In 1959, per Biography, Rock Hudson was cast in “Pillow Talk,” the first of three romantic comedies that he would star in with actress Doris Day. Hudson played a freewheeling ladies’ man who shares a telephone party line with the no-nonsense career woman played by Day, who can overhear him chatting up a series of women using the same pick up lines. Critics and audiences alike were delighted by Hudson’s comic timing and chemistry with Day and a new chapter in his acting career opened up.
Hudson was married to aspiring actress Phyllis Gates who, per The New York Times, worked as a secretary to talent scout Henry Willson. Biography reports that Gates was unaware that Willson set up the marriage to hide the fact that Hudson was gay. Hudson’s homosexuality remained an “open secret” for much of his career, but due to rampant homophobia, he stayed closeted. He secretly dated Lee Garlington from 1962 until 1965. Garlington, then acting as a film extra, had heard rumors that Hudson was gay and stationed himself outside Hudson’s Universal lot cottage to try and meet him. Eventually, a friend set them up and the two began a relationship, per People. Garlington later remembered, “I’d … spend the night and leave the next morning. I’d sneak out at 6 a.m. in my Chevy Nova and coast down the street without turning on the engine so the neighbors wouldn’t hear.” The two men would attend film premiers together, but each would bring a female date as well.
