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Source: Rock Hudson (film)

Rock Hudson is a 1990 American biographical drama television film directed by John Nicolella and written by Dennis Turner. The film is based on My Husband, Rock Hudson, a 1987 autobiography by Phyllis Gates, actor Rock Hudson's ex-wife (1955–1958). It is the story of their marriage, written after Hudson's 1985 death from AIDS. In the book Gates wrote that she was in love with Hudson and that she did not know Hudson was gay when they married, and was not complicit in his deception. The movie is also based on magazine articles, interviews and court records, including transcripts of the Los Angeles Superior Court trial after which Marc Christian won a large settlement ($21.75 million) from the actor's estate because Hudson had hidden from him the fact that he was suffering from AIDS. Later, Marc Miller (Hudson's secretary) accused the movie of malicious lies. In April 1989, the court award to Christian was reduced to $5.5 million.
In 1989, both ABC and NBC started developing plans for a biography of Hudson, NBC had announced it had commissioned a script, but ABC had already completed a movie. It aired on ABC on January 8, 1990. NBC later decided not to complete its four-hour miniseries.
A relative unknown, Thomas Ian Griffith, was chosen to portray the actor; he is 6 feet 5 inches tall and Hudson was 6 feet 4 inches. He had to spend up to four hours in makeup to portray the older Hudson.
The movie was reviewed badly by many critics, attracted only 24% of the viewing audience and suffered some advertiser defections because of concern over the depiction of Hudson's homosexuality. It placed 29th in the Nielsen ratings for the week ending January 14, 1990.
Robert Iger claimed that research showed that ABC lost $1 million in advertising due to the broadcast of the film.