HBO's Rock Hudson documentary gets an intimate, emotional trailer

'Rock Hudson: All That Heaven Allowed' promises the real story behind the star's hidden life.

By Caitlin Welsh on June 9, 2023

Two shirtless men in a composite of two 60s-era photos.

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Rock Hudson was known in the '50s and '60s as a mega-masculine star with a twinkle in his eye, as compelling in Technicolor Douglas Sirk melodramas as he was with Doris Day in cheeky sex comedies. But when he died of AIDS in 1985 — becoming the most famous figure yet to have succumbed to the still-new, still-misunderstood syndrome's complications — his hidden life as a gay man went from Hollywood open secret to national news.

HBO's new documentary Rock Hudson: All That Heaven Allowed promises a deep dive into that life, and the legacy of a reluctant pioneer.

"It was everything wrapped up in one — it was Hollywood and the closet and the fact that Rock had lived his life not able to express who he was," says one of the talking heads in the trailer of Hudson's illness and death, which sparked lawsuits, studio panics, and enduring activism.

Rock Hudson: All That Heaven Allowed premieres on HBO and Max June 28.(opens in a new tab)

Caitlin Welsh

Caitlin is Mashable's Australian Editor. She has written for The Guardian, Junkee, and any number of plucky little music and culture publications that were run on the smell of an oily rag and have since been flushed off the Internet like a dead goldfish by their new owners. She also worked at Choice, Australia's consumer advocacy non-profit and magazine, and as such has surprisingly strong opinions about whitegoods. She enjoys big dumb action movies, big clever action movies, cult Canadian comedies set in small towns, Carly Rae Jepsen, The Replacements, smoky mezcal, revenge bedtime procrastination, and being left the hell alone when she's reading.