ABSTRACT
From the 1950s through the early 1980s, no film or television star better personified American manhood than Rock Hudson. His square jaw and handsome facial features combined with a well-developed physique, a deep voice, and an easygoing demeanor to create the quintessential leading man. After first starring as a strapping cowboy in the classic film Giant opposite the glamorous Elizabeth Taylor, then shifting to a series of romantic comedies such as Pillow Talk with the perky Doris Day, and finally landing a recurring role on the nighttime TV soap opera Dynasty as the love interest of blond beauty Linda Evans, Hudson was one of the most popular actors in the country.1
