Book Review: Rochelle Hudson – Biography and Career Record

Author David C. Tucker is one of our finest biographers of classic Hollywood stars. And his choice to examine the life and career of Rochelle Hudson is especially commendable.

My own knowledge of Hudson was from her playing the title role in the W.C. Fields film Poppy (1936). While trying to learn as much as I could about Fields in the 70s, I came across her 1972 obituary. She was only 55. Now, with David Tucker’s book, I am enlightened by her long, varied filmography, her four marriages, her later work as a realtor, and other such aspects of her life and career.

The author conducted research with the aid of Rochelle Hudson’s personal papers, he interviewed family and friends, and was able to put together an interesting, enlightening, and impressive portrait of both the person and the actress. Going through each of her 60 films with annotation, Tucker gives us a truly thorough understanding of Hudson’s screen career as well as her life.

There are several points of interest in the book, but one of the most interesting is a later-years visit from a young relative, named after her, who wanted to talk about the actress’s work. “She didn’t talk a lot about her movie career. You had to pull answers out of Rochelle.” She did recall that while she appeared in the movie Revel Without a Cause (1955) she never met James Dean. He was not even on the set when she filmed her scenes. She saw him once in the studio commissary during filming.

Tucker’s book is filled with interesting accounts such as this, while also giving us a thorough biography. And the filmography isn’t just stats and brief annotation, it is complete details as one would find in the best film-by-film book length studies of an actor or filmmaker’s career.

I learned from this book that Rochelle Hudson wasn’t just another classic Hollywood actress who died fairly young. I learned that she was a complex, accomplished individual with many talents and a film career that included movies with Shirley Temple, Will Rogers, Henry Fonda, and Claudette Colbert as well as Fields and James Dean. I saw that her career extended into television with appearances on shows like Branded and that she played Eddie Mayehoff’s wife in That’s My Boy, a spinoff of a movie in which Mayehoff had appeared with Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis. And I learned so much about her as a person, outside of the movies.

There is a lot to learn from David C. Tucker’s book on Rochelle Hudson, just as we learn from all of this author’s books. It is highly recommended for libraries, research centers, and fans of classic Hollywood. Very impressive.

Here is the link to purchase the book: HUDSON