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Rock Hudson was one of the last stars of Hollywood’s Golden Era, but he was forced to keep his private life a secret, concealing his sexuality to protect his leading man image. But after decades of secrecy, Hudson’s revelation that he had AIDS shortly before his death in 1985 proved to be a critical turning point in the fight against a deadly disease that killed millions worldwide.

Hudson had a traumatic childhood

Hudson was born Roy Scherer Jr, on November 17, 1925, in Winnetka, Illinois. His father abandoned the family when he was a child, and his mother, Katherine, remarried when Hudson was 8. His stepfather, Wallace Fitzgerald, was an abusive alcoholic, who forced the young boy to take his last name. He was a harshly critical man , ridiculing

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