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Henry Willson

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Henry Willson
Born
Henry Leroy Willson

(1911-07-31)July 31, 1911
DiedNovember 2, 1978(1978-11-02) (aged 67)
Alma materWesleyan University
OccupationTalent agent
Known forPopularizing the beefcake craze of the 1950s

Henry Leroy Willson (July 31, 1911 – November 2, 1978) was an American Hollywood talent agent who played a large role in developing the beefcake craze of the 1950s.[1]

His clients included Rock Hudson, Tab Hunter, Chad Everett, Robert Wagner, Nick Adams, Guy Madison, Kerwin Mathews, Troy Donahue, Mike Connors, Rory Calhoun, John Saxon, Yale Summers, Clint Walker, Doug McClure, Dack Rambo, Ty Hardin, and John Derek.[2]

Early life

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Willson was born into a prominent show business family in Lansdowne, Pennsylvania.[3] His father, Horace, was the vice-president of the Columbia Phonograph Company and advanced to the presidency in 1922.[4] Willson came in close contact with many Broadway theatre, opera, and vaudeville performers. Will Rogers, Fanny Brice, and Fred Stone numbered among the family's friends, after they moved to Forest Hills, an upscale neighborhood in the New York City borough of Queens.[5]

Concerned about his son's interest in tap dance, the elder Willson enrolled Henry in the Asheville School in North Carolina, where he hoped the school's many team sports and rugged weekend activities, such as rock climbing and backpacking, would have a positive influence on the boy.[6] He later attended Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut, spending weekends in Manhattan, where he wrote weekly gossip columns for Variety.[6]

Hollywood years

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In 1933, Willson traveled to Hollywood by steamship via the Panama Canal. On board he cultivated a friendship with Bing Crosby's wife, Dixie Lee, who introduced him to the Hollywood elite and secured him a job with Photoplay, where his first article was about the newborn Gary Crosby. He began writing for The Hollywood Reporter and the New Movie Magazine, became a junior agent at the Joyce & Polimer Agency, moved into a Beverly Hills home purchased by his father, and became a regular at Sunset Strip gay bars, where he wooed young men for both professional and personal reasons. One of his first clients was Junior Durkin, whose career was cut short when he died in an automobile accident on May 4, 1935.[7]

Willson joined the Zeppo Marx Agency, where he represented newcomers Marjorie Belcher, Jon Hall, and William T. Orr. He was introduced to Julia Turner, a Hollywood High School student, in 1937, whom he renamed "Lana Turner" and got cast in small roles, finally introducing her to Mervyn LeRoy at Warner Bros. In 1943, David O. Selznick hired Willson to head the talent division of his newly formed Vanguard Pictures. The first film he cast was the World War II drama Since You Went Away (1944) with Claudette Colbert, Jennifer Jones, and Shirley Temple. He placed Guy Madison, Craig Stevens, and John Derek (billed as Dare Harris) in small supporting roles.

Willson eventually opened his own talent agency, where he nurtured the careers of his young finds, frequently coercing them into sexual relationships in exchange for publicity and film roles. In his book, Screened Out: Playing Gay in Hollywood from Edison to Stonewall, Richard Barrios writes, "talent agent Henry Willson... had a singular knack for discovering and renaming young actors whose visual appeal transcended any lack of ability. Under his tutelage, Robert Mosely became Guy Madison, Orison Whipple Hungerford Jr. was renamed Ty Hardin, Arthur Gelien was changed to Tab Hunter,[8] and Roy Scherer turned into Rock Hudson. So successful was the beefcake aspect of this enterprise, and so widely recognized was Willson's sexuality, that it was often, and often inaccurately, assumed that all of his clients were gay. In her book Natasha: The Biography of Natalie Wood, Suzanne Finstad confirms that "some of the would-be actors Willson represented were heterosexual, but a disproportionate number were homosexual, bisexual, or 'co-operated' with Willson 'to get gigs,' in the observation of Natalie [Wood]'s costar Bobby Hyatt. ..." "if a young, handsome actor had Henry Willson for an agent, 'it was almost assumed he was gay, like it was written across his forehead,' recalls Ann Doran, one of Willson's few female clients."[9]

His most prominent client was Rock Hudson, whom he transformed from a clumsy, naive, Chicago-born truck driver named Roy Scherer into one of Hollywood's most popular leading men. The two were teamed professionally until 1966. In 1955, Confidential magazine threatened to publish an exposé about Hudson's secret gay life, and Willson disclosed information about Rory Calhoun's years in prison and Tab Hunter's arrest at a gay party in 1950 in exchange for the tabloid not printing the Hudson story. At his agent's urging, Hudson married Willson's secretary Phyllis Gates in order to put the rumors to rest and maintain a macho image, but the union dissolved after three years.

Later years and death

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In his later years, Willson struggled with drug addiction, alcoholism, paranoia, and weight problems.[6] As his own homosexuality had become public knowledge, many of his clients, both gay and straight, distanced themselves from him for fear of being branded the same.[10]

In 1974, the unemployed and destitute agent moved into the Motion Picture & Television Country House and Hospital until his death from cirrhosis of the liver.[10] He was 67 years old.

With no money to cover the cost of a gravestone, he was interred in an unmarked grave in Valhalla Memorial Park Cemetery in North Hollywood, California.[11] A headstone was eventually placed at his burial site with the epitaph "Star - Star Maker".[12]

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Willson is portrayed by Jim Parsons in the 2020 Netflix miniseries Hollywood, a counterfactual re-imagining of post World War II Hollywood.[13]

Notes

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  1. ^ Ames, Lauren. "True Crime Podcast 'Variety Confidential' Unveils the Talent Agent Who Invented the Beefcake Craze". Variety. Penske Media Corporation. Retrieved 29 January 2024.
  2. ^ Solis, Jose. "'The Man Who Invented Rock Hudson' Is a Revelatory Dissection of What It Was To Be a Gay Movie Star". PopMatters. PopMatters Media, Inc. Retrieved 29 January 2024.
  3. ^ Hunter, Tab (September 8, 2006). Tab Hunter Confidential: The Making of a Movie Star. Algonquin Books. p. 43. ISBN 9781565125483. Retrieved 29 January 2024.
  4. ^ "Horace Willson, 88, Recording Pioneer". Asbury Park Press. April 24, 1967. Retrieved 29 January 2024.
  5. ^ Ferber, Lawrence (November 17, 2005). "Oh, Henry Oh, Henry: The Pretty Boys and Dirty Deeds of Hollywood Agent Henry Willson". Gay and Lesbian Times. Archived from the original on July 21, 2009. Retrieved June 18, 2009. During his youth in Forest Hills, N.Y., Willson was close to his father, a man who both enabled his showbiz obsession and hindered his personal development.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  6. ^ a b c Knight, Lewis. "Who was Henry Willson? Shrewd and predatory talent agent who 'made' Rock Hudson and Lana Turner". The Mirror. Retrieved 29 January 2024.
  7. ^ Stern, Keith (2009). Queers in History: The Comprehensive Encyclopedia of Historical Gays, Lesbians and Bisexuals. Dallas, Texas: BenBella Books. p. 493. ISBN 978-1933771878.
  8. ^ Holden, Stephen (15 October 2015). "Review: 'Tab Hunter Confidential,' About a Heartthrob". The New York Times. Retrieved 12 May 2020.
  9. ^ Finstad, Suzanne (2001). Natasha: The Biography of Natalie Wood. p. 140.
  10. ^ a b Adebowale, Temi. "The Real-Life Story of Hollywood Super Agent Henry Willson". Men's Health. Hearst Magazine Media, Inc. Retrieved 29 January 2024.
  11. ^ Nicolaou, Elena. "Henry Willson, Rock Hudson's Agent, Was as Complicated as Hollywood Depicts". Oprah Daily. Oprah Daily LLC. Retrieved 29 January 2024.
  12. ^ "Henry Leroy Willson". Find a Grave. Retrieved 29 January 2024.
  13. ^ "The Heartbreaking True Story About Rock Hudson That Netflix's 'Hollywood' Left Out". 8 May 2020. Retrieved May 10, 2020.

References

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  • Richard Barrios, Screened Out: Playing Gay in Hollywood from Edison to Stonewall (2002).
  • Robert Hofler, The Man Who Invented Rock Hudson: The Pretty Boys and Dirty Deals of Henry Willson. Carroll & Graf, 2005, ISBN 0-7867-1607-X