Giant

Rock Hudson starred in this epic Western drama alongside Elizabeth Taylor and James Dean at the height of his career. The film was released in 1956, just one year after Hudson entered one of Hollywood's most famous lavender marriages with Phyllis Gates on November 9, 1955.

The marriage was orchestrated by his agent Henry Willson after Life magazine questioned Hudson's bachelorhood with the headline "Fans are urging 29-year-old Hudson to get married – or explain why not," and Confidential magazine prepared an exposé about his homosexuality. Willson, protecting his most important client, arranged the marriage to his own secretary and reportedly traded damaging information about other clients (Troy Donahue and Rory Calhoun) to kill the Confidential story. Hudson and Gates divorced in 1958. Gates, who died in 2006, maintained until her death that she was unaware of Hudson's sexuality, though evidence suggests otherwise.