudson didn’t tell him he had AIDS
Another person who came forward about being intimate with Hudson was Marc Christian. He claimed after Hudson died that the actor didn’t tell him about his disease and sued his estate for $11 million.
“Marc Christian got a call from Mark Miller in France,” Christian’s attorney, Harold Rhoden told jurors according to the Associated Press. “He said, ’I’m sorry. The movie star told me not to tell you, I know it’s not fair. But I was only following orders.'”
Christian didn’t develop AIDS. Miller said he didn’t believe Hudson continued to have sex with Christian. His attorney also claimed Christian’s relationship with Hudson ended in 1984 after he told the actor he had been paid for sex. They continued to live together. The lawsuit led to Christian receiving a settlement.
Hudson also married the secretary of his agent, Phyllis Gates. The marriage was reportedly set up by the studio he worked for and ended in 1958.
