Rochelle Hudson
Rochelle Hudson was an American film actress from the 1930s through the 1960s. Hudson was a WAMPAS Baby Star in 1931.
Early years
Hudson was born in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, the daughter of Ollie Lee Hudson and Lenora Mae Hudson. While in Oklahoma, she studied dancing, drama, piano, and voice. Hudson began her acting career as a teenager, and completed her high school education at a high school on the Fox studios lot.
Career
Hudson signed a contract with RKO Pictures on November 22, 1930, when she was 14 years old. She may be best remembered today for costarring in Wild Boys of the Road, playing Cosette in Les Misérables, 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.
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 40 ; the daughter of carnival barker W.C. Fields in Poppy ; and Claudette Colbert's adult daughter in Imitation of Life. She played Sally Glynn, the fallen ingenue to whom Mae West imparts the immortal wisdom "When women go wrong, men go right after them!" in the 1933 Paramount film, She Done Him Wrong. In the 1954–55 television season, Hudson co-starred with Gil Stratton and Eddie Mayehoff in the sitcom That's [My Boy (1954 TV series)|That's My Boy], based on a 1951 Jerry Lewis and Dean Martin film of the same name.
Personal life
Hudson was married four times. All the unions were childless. Her first marriage was to Harold Thompson, in 1939. He was the head of the Storyline Department at Disney Studios.
After their divorce in 1947, she married a second time the following year, to Los Angeles Times sportswriter Dick Irving Hyland. The marriage lasted two years before the couple divorced. Hudson married her third husband, Charles K. Brust, in Jackson, Missouri on September 28, 1956.
Little is known of the marriage other than they were divorced by June 1962. Hudson's final marriage was to Robert Mindell, a hotel executive. The two remained together for eight years before they divorced in 1971.
Hudson actually was 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.
Death
In 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. She was 55 years old. Hudson died of a heart attack brought on by a liver ailment.
Filmography
Sinkin' in the Bathtub as Honey Laugh and Get Rich as Miss Jones - at Dance Everything's Rosie as Lowe Party Guest by Punch Bowl Fanny Foley Herself as CarmenAre These Our Children? as MaryGirl Crazy as San Luz Señorita Is My Face Red? as Newlywed Bride on Leviathon Beyond the Rockies as Betty AllenHell's Highway as Mary EllenSecrets of the French Police as K-31The Savage Girl as The GirlThe Penguin Pool Murder as Telephone OperatorThe Past of Mary Holmes as BettyShe Done Him Wrong as SallyLucky Devils as VisitorScarlet River as Rochelle Hudson Love Is Dangerous as GwendolynNotorious But Nice as Constance MartinDoctor Bull as Virginia / BanningWild Boys of the Road as GraceWalls of Gold as Joan StreetMr. Skitch as Emily SkitchHarold Teen as Lillian 'Lillums' LovewellSuch Women Are Dangerous as Vernie LittleBachelor Bait as Cynthia DouglasJudge Priest as Virginia MaydewImitation of Life as Jessie PullmanThe Mighty Barnum as EllenI've Been Around as Drue WaringLife Begins at 40 as Adele AndersonLes Misérables as CosetteCurly Top as Mary BlairWay Down East as Anna MooreShow Them No Mercy! as Loretta MartinThe Music Goes 'Round as Susanna CourtneyEverybody's Old Man as Cynthia SampsonThe Country Beyond as Jean AlisonPoppy as PoppyReunion as Mary MacKenzieWoman-Wise as Alice FullerThat I May Live as Irene HowardBorn Reckless as Sybil RobertsShe Had to Eat as Ann GarrisonRascals as Margaret AdamsMr. Moto Takes a Chance as Victoria MasonStorm Over Bengal as Joan LattimorePride of the Navy as Gloria TylerPirates of the Skies as Barbara WhitneyMissing Daughters as Kay RobertsSmuggled Cargo as Marian FranklinKonga, the Wild Stallion as Judith HadleyA Woman Is the Judge as Justine WestConvicted Woman as Betty AndrewsMen Without Souls as Suzan LeonardIsland of Doomed Men as Lorraine DanelBabies for Sale as Ruth WilliamsGirls Under 21 as Frances White RyanMeet Boston Blackie as Cecelia BradleyThe Stork Pays Off as Irene PerryThe Officer and the Lady as Helen ReganRubber Racketeers as NikkiQueen of Broadway as Sherry BakerBush Pilot as Hilary WardDevil's Cargo as Margo DelgadoSky Liner as Amy WinthropRoots in the Soil Rebel Without a Cause as Judy's motherStrait-Jacket as Emily CutlerThe Night Walker as HildaDr. Terror's Gallery of Horrors as Helen Spalding