Hollywood has an infamously long history of markedly disgusting behavior and attitudes behind its veil of entertainment and art, some of which were exposed through the recent Me Too movement. In addition to sexual harassment and assault and numerous other heinous acts native to the entertainment culture, Hollywood has also set the precedent for homophobia in the past, primarily through the decisions and actions of major studios. There are numerous instances, occurring from the early 20th century past the gay liberation movement of the 1960s, of studios forcing gay actors and actresses to marry someone of the opposite sex in order to hide the actor’s / actress’s sexuality. One such example is the marriage of Rock Hudson and Phyllis Gates which ended after two years once rumors of Hudson’s sexuality became exceedingly prevalent.
I only found out about Hudson’s homosexuality after watching Lover Come Back and upon reading Richard Dyer’s chapter Rock: the last guy you’d have figured?, and needless to say I was surprised: Hudson managed an incredibly masculine and emphatically heterosexual star image which emanated and persisted throughout Lover Come Back. The first actor that came to my mind with a situation similar to Hudson’s was Neil Patrick Harris in his show How I Met Your Mother. I was never a particular fan of the show, mainly because I never actually attempted to get started on it, but I did know that Neil Patrick Harris’ character was a notorious womanizer. The similarities and differences between the two are interesting as Hudson’s characters were done in a time where queerness was viewed in a negative light whereas Harris’ character occurred more recently with homosexuality being significantly less taboo.
Dyer points out in his chap
ter that Rock embodies characters who appear, “not to be full bloodedly heterosexual: he is woman-shy, or impotent, or a milquetoast, as a means of getting, usually, Doris Day to drop her defences”. Similarly to Rock Hudson, Neil Patrick Harris embodies completely different characters in his show in order to pick up girls in a variety of situations: in one scene he pretends to be a man distraught over losing his soon-to-be wife at the altar so a woman feels sorry for him, and in another he goes as far as pretending to be a businessman in an airport terminal to pick up any girls coming off of incoming flights. In Lover Come Back, Rock Hudson pretends to be an entirely different person, a doctor, in order to distract, mislead, and eventually sleep with his business rival played by Doris Day.
The greatest difference between these two actors, however, is the character context in which they embody their different personas to entice women. In Rock Hudson’s case, as analyzed by Dyer, he humorously encapsulates lightly homosexual behavior while his main demeanor revolves strictly around masculinity and heterosexuality. This makes the contrast between his facades and real character all the more interesting and compelling as they deviate so far from what the audience knows his character to be. In Neil Patrick Harris’ case, his pretend 
performances exist within a character who is already innately goofy and exaggeratingly humorous. This makes his dishonest romantic endeavors less surprising than in Hudson’s case but consistent with his already established character personality.
These two actors play remarkably similar characters at their core: both seemingly heterosexual but willing to play on the idea when deceiving women. Hudson’s strictly masculine characters are a result of the time period he was famous, whereas Neil Patrick Harris was able to thrive with a character unconstrained to sexual stereotypes.
Works Cited
Morgan, T. (2019, July 10). When Hollywood Studios Married Off Gay Stars to Keep Their Sexuality a Secret. Retrieved November 21, 2020, from https://www.history.com/news/hollywood-lmarriages-gay-stars-lgbt
Dyer, Richard, and Paul McDonald. Stars. London: BFI Pub, 1998. Print.