Screenland Plus TV-Land (Jul 1959 - May 1960)

pon. It is of extremely delicate and timate nature. There are no other perns involved, so I believe it would be intless to say more." At the divorce hearing, however, Rock's fe was not so reticent. "My husband is sullen, refused to dress up and balked taking me out," said Phyllis. "He )uldn't talk to me for days, sometimes r weeks. When I asked him why he ived out all night, he told me it was Jne of my business." The divorce was granted with a very subintial settlement for Phyllis: $130,000 cash, a 335,000 house and $8,000 for r lawyer. Perhaps this made up to lyllis for the things Rock hadn't given r, but for the super-thrifty Rock, the ttlement was a financial shock that left m angry, hurt and bitter. Though Phyllis and Rock had liked to igh together — or so their friends said or sit comfortably at home with their , oes off, the hi-fi blasting the neighbored with "sound, this, obviously, had ver been enough. Seemingly, they had ver really had too much in common. »ck could be moody, aching with a ange need to be alone. He hated it ;en Phyllis wept; it was a special kind torment he couldn't fight, so he would ;t disappear. Yet, moody as Rock often is, he can a charming companion when he feels :e it. "I laugh at things that don't i ike people as funny," he once said. <ot only that, I dwell on them, and two ys later I'll burst out laughing. I'm pulsive: I leap before I look. I enjoy . ings more if they're the spur-of-the>ment. Anyway, I have no desire to be ick Hudson 24 hours a day. I just want be myself." 1 Intimates know that Rock can be a i jat tease or perpetrator of practical ces. There was the time when Rock, it after he made "Son Of Cochise," ictured a bone in his shoulder while iter skiing. He was taken to the hosEaL where a nurse did her best to make n comfortable. She knew that he had sign some important papers, so she irked on his right hand, adjusting the ndages so Rock could hold a pen. here," she said, "now you can sign Dse papers." "Sorry," said Rock, with a deadpan pression, "I'm lefthanded." Outwardly calm and seemingly placid ; I can be dying inside, but my discomrt doesn't show"), Rock's anger flares sen he feels that he has been unfairly •ated. He raged at a certain magazine iter who called him "a manufactured ir, the creation of his agent," and "so perturbable that his mother never saw n get annoyed about anything." "I hate ch lies," Rock said. "And as for my ing imperturbable, the other day I got mad I pulled the telephone from the ill, wires and all." The Rock Hudson who has been called handsome giant of a mechanical man" in truth, anything but unfeeling. When you cut him, he bleeds — bleeds very much indeed. He is often a forlorn man; he knows that "a bachelor's life is very, very lonely." He longs for companionship, insists that "it's not true that I'll never marry again." "I am not at all bitter or disillusioned about marriage, or my future personal happiness," he told one friend. "I'm just getting fed up with all these questions about it. I'm tired of talking and thinking about me. I'd like to think of something else for a change." Recent magazine stories have coupled Rock's name with one Cindy Robbins, a minor bit player in Rock's new picture, "Pillow Talk." "The story," say Rock's friends, "was a complete and utter fabrication." More serious was Rock's admitted interest in Debbie Power, the late Tyrone Power's widow. Rock, Ty and Debbie saw a lot of each other after Rock's divorce. Ty and his third wife invited the lonely star to join MOODY as he is, Rock can be charming if he wants to, as here on set with Julia Meade. them on their yacht, The Black Swan, and together the three friends spent joyous weekends sailing off the coast of California. Rock envied Ty for a wife who was fun, as Debbie was — a woman who listened when her husband talked, who had views of her own, who knew how to share laughter with the man she loved. Debbie Power was tall, dark and beautiful— a girl from the South who was both feminine and a man's woman. And when Ty Power died so suddenly in Spain, it was Rock who helped console her. Somehow, Rock didn't seem to care when gossip told of his being seen with Debbie Power, the girl who was even then carrying her late husband's child. Some people were bewildered and even shocked. But Rock bravely ignored the talk. Neighbors were aware that Rock's convertible was often parked in front of Debbie Power's apartment. There were times, too, when she visited Rock at his secluded Malibu Beach house, some miles north of Santa Monica. Rock cooked his special steaks for her, or invited his mother over to help whip up a dinner. Many times Rock and Debbie walked along the sandy, lonely beach — Debbie chatting, while Rock, always the good listener, smiled and understood. Said one intimate, "Since Debbie came into Rock's life, he seems to have become more of a hermit than ever. He spends much of his free time with her at the beach, or used to, and later, on his rented power cruiser. Whether or not this friendship will end in marriage, I can't say. But if I were a betting man, I'd bet it will. I think Debbie Power would be very good for Rock." Perhaps Ty Power's beautiful widow has brought the lonely, moody, uncertain Rock some new-found and longed-for happiness. Perhaps another marriage is in his thoughts. But there are those who wonder if Rock believes he has improved as husband material since the day he eloped with Phyllis Gates. Rock is pushing 34 — a most youthful and vigorous age — but is he saying to himself, "There's no such thing as love, qt if there is, it's come too late for me." Fellow actors who sometimes see Rock at one of his favorite hideaways, the Beverly Hills Health Club, say that he seems to keep almost forbiddingly to himself. He rarely joins the friendly volley ball games, the joking and laughter around the pool, the show business gossip in the locker room. "He strikes you as such a lonely man," said one young actor. "He never smiles, rarely chats with anyone. He just takes his workout or sits in the steam room, seemingly withdrawn. You feel a little sorry for a fellow so untalkative and aloof, especially in a gregarious atmosphere like this gym." Rock, of course, may prefer it this way. "Some people are automatically masters of every situation," he once said. "I'm not. When I'm working, I worry about my work, and when I'm inactive, I worry about not working." Such concentration leaves scant room for a wife. If marriage, for Rock, is once more on his mind, he is the last person in the world to discuss it now — even with his own family. "Maybe he's thinking of marriage, maybe he isn't," said a studio friend. "None of us know, and none of us would ask him. But it took him years to decide to get married the first time; it may take him more years to make up his mind again. "On the other hand. Rock has said that he'll re-marry, and Debbie Power may well be his next wife. There are quite a few of us who think it's in the cards. Everybody who knows and likes Rock, and virtually everyone does, is sure that, given the right woman, he'd make a happy marriage. His friends think so, and probably even Debbie is convinced. Now, all Rock has to do is convince himself. Once he does that, you can start smelling those orange blossoms." END 55