Posted on 01/11/2006 5:16:07 PM PST by lunarbicep
Phyllis Gates, the onetime talent agency secretary who married Hollywood heartthrob Rock Hudson in the 1950s and later insisted she married him out of love and not to cover up his homosexuality, has died. She was 80.
Gates, who had a career as an interior designer after her brief marriage to Hudson, died of complications of lung cancer Jan. 4 at her home in Marina del Rey, said Mark Waldman, her attorney.
"She was a lovely, very dignified woman," Waldman said today.
Born in Dawson, Minn. in 1925 and reared on a 600-acre farm, Gates had worked as a salesclerk, an airline stewardess and a talent agent's secretary in New York City before landing a job as a secretary for influential Hollywood agent Henry Willson, who represented Hudson, Tab Hunter, Rory Calhoun and a string of other young stars.
In October 1954, the petite and brunette Gates met the tall, dark and handsome Hudson for the first time when he walked into Willson's office.
A few days later, Willson invited Gates to have drinks and dinner with him and Hudson. She did, and the next day, Hudson asked her out.
Soon, their budding romance was leaked to the press, with Hollywood Reporter columnist Mike Connolly noting that "Rock Hudson has been enjoying hideaway dinners with Henry Willson's purty secy, Phyllis Gates."
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
Consummated?
Their sex life, Gates wrote, was usually "brief and hurried," and Hudson once told her that "all women are dirty."
A sad story.
I don't know anything about her subsequent life, but hopefully
she found a normal, heterosexual male who appreciated her for
being a woman, the correct complement to a man. Obviously "Rock"
only married her to cover up his perversion, which, was the "normal" action
for those times. Too bad she appeared to have been snowed by this
jerk....or worse, wanted the publicity of being married to this
hunk regardless of his preferences. Either way, that's Hollywierd
for you.
Gates, who never remarried...
Sorry 'bout that...never read the whole article.
That really is sad.
One of my moms good friend was Phillis's sister....I met her once when I was a young girl.....I guess Phillis's sister and brother in law did not like Rock to much even before they knew about the gay thing. Mom said Phillis seemed nice. I guess she was a companion for many years to some wealthy women in CA and traveled the world...sure was a sad situation all the way around.
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