Henry Willson
Henry Willson (1911 – 1978) was a
Hollywood closeted
homosexual talent agent who played a role in popularizing the
beefcake craze of the
1950s. Some of his notable clients included
Rock Hudson,
Tab Hunter,
Guy Madison,
Troy Donahue, and
Robert Wagner. He also discovered a young
Rhonda Fleming walking to Beverly Hills High School, brought her to
David O. Selznick's attention, and helped groom her for stardom.
In his book,
Screened Out: Playing Gay in Hollywood from Edison to Stonewall (2002), Richard Barrios writes, "Talent agent Henry Willson, ... serving for a while under
David O. Selznick, had a singular knack for discovering and renaming young actors whose visual appeal transcended any lack of ability. Under his tutelage, Robert Mosely became
Guy Madison, Arthur Gelien was changed to
Tab Hunter, and Roy Fitzgerald turned into
Rock Hudson. So successful was the
beefcake aspect of this enterprise, and so widely recognized was Willson's sexuality, that it was often, and often inaccurately, assumed that all of his clients were gay."
Behind the scenes,
Rock Hudson had
homosexual affairs with a number of men, and it was difficult to hide his sexuality from co-workers. As his agent, Henry Willson encouraged Hudson to court and marry Willson's secretary,
Phyllis Gates in
1955. It is thought the studio used this
sham marriage in order to cover Hudson's
homosexuality, which would have been a liability at the box office if it were known to the public. Although Gates insisted that, for her, the marriage was real, she claimed she eventually learned that the romance had been arranged to dispel rumours that Hudson was gay. Not everyone was convinced that Gates was as naive as she seemed, [
1], [
2]. The couple divorced in
1958, and Gates said that she never saw Hudson again - although
lesbian gossip columnist
Liz Smith claims Hudson approached her after Gates tried to blackmail him after their divorce. Phyllis Gates died on
January 4,
2006, of
lung cancer complications.
When journalist
Boze Hadleigh asked Hudson, "Rock, do you think you were born gay?" the actor smiled and said, "Probably. But only after I came out of the womb!" Hudson would cruise parts of Hollywood in search of love, demand sexual favors ("the Rock trap") from Willson clients who had landed minor roles in his films, and was a leading player at Henry Willson's pool parties during the late '50s and early '60s. "Rock's sex drive was enormous," said
Van Williams, another Willson client. This gave Willson a regular problem, as during the 1950s
Confidential magazine was one of the first celebrity gossip magazines, and had a standing offer of $10,000 for stories on Rock. To counter this, and to cope with the volume of Rock's spurned lovers turning up at his office once Hudson became famous, Willson was forced into a series of deals. It is suggested he had on his payroll members of the
Los Angeles Police Force, the
Mafia and Private Detectives to discreetly 'remove' problematical photographs - and that
J. Edgar Hoover would "take care" of any blackmailers for him. Willson's greatest deal to protect Hudson was when in 1955 he fed
Confidential information on the criminal past of his own client
Rory Calhoun, and his recently ex-client
Tab Hunter - who had been picked up in a raid on a gay party in 1950.
*
Review of "The Man Who Invented Rock Hudson: The Pretty Boys and Dirty Deals of Henry Willson" by Robert Hofler
