Rock Hudson is a legendary actor who is world renowned with his films. Hudson is not only known for his attractive looks but his amazing performance on screen. Hudson’s career peaked in the 50’s and 60’s. However, Hudson was also known to be one of the first stars who had an AIDS related complications. Since Rock Hudson was such a famous individual, his AIDS related death sparked attention to this horrible disease. The first real film that acted as a catalyst for Rock Hudson’s success was a film called Magnificent Obsession. This film can be described as a “tearjerker” and it helped stereotype the roles that Rock Hudson would later play. These roles being the likeable lead. Hudson played this role quite frequently in his career and he then decided to switch to a more comedic lead. He later became known for his comedies as he did such a terrific job getting into character. When acting in these roles, Rock Hudson kept his homosexuality under wraps. No one guessed that Rock Hudson was a gay man as he was type-casted in roles that were heterosexual. One of the most iconic gay celebrities, to me, is Ellen DeGeneres. Ellen is known for her talk show as well as being a comedian. During the beginning of Ellen’s fame, no one knew she was holding the secret of being lesbian. Ellen chose to come out on the TV show she was starring on. This contributed a lot of buzz throughout the world and really gave Ellen a strong fan base. It saddens me that stars during the times of the 50’s and 60’s were afraid of coming out to the world. I feel that it was a very foreign thing to come out during that time period that it was perceived as being “bad”.