Rock Hudson’s wife had no qualms playing the role of a Hollywood wife – until her closeted husband came swinging with a divorce.
While it is known today that the 1950s heartthrob was gay, Universal Studios went to great lengths to protect his image, including keeping his sexuality a secret. Hudson was married to talent agency secretary Phyllis Gates from 1955 to 1958.
“During the marriage, she kept quiet,” author Josh Young told Fox News Digital. “But it obviously affected her life. And in the end, when it was clear that he was going to leave her with nothing, I think that’s when she felt she needed to do something.”
Young recently teamed up with Manfred Westphal to write “The Fixer: Moguls, Mobsters, Movie Stars and Marilyn.” It delves into shocking revelations from notorious private detective Fred Otash based on his never-before-seen investigative files.
For the book, Westphal was given access to Otash’s archives with the blessing of his daughter, Colleen. Westphal, who first met Colleen at Otash’s funeral, developed a close friendship with her over the years.
Otash, a World War II Marine veteran, died in 1992 at age 70.
“Fred Otash fought to get Phyllis Gates what she deserved in their divorce settlement when Rock was kicking her to the curb and refusing to support her,” Young explained. “It was surprising to learn what an advocate he was for women and how interesting those cases were.”
According to the authors, Otash was the son of Lebanese rug merchants whose life was marked by tragedy.
He lost his father and only brother during the Great Depression, prompting him to drop out of high school at age 16 to join the Civil Conservation Corps to support his mother and sisters. He went on to volunteer for the Marine Corps and, at the outset of World War II, fought in the South Pacific.
Otash landed in Los Angeles in 1945, when he signed up for the LAPD. There, he made a name for himself as a renegade officer before launching his own detective bureau in 1955, which, thanks to his access to emerging technology, eclipsed his contemporaries. He served as a freelancer for the Los Angeles tabloid, Confidential.
“There were a lot of tabloid rumors about Rock Hudson at the time,” said Young. “Fred was a fact-checker for Confidential, which was the nastier version of the Enquirer, the precursor to that. It was a magazine that didn’t play ball with the Hollywood studios and would run whatever story they could get their hands on.”
“Early on, they had a lot of stories about Rock Hudson and his relationships – his homosexual relationships,” Young shared. “A lot of those stories were traded out and killed by Rock’s manager in exchange for other tabloid stories.”
According to the book, Gates was a “wholesome farm girl and former Sunday school teacher” from Minnesota who was set up with Hudson. Hollywood agent Henry Willson, who “had already bearded his own homosexuality by becoming engaged to President Harry Truman’s songstress daughter,” ensured that the couple was photographed all around town.
In 1955, Confidential was ready to strike with an in-depth story of Hudson’s sexuality based on first-person accounts by his former lovers. Willson, fearing the tell-all would destroy Hudson’s career, cut a deal by throwing two of his other less lucrative talents under the bus.
Still, magazines wondered when “Hollywood’s most handsome bachelor” would get married. Willson gave Hudson two months to get hitched.
Gates happily obliged when Hudson asked her to move in with him. Two months later, she said I do. A quickie “PR stunt wedding” was orchestrated by Willson with Hollywood’s “gossip queens” in attendance.
All seemed well as Hudson skyrocketed to fame. However, his lovers reportedly kept him occupied when the cameras stopped rolling. Gates, who had grown tired of “her estranged husband’s disregard for her physical and emotional needs,” hired Hollywood lawyer Jerry Giesler to commence divorce proceedings. According to the book, Gates later became “shaken” to learn that her marriage “was nothing more than a fanciful farce” to cover up Hudson’s sexuality.
The book noted that Hudson was willing to grant Gates a divorce. However, he would only offer “a few measly bucks, her car and no place to live.” Gates fired Giesler and brought on personal attorney Arthur Crowley, who then reached out to Otash to find any evidence of Hudson’s homosexuality. Crowley planned to threaten that he would leak the news to the press if Gates was not financially supported.
“She was put in the position of not being able to fend for herself,” said Young. “It was the case for a lot of women in those days who were dealing with powerful people in various circumstances. That wouldn’t happen today, but it did happen in the 1950s.”
According to the book, Otash set up a sting operation. He created a script for Gates, which she used to confront Hudson. The actor was secretly recorded by Otash, the book claimed.
During the sit-down, Gates confronted Hudson about a Rorschach test he had taken.
“You told me you saw thousands of butterflies and also snakes,” said Gates. “[A therapist] told me in my analysis that butterflies mean femininity and snakes represent the male penis. I’m not condemning you, but it seems that as long as you recognize your problem, you would want to do something about it.”
Gates also pointed out, “Your great speed with me, sexually. Are you that fast with boys?”
“Everyone knows that you were picking up boys off the street shortly after we were married and have continued to do so, thinking that being married would cover up for you,” she further accused Hudson.
“I have never picked up any boys on the street,” Hudson shot back. “I have never picked up any boys in a bar, never. I have never picked up any boys, other than to give them a ride.”
At one point, Hudson broke down to Gates, the book claimed.
“I never felt we were together on anything,” Hudson tearfully said to his estranged wife. “I never felt you loved me.”
“And that is why you never touched me?” Gates replied. “Rock, when we came back from our honeymoon you never made love to me for one whole month. I was always here, and I always wanted you. At first, I would come to bed, and you would have a book in your face… People sense these things… A man has to have a sexual outlet. You should have picked me up and carried me into bed, but you never touched me.”
Hudson allegedly told Gates that he had a homosexual affair “the next day” after they were married.
“I was just a doormat to you,” said Gates. “Someone to hide behind.”
According to the book, Otash and Crowley used the transcript to pressure Hudson’s team into a settlement. Hudson gave Gates their Hollywood Hills home and $250 a week for 10 years if she did not remarry, which would come to $130,000, or $1.3 million today. She was also given stock in his production company.
Neither remarried. Hudson died of complications from AIDS in 1985 at age 59.
“I had the power to destroy Rock and I didn’t use it,” Gates later wrote, as quoted by the Los Angeles Times. “To have exposed his other life would have been vicious and vindictive. I faced enough trouble rebuilding my life without bearing that guilt.”
Before she died in 2006 at age 80, Gates told Hudson’s biographer Sara Davidson that she “was very much in love” with the actor.
“I thought he would be a wonderful husband,” said Gates, as quoted by People magazine. “He was charming, his career was red-hot, he was gorgeous. How many women would have said no?”
