Rochelle Hudson
Encyclopedia
Rochelle Hudson was an American
film
actress from the 1930s through the 1960s. Hudson was a WAMPAS Baby Star
in 1931.
-born actress 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 Forty
(1935), the daughter of carnival barker W.C. Fields in Poppy (1936), Claudette Colbert
's adult daughter in Imitation of Life
(1934).
She also 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 CBS
situation comedy
That's My Boy
, based on a 1951 Jerry Lewis
and Dean Martin
film of the same name.
. 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 detect if there was any German
activity in these areas. One of their more successful vacations uncovered a supply of high test aviation gas hidden by German agents in Baja California
.
After their divorce in 1947, 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.
She was actually 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.
On January 17, 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. Hudson died of pneumonia
brought on by a liver ailment. Her only close survivor was her mother.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
film
Film
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...
actress from the 1930s through the 1960s. Hudson was a WAMPAS Baby Star
WAMPAS Baby Stars
The WAMPAS Baby Stars was a promotional campaign sponsored by the Western Association of Motion Picture Advertisers in the United States which honored thirteen young women each year whom they believed to be on the threshold of movie stardom. They were selected from 1922 to 1934, and annual...
in 1931.
Career
The Oklahoma CityOklahoma city
Oklahoma City is the capital and largest city of the U.S. state of Oklahoma.Oklahoma City may also refer to:*Oklahoma City metropolitan area*Downtown Oklahoma City*Uptown Oklahoma City*Oklahoma City bombing*Oklahoma City National Memorial...
-born actress may be best remembered today for costarring in Wild Boys of the Road (1933), playing Cosette in Les Misérables
Les Misérables (1935 film)
Les Misérables is a 1935 American drama film based upon the famous Victor Hugo novel of the same name. It was adapted by W. P. Lipscomb and directed by Richard Boleslawski...
(1935), playing Mary Blair, the older sister of Shirley Temple
Shirley Temple
Shirley Temple Black , born Shirley Jane Temple, is an American film and television actress, singer, dancer, autobiographer, and former U.S. Ambassador to Ghana and Czechoslovakia...
's character in Curly Top
Curly Top
Curly Top is an American musical film directed by Irving Cummings. The screenplay by Patterson McNutt and Arthur J. Beckhard focuses on the adoption of a young orphan by a wealthy bachelor and his romantic attraction to her older sister .Together with The Littlest Rebel, another Temple vehicle,...
, and for playing Natalie Wood
Natalie Wood
Natalie Wood, born Natalia Nikolaevna Zacharenko was an American film and television actress. After first working in films as a child, Wood became a successful Hollywood star as a young adult, receiving three Academy Award nominations before she was 25 years old.Wood began acting in movies at the...
's mother in Rebel Without a Cause
Rebel Without a Cause
Rebel Without a Cause is a 1955 American drama film about emotionally confused suburban, middle-class teenagers. Directed by Nicholas Ray, it offered both social commentary and an alternative to previous films depicting delinquents in urban slum environments...
(1955).
During her peak years in the 1930s, notable roles for Hudson included: Richard Cromwell
Richard Cromwell (actor)
Richard Cromwell, born LeRoy Melvin Radabaugh , was an American actor. His family and friends called him Roy, though he was also professionally known and signed autographs as Dick Cromwell. Cromwell's career was at its pinnacle with his work in Jezebel with Bette Davis and Henry Fonda and again...
's love interest in the Will Rogers
Will Rogers
William "Will" Penn Adair Rogers was an American cowboy, comedian, humorist, social commentator, vaudeville performer, film actor, and one of the world's best-known celebrities in the 1920s and 1930s....
showcase Life Begins at Forty
Life Begins at Forty (1935 film)
Life Begins at Forty is a 1935 black-and-white film starring Will Rogers and Richard Cromwell. It is based on the non-fiction self-help book Life Begins at 40 by Walter B. Pitkin.-Cast:*Will Rogers as Kenesaw H. Clark*Richard Cromwell as Lee Austin...
(1935), the daughter of carnival barker W.C. Fields in Poppy (1936), Claudette Colbert
Claudette Colbert
Claudette Colbert was a French-born American-based actress of stage and film.Born in Paris, France and raised in New York City, Colbert began her career in Broadway productions during the 1920s, progressing to film with the advent of talking pictures...
's adult daughter in Imitation of Life
Imitation of Life (1934 film)
Imitation of Life is a 1934 American drama film directed by John M. Stahl. The screenplay by William Hurlbut, based on Fannie Hurst's 1933 novel of the same name, was augmented by eight additional uncredited writers, including Preston Sturges and Finley Peter Dunne...
(1934).
She also played Sally Glynn, the fallen ingenue to whom Mae West
Mae West
Mae West was an American actress, playwright, screenwriter and sex symbol whose entertainment career spanned seven decades....
imparts the immortal wisdom, "When a girl goes wrong, men go right after her!" in the 1933 Paramount film, She Done Him Wrong
She Done Him Wrong
She Done Him Wrong is a Pre-Code 1933 Paramount Pictures comedy romance film starring Mae West and Cary Grant. Others in the cast include Owen Moore, Gilbert Roland, Noah Beery, Sr., Louise Beavers and Rochelle Hudson....
.
In the 1954-1955 television season, Hudson co-starred with Gil Stratton and Eddie Mayehoff
Eddie Mayehoff
Eddie Mayehoff was an American actor.Probably his best known role was as Harold Lampson, the henpecked husband and incompetent lawyer in the 1965 comedy movie How to Murder Your Wife....
in the CBS
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
situation comedy
Situation comedy
A situation comedy, often shortened to sitcom, is a genre of comedy that features characters sharing the same common environment, such as a home or workplace, accompanied with jokes as part of the dialogue...
That's My Boy
That's My Boy (1954 TV series)
That's My Boy is a largely forgotten 1954-1955 CBS situation comedy television series based on the 1951 Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis film of the same name....
, based on a 1951 Jerry Lewis
Jerry Lewis
Jerry Lewis is an American comedian, actor, singer, film producer, screenwriter and film director. He is best known for his slapstick humor in film, television, stage and radio. He was originally paired up with Dean Martin in 1946, forming the famed comedy team of Martin and Lewis...
and Dean Martin
Dean Martin
Dean Martin was an American singer, film actor, television star and comedian. Martin's hit singles included "Memories Are Made of This", "That's Amore", "Everybody Loves Somebody", "You're Nobody till Somebody Loves You", "Sway", "Volare" and "Ain't That a Kick in the Head?"...
film of the same name.
Personal life
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 Disney StudiosWalt Disney Pictures
Walt Disney Pictures is an American film studio owned by The Walt Disney Company. Walt Disney Pictures and Television, a subsidiary of the Walt Disney Studios and the main production company for live-action feature films within the Walt Disney Motion Pictures Group, based at the Walt Disney...
. She assisted Thompson, who was doing espionage
Espionage
Espionage or spying involves an individual obtaining information that is considered secret or confidential without the permission of the holder of the information. Espionage is inherently clandestine, lest the legitimate holder of the information change plans or take other countermeasures once it...
work in Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
as a civilian during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. They posed as a vacationing couple to various parts of Mexico, to detect if there was any German
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
activity in these areas. One of their more successful vacations uncovered a supply of high test aviation gas hidden by German agents in Baja California
Baja California
Baja California officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Baja California is one of the 31 states which, with the Federal District, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It is both the northernmost and westernmost state of Mexico. Before becoming a state in 1953, the area was known as the North...
.
After their divorce in 1947, she married a third time the following year to Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles Times
The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....
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.
She was actually 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.
On January 17, 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. Hudson died of pneumonia
Pneumonia
Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung—especially affecting the microscopic air sacs —associated with fever, chest symptoms, and a lack of air space on a chest X-ray. Pneumonia is typically caused by an infection but there are a number of other causes...
brought on by a liver ailment. Her only close survivor was her mother.
Sources
- 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.
- Beaver County times:"Death is investigated" Jan.19 1972.