BOOKS: ROCK HUDSON, PETER WELLS
The book details Rock’s affairs and
crushes… including Lee Majors, star of The Six Million Dollar Man.
All That Heaven Allows: A Biography Of Rock Hudson by Mark Griffin This comprehensive new biography of Hollywood star Rock Hudson is especially exhaustive on all his film, television and theatre work – his numerous triumphs and successes (Giant, Pillow Talk, Magnificent Obsession) are recounted in detail, but almost as much attention is paid to his numerous flops and minor films.
Plenty of attention is also paid to the closeted star’s romantic and sexual life – his numerous boyfriends, affairs, female companions, and his wife Phyliss Gates. What seems beyond question about his marriage is that it was engineered by Henry Willson, the notoriously lecherous Hollywood agent who groomed Rock for stardom and for whom Phyliss worked as a secretary. Years later, after Rock’s death from AIDS complications, Phyliss would declare herself an unwitting victim in this arranged marriage and wrote an overblown memoir to that effect. Rock’s inner-circle contradicted her claims and Griffin has numerous sources who insist that she had her own same-sex liaisons.
The book also details many of Rock’s affairs and crushes. One that stands out is his interest and championing of Harvey Lee Yeary, who would later find fame as Lee Majors, star of The Six Million Dollar Man. Lee, his first wife, and young son were Rock’s houseguests for a period, and Rock bankrolled Lee’s acting coaches and expenses. One Hollywood columnist noted that as Rock later fought for his life in hospital, the protégé he had launched to fame and fortune was nowhere to be seen.
But what does shine through in many of the interviews Griffin conducted researching the book, is that despite his fame and success, Rock retained his midWestern charm and was universally renowned as a nice guy who was extremely generous and supportive.
Late in the biography, Rock’s friend and out gay actor Michael Kearns observes that Rock’s “most brilliant performance was playing Rock Hudson all his life… the acting he did off-screen required more work”.
Film rights to this biography have been sold to Universal Pictures with Greg Berlanti (Love, Simon) on board to direct. Dear Oliver: Uncovering A Pakeha History by Peter Wells Wells has been known as New Zealand’s leading gay writer for many decades with a long list of books (Dangerous Desires, Iridescence) to his name and also early fame as a film-maker (Desperate Remedies).
Over the past ten years he has turned to writing non-fiction and this latest book is a fascinating family history.
In 2001, Peter wrote an earlier memoir Long Loop Home that detailed the complications that ensued when he decided, at age 11, that his family couldn’t “afford” to have two gay sons.
This new book also explores the truncated life of his brother Russell who died in the early years of the AIDS crisis, but it is more about his complicated relationship with his mother. It is a candid and unsparing portrait of a remarkable woman who lived to 100. In her old age, regal Bess is subjected to numerous indignities, as her body and mind begin to betray her.
Wells also reveals her intimate secrets – a wartime romance while his father was overseas that she kept hidden mementos of for decades. And perhaps there were even other lovers…
But as well as examining his immediate family, unsparingly, Wells also demonstrates his rigour as a researcher as he looks back at his antecedents over almost 150 years. He narrates dramatic events that his family were embroiled in: the Napier Earthquake of 1931, the Boer War, and the war against Te Kooti.
Dear Oliver is long-listed for New Zealand’s most prestigious literary award and Wells will be a popular favourite to win as he has endured a gruelling 18-months battling cancer.
In February he will launch a book, Hello Darkness born from those social media posts, though it is also to be his last book. In December 2018 he announced on Facebook that his cancer had returned and that his doctors had informed him it was terminal. Peter Wells continues to bravely document his cancer journey on Facebook and the fact that it has now imposed a death sentence upon him.