Top 10 Rock Hudson Movies Ranked, According to IMDb

The beginning of Rock Hudson’s acting career was inauspicious. He had only one line in 1948’s Fighter Squadron and took 38 takes to deliver the line successfully. Such anecdotes belied Hudson’s real career path, becoming one of Hollywood’s premier heartthrobs in the 1950s and early 1960s. He later became the first major celebrity to die of AIDS-related complications and gave a posthumous face to the disease.

He’s portrayed in the Netflix series Hollywood by Jake Picking; the series, set in the late 1940s, depicts Hudson as the boyfriend of the fictional screenwriter Archie Coleman. The end of the series takes Hudson’s life on a very different path from his real-world counterpart. Here are the real Rock Hudson’s 10 best movies, according to IMDb.

10 Bright Victory (1951) – 7.2

Bright Victory stars Arthur Kennedy as Larry Nevins, a World War II veteran blinded by a German sniper. The story follows the character’s recuperation at a hospital as he adjusts to his new life as a blind man and falls in love with a caretaker. Nevins’ family in Florida refuse to accept Nevins’ disability and his fiancee shuns him when he tells her he wants to move. He returns to the hospital and reunites with the caretaker.

The film was nominated for two Oscars: Best Actor (Kennedy) and Best Sound Recording.

9 Man’s Favorite Sport? (1964) – 7.2

Howard Hawks’ 1964 film Man’s Favorite Sport? is a pseudo-remake of Hawks’ 1938 film Bringing Up Baby. Sport stars Hudson as Roger Willoughby, an Abercrombie & Fitch salesman and fishing expert. A PR person played by Paula Prentiss secures Willoughby a spot in a fishing tournament; she soon discovers he’s never fished.

The screwball comedy sees Prentiss’ character give Hudson a crash course in fishing before the competition. He still proves to be a complete novice.

8 Lover Come Back (1961) – 7.2

Lover Come Back is one of several collaborations between Hudson, Doris Day and Tony Randall. Lover is the second film to feature the trio, after 1959’s Pillow Talk. Hudson and Day star as Jerry Webster and Carol Templeton, rival Madison Avenue ad executives. Webster is extremely unethical but avoids Templeton’s attempts to stop him by wining and dining his way out of trouble. Eventually, she mistakes him for the inventor of a product he intends to sell and falls in love with him.

The film received a nomination for the Best Original Screenplay Oscar.

7 Bend of the River (1952) – 7.3

Bend of the River was the second Anthony Mann Western to feature Rock Hudson. Hudson stars as Trey Wilson, a gambler who encounters a wagon train on its way to Oregon in the 1860s. The train made arrangements for supplies to be delivered, but the man who has the supplies sells them to a mining camp in California instead. The train, now including Trey, starts a shootout to take back the supplies and eventually reaches their destination.

6 Pillow Talk (1959) – 7.4

Pillow Talk was the first collaboration between Hudson, Doris Day and Tony Randall. It also sets up a common theme in films starring the trio: mistaken identity. Hudson and Day star as Brad Allen and Jan Morrow, two people who share a phone line. When Brad encounters Jan in a club, he invents a new persona to woo her. The film was the first comedy to star Hudson and is credited with reviving both Hudson’s and Day’s careers.

The film won the Best Original Screenplay Oscar and was nominated for Best Actress (Day), Best Supporting Actress (Thelma Ritter), Best Art Direction and Best Original Score.

5 Written on the Wind (1956) – 7.5

Written on the Wind was a melodrama directed by Douglas Sirk. Sirk and Hudson collaborated several times in the 1950s and 1960s. Written stars Hudson as Mitch Wayne, a geologist for a Texas oil company. He is the former friend of Kyle (Robert Stack), one of the heirs to the company fortune and is secretly in love with Kyle’s wife Lucy (Lauren Bacall). Mitch attempts to rescue Lucy from her marriage after a miscarriage, but Kyle drunkenly attempts to shoot him. Kyle is instead killed by his sister.

The film won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar (Dorothy Malone) and was also nominated for Supporting Actor (Stack) and Original Song.

4 All That Heaven Allows (1955) – 7.6

All That Heaven Allows was the fifth collaboration between Hudson and director Douglas Sirk. Heaven stars Hudson as Ron Kirby, a landscape designer who falls in love with Cary Scott, an older widow played by Jane Wyman. He proposes to her, but her upper-crust New England social circle pressures her to decline. She eventually does, the pair split and live with heavy regrets. They reunite when Ron nearly dies and Cary takes care of him.

All That Heaven Allows has been remade and referenced several times; Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s 1974 film Ali: Fear Eats the Soul and Todd Haynes’ 2002 film Far From Heaven both borrow heavily from All That Heaven Allows.

3 Winchester ’73 (1950) – 7.6

Hudson has a small role in this 1950 western. He played a Native American named Young Bull, the leader of a group who initially buys guns from John McIntire’s Joe Lamont. Bull is displeased with quality of the guns and robs Lamont when he sees the titular perfect Winchester rifle. Bull is later killed when he attacks an army encampment.

Hudson’s role in Winchester was parodied in the Coen Brothers’ Hail Caesar!, which combined Winchester with Hudson’s troublesome appearance in Fighter Squadron.

2 Giant (1956) – 7.6

Hudson starred alongside James Dean in the latter’s final significant film role. The pair star as wealthy Texas rancher Jordan “Bick” Benedict Jr. and oil baron Jett Rink. The two men’s rivalry starts when Bick marries Leslie (Elizabeth Taylor), who Jett is in love with. The rivalry deepens over decades as Jett strikes oil on a piece of land given to him by Bick’s sister and eventually dates Bick’s daughter. Bick and Jett come to blows at a party thrown in Jett’s honor and Bick’s daughter dumps Jett.

Hudson was nominated for the Best Actor Oscar. The film won the Academy Award for Best Director (George Stevens) . It was also nominated for Best Actor (James Dean), Best Supporting Actress (Mercedes McCambridge), Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Art Direction, Best Costume Design, Best Film Editing and Best Original Score.

1 Seconds (1966) – 7.7

Seconds is a science fiction film directed by John Frankenheimer. It stars John Randolph as Arthur Hamilton, a middle-aged man who is offered a chance at a “second life” by The Company. It becomes apparent that the “second life” is literal; the Company uses plastic surgery to transform Hamilton into Antiochus “Tony” Wilson (played by Hudson). He comes to realize his new life living alongside other people who made the same decision isn’t everything that it was cracked up to be. The Company takes up his demand for a new identity, although Hamilton quickly realizes he got more than he bargained for.

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