Henry Willson

Henry Leroy Willson (* 31 July 1911 in Lansdowne , Pennsylvania , † 2 November 1978 in Woodland Hills , California ) was an American Hollywood - Agent . He became known for the band of young men he managed: Rock Hudson , Tab Hunter , Chad Everett , Robert Wagner , Nick Adams , Guy Madison , Troy Donahue , Mike Connors , Rory Calhoun , John Saxon , Yale Summers , Clint Walker , Doug McClure , Dack Rambo , Ty Hardin and John Derek . But he was also instrumental in the careers of actresses such as Rhonda Fleming and Lana Turner .

Life

Willson was born into a family from Landwone, Pennsylvania who already worked in show business . His father was Vice President of the Columbia Phonograph Company and finally its President from 1922. Willson came into contact with many Broadway theater , opera and vaudeville actors . Will Rogers , Fanny Brice and Fred Stone became friends of the family after moving to Forest Hills , an upscale neighborhood in Borugh Queens , New York City .

Concerned about his interest in tap dancing , his father enrolled his son at the Asheville School in North Carolina in the hope that the many team sports and rugged weekend activities like climbing and backpacking would have a good influence on him. He later attended Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut . During this time, he spent his weekends in Manhattan writing a weekly gossip column for Variety .

Hollywood

In 1933 Willson traveled to Hollywood on a steamboat across the Panama Canal . On board he cultivated his friendship with Bing Crosby's wife, Dixie Lee , who introduced him to the Hollywood elite and got him a job at Photoplay , where he wrote his first article about the newborn Gary Crosby . He also began writing for The Hollywood Reporter and New Movie Magazine , and became a junior agent at Joyce & Polimer Agency. In his private life, he moved into a house in Beverly Hills that his father had bought and became a regular at a gay bar on the Sunset Strip . There he was courted by young men for personal and professional reasons. One of his first customers and alleged lovers became Junior Durkin , whose promising career ended when he died on May 4, 1935 in a car accident.

Willson joined Zeppo Marx's agency where he took care of the young talents Marjorie Bell , Jon Hall and William T. Orr . In 1937 he became aware of Judy Turner , a student at Hollywood High School, gave her the stage name Lana Turner and arranged her first small film roles. She had her breakthrough with Mervyn LeRoy from Warner Brothers . Actress Rhonda Fleming was also discovered by Wilsson at Hollywood High School . In 1943 David O. Selznick hired Willson to head the talent department of his newly founded Vanguard Pictures . In Selznick's next project, the Home Front drama When You Say Goodbye to Claudette Colbert , Jennifer Jones and Shirley Temple , Willson also cast his own discoveries Guy Madison , Craig Stevens and John Derek (heralded as Dare Harris ) in minor supporting roles.

Willson eventually opened his own talent agency himself, in which he promoted his discoveries and, in exchange for advertising and film roles, forced sexual relations in at least some cases. He gave many of his actors distinctive-sounding artist names and had them appear in film magazines using clever advertising methods, for example topless in Beefcake .

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 beloved men. The two worked together professionally until 1966. In 1955, Confidential magazine threatened the publication of Hudson's secret homosexuality. Willson then disclosed information about Rory Calhoun's imprisonment and Tab Hunter's arrest at a gay party. As a result, the Hudson story was not printed. At Willson's insistence, Hudson married his secretary, Phyllis Gates , to quell rumors and maintain his macho image. The alliance only lasted three years.

“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, 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. "

“Talent agent Henry Willson… had a unique talent for discovering and renaming young actors whose outward appeal more than made up for any lack of acting skills. Robert Mosely became Guy Madison, Orison Whipple Hungerford Jr. became Ty Hardin, Arthur Gelien became Tab Hunter and Roy Scherer became Rock Hudson. So successful was the beefcake aspect of this company and so well known Willson's sexuality that it was often wrongly assumed that all of his clients were gay. "

- Richard Barrios : Screened Out: Playing Gay in Hollywood from Edison to Stonewall

“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 (...) Bobby Hyatt. ... ”

"Some of the budding actors Wilson represented were straight, but a disproportionate number were homosexual, bisexual, or" cooperated "with Willson for roles, as Bobby Hyatt [actor, 1939-2007] noted."

- Suzanne Finstand

“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'”

"When a young, handsome actor had Henry Willson as his agent, he was almost assumed to be gay as if it had been written on his forehead."

- Ann Doran , one of Willson's few female clients

Late years and death

In old age Willson struggled with addiction to alcohol and other drugs , as well as paranoia and weight problems. When his homosexuality became public, many of his clients, both gay and straight, distanced themselves from him for fear that they might be ostracized with him. In 1974 the unemployed and destitute agent moved to the Motion Picture & Television Country House and Hospital , where he lived until his death from cirrhosis of the liver . With no money for a headstone at the end of his life, he was buried in a grave with no memorial stone in Valhalla Memorial Park Cemetery in North Hollywood , California.

Aftermath

In the US television series Hollywood (2020), which takes up the issues of racism , sexism and homophobia in the dream factory of the 1940s, Henry Wilson is played in a supporting role by actor Jim Parsons .

literature

• Henry Willson in the database of Find a Grave (English)
• 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, 078671607X

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Ferber, Lawrence. "Oh, Henry Oh, Henry: The Pretty Boys and Dirty Deeds of Hollywood Agent Henry Willson" ( Memento of the original from July 21, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. November 17, 2005. "During his youth in Forest Hills, NY, Willson was close to his father, a man who both enabled his showbiz obsession and hindered his personal development." 
2. ↑ Keith Stern: Queers in history: the comprehensive encyclopedia of historical gays, lesbians and bisexuals, and transgenders . BenBella, Dallas, Texas 2009, ISBN 978-1-933771-87-8 (English).
3. ^ Finstad, Suzanne (2001). Natasha: The Biography of Natalie Wood . P. 140.
4. ^ Finstad, Suzanne (2001). Natasha: The Biography of Natalie Wood . P. 140.
5. ^ Finstad, Suzanne (2001). Natasha: The Biography of Natalie Wood . P. 140.