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{{short description|Actress}}
{{short description|Actress}}
{{Film IMDb refimprove|date=July 2018}}
{{Infobox person
{{Infobox person
| name = Rochelle Hudson
| name = Rochelle Hudson
| image = Rochellehudson.jpg
| image = Rochelle Hudson publ.jpg
| imagesize =
| imagesize =
| caption = Rochelle Hudson promoting ''Show Them No Mercy'' (1935)
| caption = Rochelle Hudson in the 1930s
| birth_name = Rachael Hudson
| birth_name = Rachael Elizabeth Hudson
| birth_date = {{birth date|1916|03|06}}
| birth_date = {{birth date|1916|03|06}}
| birth_place = [[Oklahoma City, Oklahoma]], U.S.
| birth_place = [[Oklahoma City, Oklahoma]], U.S.<ref name=HighBeam/><ref name=arizona/>
| death_date = {{death date and age|1972|01|17|1916|03|06}}
| death_date = {{death date and age|1972|01|17|1916|03|06}}
| death_place = [[Palm Desert, California]], U.S.
| death_place = [[Palm Desert, California]], U.S.
| occupation = Actress
| occupation = Actress
| yearsactive = 1930–1967
| yearsactive = 1930–1967
| spouse = {{plainlist|
| spouse = Charles Brust<br>({{abbr|m.|married}} 19??; {{abbr|div.|divorced}} 19??)<br>{{marriage|Harold Thompson|1939|1947|end=divorced}}<br>{{marriage|Dick Irving Hyland|1948|1950|end=divorced}}<br>{{marriage|Robert L. Mindell|1963|1971|end=divorced}}
* {{marriage|Harold Thompson|1939|1947|end=divorced}}
* {{marriage|Dick Irving Hyland|1948|1950|end=divorced}}
* {{marriage|Charles K. Brust<br>|1956|<!--unknown?-->|end=divorced}}
* {{marriage|Robert L. Mindell|1963|1971|end=divorced}}<ref name=HighBeam/>
}}
}}
}}


'''Rochelle Elizabeth Hudson''' (born '''Rachael Hudson''',<ref name="on">{{cite news |last1=Houston |first1=Noel |title=Film Stardom Beckons to Rochelle Hudson, Oklahoma City Girl, Who Was 'On Her Toes' When Contract Arrived |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/38118765/rochelle_hudson/ |accessdate=October 30, 2019 |work=The Oklahoma News |date=October 9, 1934 |location=Oklahoma, Oklahoma City |page=3|via = [[Newspapers.com]]}}</ref> March 6, 1916 – January 17, 1972) was an American film actress from the 1930s through the 1960s.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20181115005102/https://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G2-2588811251.html "Hudson, Rochelle (1916–1972)."] ''Dictionary of Women Worldwide: 25,000 Women Through the Ages''. Gale. 2007. Retrieved January 07, 2013 from [[HighBeam Research]]</ref> Hudson was a [[WAMPAS Baby Stars|WAMPAS Baby Star]] in 1931.
'''Rochelle Hudson''' (born '''Rachael Elizabeth Hudson''';<ref name="on">{{cite news |last1=Houston |first1=Noel |title=Film Stardom Beckons to Rochelle Hudson, Oklahoma City Girl, Who Was 'On Her Toes' When Contract Arrived |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/38118765/rochelle_hudson/ |access-date=October 30, 2019 |work=The Oklahoma News |date=October 9, 1934 |location=Oklahoma, Oklahoma City |page=3|via = [[Newspapers.com]]}}</ref> March 6, 1916 – January 17, 1972) was an American film actress from the 1930s through the 1960s.<ref name=HighBeam>[https://web.archive.org/web/20181115005102/https://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G2-2588811251.html "Hudson, Rochelle (1916–1972)"], ''[[Dictionary of Women Worldwide]]: 25,000 Women Through the Ages''. Gale. 2007.</ref> Hudson was a [[WAMPAS Baby Stars|WAMPAS Baby Star]] in 1931.


==Early years==
==Early years==
She was the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. O. L. Hudson. While in Oklahoma, she studied dancing, drama, piano, and voice. She completed her high school education at a high school on the Fox studios lot.<ref name=on/>
Hudson was born in [[Oklahoma City, Oklahoma]], the daughter of Ollie Lee Hudson and Lenora Mae Hudson.<ref name=HighBeam/> While in Oklahoma, she studied dancing, drama, piano, and voice. Hudson began her acting career as a teenager, and completed her high school education at a high school on the Fox studios lot.<ref name=on/>


==Career==
==Career==
{{Moresources|section|date=July 2023}}
The Oklahoma City-born actress began her career as a teenager. She signed a contract with [[RKO Pictures]] on November 22, 1930, when she was 17 years old.<ref>{{cite news |title=Films Give Career To Oklahoma Girl |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/22174432/rochelle_hudson/ |work=The Akron Beacon Journal |date=November 22, 1930 |location=Ohio, Akron |page=10|via = [[Newspapers.com]]|accessdate = July 24, 2018}} {{Open access}}</ref>
Hudson signed a contract with [[RKO Pictures]] on November 22, 1930, when she was 14 years old.<ref>{{cite news |title=Films Give Career To Oklahoma Girl |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/22174432/rochelle_hudson/ |work=The Akron Beacon Journal |date=November 22, 1930 |location=Ohio, Akron |page=10|via = [[Newspapers.com]]|access-date = July 24, 2018}} {{Open access}}</ref>

⚫
She may be best remembered today for costarring in ''[[Wild Boys of the Road]]'' (1933), playing Cosette in ''[[Les Misérables (1935 film)|Les Misérables]]'' (1935), playing Mary Blair, the older sister of [[Shirley Temple]]'s character in ''Curly Top'', and for playing [[Natalie Wood]]'s mother in ''[[Rebel Without a Cause]]'' (1955). During her peak years in the 1930s, notable roles for Hudson included [[Richard Cromwell (actor)|Richard Cromwell’s]] love interest in the [[Will Rogers]] showcase ''[[Life Begins at 40 (film)|Life Begins at 40]]'' (1935), the daughter of carnival barker [[W.C. Fields]] in ''[[Poppy (1936 film)|Poppy]]'' (1936), and [[Claudette Colbert|Claudette Colbert’s]] adult daughter in ''[[Imitation of Life (1934 film)|Imitation of Life]]'' (1934).
In 1939 Rochelle Hudson was working on a movie titled Convicted Woman for Columbia Pictures that was released in 1940. Another player in the movie was an actress named June Lang. During production the two struck up conversation in a friendly manner because both had worked on Shirley Temple movies, inspiring a sort of special "esprit de corps" between them. Like Hudson's career would soon be, Lang's film career would be interrupted as well, albeit for totally different reasons. Hudson took way too much time away from her acting career with her husband for reasons explained in the next paragraph. Lang got mixed up with and married a suspected heavyweight mob figure said to be a film producer named Johnny Roselli which, as a mob figure, was viewed way to unfavorable by the studios as well. Neither Hudson's nor Lang's careers really got back on track after the war. For more about the collaboration on their movie Convicted Women.


Because of the marked slowdown to an almost complete halt in Hudson's film career in the years just prior to the war and into its early years after having gone gangbusters for the whole decade before, people have long thought she had fallen into disfavor with the Hollywood powers that be or that her popularity had just waned to such a point she was simply just being passed over. However, on what some consider to be rather flimsy evidence, it has been reported, and what will be substantiated further down --- with only flimsy evidence found elsewhere notwithstanding --- that she had in fact been working as a spy during that period for the Naval Intelligence Service. She and her husband, posing as a civilian, were doing espionage work primarily in Mexico and together they posed as a vacationing couple to detect if there was any German or Japanese activity there.
⚫
She may be best remembered today for costarring in ''[[Wild Boys of the Road]]'' (1933), playing Cosette in ''[[Les Misérables (1935 film)|Les Misérables]]'' (1935), playing Mary Blair, the older sister of [[Shirley Temple]]'s character in ''[[Curly Top (film)|Curly Top]]'', and for playing [[Natalie Wood]]'s mother in ''[[Rebel Without a Cause]]'' (1955). During her peak years in the 1930s, notable roles for Hudson included [[Richard Cromwell (actor)|Richard Cromwell]]'s love interest in the [[Will Rogers]] showcase ''[[Life Begins at 40 (film)|Life Begins at 40]]'' (1935), the daughter of carnival barker [[W.C. Fields]] in ''[[Poppy (1936 film)|Poppy]]'' (1936), and [[Claudette Colbert]]'s adult daughter in ''[[Imitation of Life (1934 film)|Imitation of Life]]'' (1934).{{cn|date=July 2017}}


She played Sally Glynn, the fallen ingenue to whom [[Mae West]] imparts the immortal wisdom "When a girl goes wrong, men go right after her!" in the 1933 Paramount film, ''[[She Done Him Wrong]]''. In the 1954–1955 television season, Hudson co-starred with [[Gil Stratton]] and [[Eddie Mayehoff]] in the sitcom ''[[That's My Boy (1954 TV series)|That's My Boy]],''<ref name="etvs">{{cite book|last1=Terrace|first1=Vincent|title=Encyclopedia of Television Shows, 1925 through 2010|date=2011|publisher=McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers|location=Jefferson, N.C.|isbn=978-0-7864-6477-7|page=1067|edition=2nd}}</ref> based on a 1951 [[Jerry Lewis]] and [[Dean Martin]] [[That's My Boy (1951 film)|film of the same name]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0046651/|title=''That's My Boy''|publisher=[[Internet Movie Data Base]]|accessdate=March 12, 2011}}</ref>
She played Sally Glynn, the fallen ingenue to whom [[Mae West]] imparts the immortal wisdom "When women go wrong, men go right after them!" in the 1933 Paramount film, ''[[She Done Him Wrong]]''. In the 1954–1955 television season, Hudson co-starred with [[Gil Stratton]] and [[Eddie Mayehoff]] in the sitcom ''[[That's My Boy (1954 TV series)|That's My Boy]],''<ref name="etvs">{{cite book|last1=Terrace|first1=Vincent|title=Encyclopedia of Television Shows, 1925 through 2010|date=2011|publisher=McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers|location=Jefferson, N.C.|isbn=978-0-7864-6477-7|page=1067|edition=2nd}}</ref> based on a 1951 [[Jerry Lewis]] and [[Dean Martin]] [[That's My Boy (1951 film)|film of the same name]].


==Personal life==
==Personal life==
{{Moresources|section|date=November 2022}}
[[File:Rochelle Hudson Argentinean Magazine AD.jpg|thumb|Rochelle Hudson in ''Argentina'' magazine]]
[[File:Rochelle Hudson Argentinean Magazine AD.jpg|thumb|Rochelle Hudson in ''Argentina'' magazine]]
Hudson was married four times. All the unions were childless. Her first marriage was to Harold Thompson, in 1939. He was the head of the [[Plot (narrative)|Storyline]] Department at [[Walt Disney Pictures|Disney Studios]].


After their divorce in 1947, (but the trade publication ''Billboard'' reported that they divorced on September 4, 1945)<ref>{{cite news|title=Divorces|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dxgEAAAAMBAJ&q=%22Rochelle+Hudson%22+actress&pg=PT69|access-date=23 April 2017|work=Billboard|date=September 15, 1945|page=70}}</ref> she married a second time the following year, to ''Los Angeles Times'' sportswriter Dick Irving Hyland. The marriage lasted two years before the couple divorced. Hudson married her third husband, Charles K. Brust, in [[Jackson, Missouri]] on September 28, 1956.<ref>{{cite web |title=Missouri, County Marriage, Naturalization, and Court Records, 1800-1991 |url=https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QS7-89WZ-WZSP?i=1520&cc=2060668 |website=FamilySearch |publisher=The Church of Christ of Latter-Day Saints |access-date=March 6, 2020}}</ref>
Hudson was married four times. Her first husband was Charles Brust. Little is known of the marriage other than it ended in divorce. She remarried in 1939 to Harold Thompson, who was the head of the Storyline Department at [[Walt Disney Pictures|Disney Studios]]. She assisted Thompson, who was doing espionage work in Mexico as a civilian during World War II. They posed as a vacationing couple to various parts of Mexico to help detect any German activity in these areas. One of their more successful vacations uncovered a supply of high test aviation fuel hidden by German agents in Baja California.<ref>[https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0399955/bio IMDb profile]</ref>


After their divorce in 1947, (but the trade publication ''Billboard'' reported that they divorced on September 4, 1945)<ref>{{cite news|title=Divorces|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dxgEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PT69&dq=%22Rochelle+Hudson%22+actress&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjg49TXqrnTAhUJzoMKHVkpAfoQ6AEIVDAI#v=onepage&q=%22Rochelle%20Hudson%22%20actress&f=false|accessdate=23 April 2017|work=Billboard|date=September 15, 1945|page=70}}</ref> she married a third time the following year to ''Los Angeles Times'' sportswriter Dick Irving Hyland. The marriage lasted two years before the couple divorced. Her final marriage was to Robert Mindell, a hotel executive. The two remained together for eight years before they divorced in 1971.
Little is known of the marriage other than they were divorced by June 1962 (he remarried). Hudson's final marriage was to Robert Mindell, a hotel executive. The two remained together for eight years before they divorced in 1971.


She actually was born in 1916, but the studio reportedly made her two years older for her to play a wider variety of roles, including romantic roles. {{Citation needed|date=May 2010}} In ''That's My Boy,'' she was cast as the mother of Gil Stratton, who was only six years her junior.{{cn|date=July 2017}}
Hudson actually was born in 1916, but the studio reportedly made her two years older for her to play a wider variety of roles, including romantic roles. In ''That's My Boy,'' she was cast as the mother of Gil Stratton, who was only six years her junior.


==Death==
==Death==
In 1972, Hudson was found dead in her home at the Palm Desert Country Club. A business associate with whom she had been working in real estate discovered her body sprawled on the bathroom floor.<ref name=arizona>{{cite news|newspaper=[[Arizona Daily Star]]|location=[[Tucson, Arizona]]|page=5|date=January 19, 1972|title=Former Screen Star Rochelle Hudson Dies|agency=[[Associated Press]]|via=[[newspapers.com]]|url=https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/164867898/|quote=Walter Price, a real estate business associate, found the body Monday alter being summoned by Miss Hudson's widowed mother, Mae Hudson, who got no response from her daughter by telephone or at the door. A friend, [[Evelyn Young]], said Miss Hudson recently had been ill with a cold and laryngitis.}}</ref> Hudson died of a heart attack brought on by a liver ailment.<ref>Beaver County Times: "Death is investigated". January 19, 1972.</ref>
In 1972, Hudson was found dead in her home at the Palm Desert Country Club. A business associate with whom she had been working in real estate discovered her body sprawled on the bathroom floor. She was 55 years old.<ref name=arizona>{{cite news|newspaper=[[Arizona Daily Star]]|location=[[Tucson, Arizona]]|page=5|date=January 19, 1972|title=Former Screen Star Rochelle Hudson Dies|agency=[[Associated Press]]|via=[[newspapers.com]]|url=https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/164867898/|quote=Walter Price, a real estate business associate, found the body Monday alter being summoned by Miss Hudson's widowed mother, Mae Hudson, who got no response from her daughter by telephone or at the door. A friend, [[Evelyn Young]], said Miss Hudson recently had been ill with a cold and laryngitis.}}</ref> Hudson died of a heart attack brought on by a liver ailment.<ref>Beaver County Times: "Death is investigated". January 19, 1972.</ref>


==Filmography==
==Filmography==
{{div col|colwidth=30em}}
{{div col|colwidth=30em}}
* ''[[Sinkin' in the Bathtub]]'' (1930, Short) as Honey (voice, uncredited)
* ''[[Sinkin' in the Bathtub]]'' (1930 short) as Honey (uncredited voice)
* ''[[Laugh and Get Rich]]'' (1931) as Miss Jones - at Dance (uncredited)
* ''[[Laugh and Get Rich]]'' (1931) as Miss Jones - at Dance (uncredited)
* ''[[Everything's Rosie]]'' (1931) as Lowe Party Guest by Punch Bowl (uncredited)
* ''[[Everything's Rosie]]'' (1931) as Lowe Party Guest by Punch Bowl (uncredited)
Line 49: Line 59:
* ''[[Girl Crazy (1932 film)|Girl Crazy]]'' (1932) as San Luz Señorita (uncredited)
* ''[[Girl Crazy (1932 film)|Girl Crazy]]'' (1932) as San Luz Señorita (uncredited)
* ''[[Is My Face Red?]]'' (1932) as Newlywed Bride on Leviathon (uncredited)
* ''[[Is My Face Red?]]'' (1932) as Newlywed Bride on Leviathon (uncredited)
* ''[[Beyond the Rockies]]'' (1932) as Betty Allen
* ''[[Beyond the Rockies (1932 film)|Beyond the Rockies]]'' (1932) as Betty Allen
* ''[[Hell's Highway (1932 film)|Hell's Highway]]'' (1932) as Mary Ellen
* ''[[Hell's Highway (1932 film)|Hell's Highway]]'' (1932) as Mary Ellen
* ''[[Secrets of the French Police]]'' (1932) as K-31
* ''[[Secrets of the French Police]]'' (1932) as K-31
* ''[[The Savage Girl]]'' (1932) as The Girl
* ''[[The Savage Girl (film)|The Savage Girl]]'' (1932) as The Girl
* ''[[The Penguin Pool Murder]]'' (1932) as Telephone Operator
* ''[[The Penguin Pool Murder]]'' (1932) as Telephone Operator
* ''[[The Past of Mary Holmes]]'' (1933) as Betty
* ''[[The Past of Mary Holmes]]'' (1933) as Betty
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* ''[[Lucky Devils (1933 film)|Lucky Devils]]'' (1933) as Visitor
* ''[[Lucky Devils (1933 film)|Lucky Devils]]'' (1933) as Visitor
* ''[[Scarlet River]]'' (1933) as Rochelle Hudson (uncredited)
* ''[[Scarlet River]]'' (1933) as Rochelle Hudson (uncredited)
* ''Love Is Dangerous'' (1933) as Gwendolyn
* ''[[Love Is Dangerous (1933 film)|Love Is Dangerous]]'' (1933) as Gwendolyn
* ''[[Notorious But Nice]]'' (1933) as Constance Martin
* ''[[Notorious But Nice]]'' (1933) as Constance Martin
* ''[[Doctor Bull]]'' (1933) as Virginia (Muller) / Banning
* ''[[Doctor Bull]]'' (1933) as Virginia (Muller) / Banning
Line 64: Line 74:
* ''[[Walls of Gold]]'' (1933) as Joan Street
* ''[[Walls of Gold]]'' (1933) as Joan Street
* ''[[Mr. Skitch]]'' (1933) as Emily Skitch
* ''[[Mr. Skitch]]'' (1933) as Emily Skitch
* ''[[Harold Teen]] '' (1934) as Lillian 'Lillums' Lovewell
* ''[[Harold Teen (1934 film)|Harold Teen]] '' (1934) as Lillian 'Lillums' Lovewell
* ''[[Such Women Are Dangerous]]'' (1934) as Vernie Little
* ''[[Such Women Are Dangerous]]'' (1934) as Vernie Little
* ''[[Bachelor Bait]] '' (1934) as Cynthia Douglas
* ''[[Bachelor Bait]] '' (1934) as Cynthia Douglas
Line 73: Line 83:
* ''[[Life Begins at 40 (film)|Life Begins at 40]]'' (1935) as Adele Anderson
* ''[[Life Begins at 40 (film)|Life Begins at 40]]'' (1935) as Adele Anderson
* ''[[Les Misérables (1935 film)|Les Misérables]]'' (1935) as Cosette
* ''[[Les Misérables (1935 film)|Les Misérables]]'' (1935) as Cosette
* ''[[Curly Top (1935 film)|Curly Top]]'' (1935) as Mary Blair
* ''[[Curly Top]]'' (1935) as Mary Blair
* ''[[Way Down East (1935 film)|Way Down East]]'' (1935) as Anna Moore
* ''[[Way Down East (1935 film)|Way Down East]]'' (1935) as Anna Moore
* ''[[Show Them No Mercy!]]'' (1935) as Loretta Martin
* ''[[Show Them No Mercy!]]'' (1935) as Loretta Martin
Line 90: Line 100:
* ''[[Pride of the Navy]]'' (1939) as Gloria Tyler
* ''[[Pride of the Navy]]'' (1939) as Gloria Tyler
* ''[[Pirates of the Skies]]'' (1939) as Barbara Whitney
* ''[[Pirates of the Skies]]'' (1939) as Barbara Whitney
* ''[[Missing Daughters]]'' (1939) as Kay Roberts
* ''[[Missing Daughters (1939 film)|Missing Daughters]]'' (1939) as Kay Roberts
* ''[[Smuggled Cargo]]'' (1939) as Marian Franklin
* ''[[Smuggled Cargo]]'' (1939) as Marian Franklin
* ''[[Konga, the Wild Stallion]]'' (1939) as Judith Hadley
* ''[[Konga, the Wild Stallion]]'' (1939) as Judith Hadley
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* {{IMDb name|399955}}
* {{IMDb name|399955}}
* [http://film.virtual-history.com/person.php?personid=1212 Photographs of Rochelle Hudson]
* [http://film.virtual-history.com/person.php?personid=1212 Photographs of Rochelle Hudson]
* [https://www.okhistory.org/publications/enc/entry?entry=HU011 Hudson, Rochelle (1916–1972)] in the [[Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture]]
* {{Find a Grave|6656217}}

{{Authority control}}
{{Authority control}}


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[[Category:American child actresses]]
[[Category:American child actresses]]
[[Category:American film actresses]]
[[Category:American film actresses]]
[[Category:Disease-related deaths in California]]
[[Category:Actresses from Oklahoma City]]
[[Category:Actresses from Oklahoma City]]
[[Category:People from Palm Desert, California]]
[[Category:People from Palm Desert, California]]
[[Category:World War II spies for the United States]]
[[Category:20th-century American actresses]]
[[Category:20th-century American actresses]]
[[Category:WAMPAS Baby Stars]]

Latest revision as of 21:38, 4 July 2024

Rochelle Hudson
Rochelle Hudson in the 1930s
Born
Rachael Elizabeth Hudson

(1916-03-06)March 6, 1916
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, U.S.[1][2]
DiedJanuary 17, 1972(1972-01-17) (aged 55)
Palm Desert, California, U.S.
OccupationActress
Years active1930–1967
Spouses
Harold Thompson
​
​
(m. 1939; div. 1947)​
Dick Irving Hyland
​
​
(m. 1948; div. 1950)​
Charles K. Brust
​
​
(m. 1956, divorced)​
Robert L. Mindell
​
​
(m. 1963; div. 1971)​
[1]

Rochelle Hudson (born Rachael Elizabeth Hudson;[3] March 6, 1916 – January 17, 1972) was an American film actress from the 1930s through the 1960s.[1] Hudson was a WAMPAS Baby Star in 1931.

Early years

[edit]

Hudson was born in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, the daughter of Ollie Lee Hudson and Lenora Mae Hudson.[1] While in Oklahoma, she studied dancing, drama, piano, and voice. Hudson began her acting career as a teenager, and completed her high school education at a high school on the Fox studios lot.[3]

Career

[edit]

Hudson signed a contract with RKO Pictures on November 22, 1930, when she was 14 years old.[4]

She may be best remembered today for costarring in Wild Boys of the Road (1933), playing Cosette in Les Misérables (1935), playing Mary Blair, the older sister of Shirley Temple's character in Curly Top, and for playing Natalie Wood's mother in Rebel Without a Cause (1955). During her peak years in the 1930s, notable roles for Hudson included Richard Cromwell’s love interest in the Will Rogers showcase Life Begins at 40 (1935), the daughter of carnival barker W.C. Fields in Poppy (1936), and Claudette Colbert’s adult daughter in Imitation of Life (1934). In 1939 Rochelle Hudson was working on a movie titled Convicted Woman for Columbia Pictures that was released in 1940. Another player in the movie was an actress named June Lang. During production the two struck up conversation in a friendly manner because both had worked on Shirley Temple movies, inspiring a sort of special "esprit de corps" between them. Like Hudson's career would soon be, Lang's film career would be interrupted as well, albeit for totally different reasons. Hudson took way too much time away from her acting career with her husband for reasons explained in the next paragraph. Lang got mixed up with and married a suspected heavyweight mob figure said to be a film producer named Johnny Roselli which, as a mob figure, was viewed way to unfavorable by the studios as well. Neither Hudson's nor Lang's careers really got back on track after the war. For more about the collaboration on their movie Convicted Women.

Because of the marked slowdown to an almost complete halt in Hudson's film career in the years just prior to the war and into its early years after having gone gangbusters for the whole decade before, people have long thought she had fallen into disfavor with the Hollywood powers that be or that her popularity had just waned to such a point she was simply just being passed over. However, on what some consider to be rather flimsy evidence, it has been reported, and what will be substantiated further down --- with only flimsy evidence found elsewhere notwithstanding --- that she had in fact been working as a spy during that period for the Naval Intelligence Service. She and her husband, posing as a civilian, were doing espionage work primarily in Mexico and together they posed as a vacationing couple to detect if there was any German or Japanese activity there.

She played Sally Glynn, the fallen ingenue to whom Mae West imparts the immortal wisdom "When women go wrong, men go right after them!" in the 1933 Paramount film, She Done Him Wrong. In the 1954–1955 television season, Hudson co-starred with Gil Stratton and Eddie Mayehoff in the sitcom That's My Boy,[5] based on a 1951 Jerry Lewis and Dean Martin film of the same name.

Personal life

[edit]
Rochelle Hudson in Argentina magazine

Hudson was married four times. All the unions were childless. Her first marriage was to Harold Thompson, in 1939. He was the head of the Storyline Department at Disney Studios.

After their divorce in 1947, (but the trade publication Billboard reported that they divorced on September 4, 1945)[6] she married a second time the following year, to Los Angeles Times sportswriter Dick Irving Hyland. The marriage lasted two years before the couple divorced. Hudson married her third husband, Charles K. Brust, in Jackson, Missouri on September 28, 1956.[7]

Little is known of the marriage other than they were divorced by June 1962 (he remarried). Hudson's final marriage was to Robert Mindell, a hotel executive. The two remained together for eight years before they divorced in 1971.

Hudson actually was born in 1916, but the studio reportedly made her two years older for her to play a wider variety of roles, including romantic roles. In That's My Boy, she was cast as the mother of Gil Stratton, who was only six years her junior.

Death

[edit]

In 1972, Hudson was found dead in her home at the Palm Desert Country Club. A business associate with whom she had been working in real estate discovered her body sprawled on the bathroom floor. She was 55 years old.[2] Hudson died of a heart attack brought on by a liver ailment.[8]

Filmography

[edit]

References

[edit]
  1. ^ a b c d "Hudson, Rochelle (1916–1972)", Dictionary of Women Worldwide: 25,000 Women Through the Ages. Gale. 2007.
  2. ^ a b "Former Screen Star Rochelle Hudson Dies". Arizona Daily Star. Tucson, Arizona. Associated Press. January 19, 1972. p. 5 – via newspapers.com. Walter Price, a real estate business associate, found the body Monday alter being summoned by Miss Hudson's widowed mother, Mae Hudson, who got no response from her daughter by telephone or at the door. A friend, Evelyn Young, said Miss Hudson recently had been ill with a cold and laryngitis.
  3. ^ a b Houston, Noel (October 9, 1934). "Film Stardom Beckons to Rochelle Hudson, Oklahoma City Girl, Who Was 'On Her Toes' When Contract Arrived". The Oklahoma News. Oklahoma, Oklahoma City. p. 3. Retrieved October 30, 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
  4. ^ "Films Give Career To Oklahoma Girl". The Akron Beacon Journal. Ohio, Akron. November 22, 1930. p. 10. Retrieved July 24, 2018 – via Newspapers.com. Open access icon
  5. ^ Terrace, Vincent (2011). Encyclopedia of Television Shows, 1925 through 2010 (2nd ed.). Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers. p. 1067. ISBN 978-0-7864-6477-7.
  6. ^ "Divorces". Billboard. September 15, 1945. p. 70. Retrieved 23 April 2017.
  7. ^ "Missouri, County Marriage, Naturalization, and Court Records, 1800-1991". FamilySearch. The Church of Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Retrieved March 6, 2020.
  8. ^ Beaver County Times: "Death is investigated". January 19, 1972.

Sources

[edit]
  • Forty Years of Screen Credits, 1929-1969. Two volumes. Compiled by John T. Weaver. Metuchen, NJ: Scarecrow Press, 1970. Entries begin on page 57.
  • Biography and Genealogy Master Index. Farmington Hills, Mich.: Gale, Cengage Learning. 1980–2009.
[edit]
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Rochelle Hudson.
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