Rochelle Hudson (born Rachael Elizabeth Hudson; March 6, 1916 – January 17, 1972) was an American film actress whose career spanned from 1930s through the 1960s. Hudson was a WAMPAS Baby Star in 1931.
Early years Hudson was born in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, the daughter of Ollie Lee Hudson and Lenora Mae Hudson. While in Oklahoma, she studied dancing, drama, piano, and voice. Hudson began her acting career as a teenager, and completed her high school education at a high school on the Fox Studio Lot.
Career
Hudson signed a contract with RKO Pictures on November 22, 1930, when she was 14 years old. She may be best remembered today for costarring in Wild Boys of the Road (1933), playing Cosette in Les Misérables (1935), playing Mary Blair, the older sister of Shirley Temple's character in Curly Top, and for playing Natalie Wood's mother in Rebel Without a Cause (1955), starring James Dean and Wood with Sal Mineo. She is also notable for voicing Bosko's girlfriend Honey in Harman-Ising's Looney Tunes cartoons released by Warner Bros. Pictures. Her last film role was in Dr. Terror's Gallery of Horrors (1967).
During her peak years in the 1930s, notable roles for Hudson included Richard Cromwell's love interest in the Will Rogers showcase Life Begins at 40 (1935); the daughter of carnival barker W.C. Fields in Poppy (1936); and Claudette Colbert's adult daughter in Imitation of Life (1934). She played Sally Glynn, the fallen ingenue to whom Mae West imparts the immortal wisdom "When women go wrong, men go right after them!" in the 1933 Paramount film, She Done Him Wrong. In the 1954–55 television season, Hudson co-starred with Gil Stratton and Eddie Mayehoff in the sitcom That's My Boy, based on a 1951 Jerry Lewis and Dean Martin film of the same name.
Personal life
Hudson was married four times. All the unions were childless. Her first marriage was to Harold Thompson, in 1939. He was the head of the Storyline Department at Disney Studios.
After their divorce in 1947 (although the trade publication Billboard reported that they divorced on September 4, 1945), she married a second time the following year, to Los Angeles Times sportswriter Dick Irving Hyland. The marriage lasted two years before the couple divorced. Hudson married her third husband, Charles K. Brust, in Jackson, Missouri on September 28, 1956.
Little is known of the marriage other than they were divorced by June 1962 (he remarried). Hudson's final marriage was to Robert Mindell, a hotel executive. The two remained together for eight years before they divorced in 1971.
Hudson actually was born in 1916, but the studio reportedly made her two years older for her to play a wider variety of roles, including romantic roles. In That's My Boy, she was cast as the mother of Gil Stratton, who was only six years her junior.
Death In 1972, Hudson was found dead in her home at the Palm Desert Country Club. A business associate with whom she had been working in real estate discovered her body sprawled on the bathroom floor. She was 55 years old. Hudson died of a heart attack brought on by a liver ailment.Beaver County Times: "Death is investigated". January 19, 1972.
Filmography
Laugh and Get Rich (1931) as Miss Jones - at Dance (uncredited) Everything's Rosie (1931) as Lowe Party Guest by Punch Bowl (uncredited) Fanny Foley Herself (1931) as Carmen Are These Our Children? (1931) as Mary Girl Crazy (1932) as San Luz Señorita (uncredited) Is My Face Red? (1932) as Newlywed Bride on Leviathon (uncredited) Beyond the Rockies (1932) as Betty Allen Hell's Highway (1932) as Mary Ellen Secrets of the French Police (1932) as K-31 The Savage Girl (1932) as The Girl The Penguin Pool Murder (1932) as Telephone Operator The Past of Mary Holmes (1933) as Betty She Done Him Wrong (1933) as Sally Lucky Devils (1933) as Visitor Scarlet River (1933) as Rochelle Hudson (uncredited) Love Is Dangerous (1933) as Gwendolyn Notorious But Nice (1933) as Constance Martin Doctor Bull (1933) as Virginia (Muller) / Banning Wild Boys of the Road (1933) as Grace Walls of Gold (1933) as Joan Street Mr. Skitch (1933) as Emily Skitch Harold Teen (1934) as Lillian 'Lillums' Lovewell Such Women Are Dangerous (1934) as Vernie Little Bachelor Bait (1934) as Cynthia Douglas Judge Priest (1934) as Virginia Maydew Imitation of Life (1934) as Jessie Pullman The Mighty Barnum (1934) as Ellen I've Been Around (1935) as Drue Waring Life Begins at 40 (1935) as Adele Anderson Les Misérables (1935) as Cosette Curly Top (1935) as Mary Blair Way Down East (1935) as Anna Moore Show Them No Mercy! (1935) as Loretta Martin The Music Goes 'Round (1936) as Susanna Courtney Everybody's Old Man (1936) as Cynthia Sampson The Country Beyond (1936) as Jean Alison Poppy (1936, with W.C. Fields) as Poppy Reunion (1936) as Mary MacKenzie Woman-Wise (1937) as Alice Fuller That I May Live (1937) as Irene Howard Born Reckless (1937) as Sybil Roberts She Had to Eat (1937) as Ann Garrison Rascals (1938) as Margaret Adams Mr. Moto Takes a Chance (1938) as Victoria Mason Storm Over Bengal (1938) as Joan Lattimore Pride of the Navy (1939) as Gloria Tyler Pirates of the Skies (1939) as Barbara Whitney Missing Daughters (1939) as Kay Roberts Smuggled Cargo (1939) as Marian Franklin Konga, the Wild Stallion (1939) as Judith Hadley A Woman Is the Judge (1939) as Justine West Convicted Woman (1940) as Betty Andrews Men Without Souls (1940) as Suzan Leonard Island of Doomed Men (1940) as Lorraine Danel Babies for Sale (1940) as Ruth Williams Girls Under 21 (1940) as Frances White Ryan Meet Boston Blackie (1941) as Cecelia Bradley The Stork Pays Off (1941) as Irene Perry The Officer and the Lady (1941) as Helen Regan Rubber Racketeers (1942) as Nikki Queen of Broadway (1942) as Sherry Baker Bush Pilot (1947) as Hilary Ward Devil's Cargo (1948) as Margo Delgado Sky Liner (1949) as Amy Winthrop Roots in the Soil (1949) Rebel Without a Cause (1955) as Judy's mother Strait-Jacket (1964) as Emily Cutler The Night Walker (1964) as Hilda Dr. Terror's Gallery of Horrors (1967) as Helen Spalding (final film role)
References
Sources Forty Years of Screen Credits, 1929-1969. Two volumes. Compiled by John T. Weaver. Metuchen, NJ: Scarecrow Press, 1970. Entries begin on page 57. Biography and Genealogy Master Index. Farmington Hills, Mich.: Gale, Cengage Learning. 1980–2009.
External links
Photographs of Rochelle Hudson Hudson, Rochelle (1916–1972) in the Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture