Elizabeth Taylor has shattered a major Hollywood myth – revealing that, contrary to popular belief, Rock Hudson and James Dean were not close friends.
“Jimmy and Rock didn’t get along,” Taylor – who appeared with the two screen legends in “Giant” – tells Newsweek.
For years, it was believed that Hudson, a closet homosexual, and Dean, a secret bisexual, were bosom buddies who confided in each other about their hidden lifestyles.
But the two were as different as night and day – and apparently avoided each other off the set, Taylor says.
“Jimmy was thoroughly ‘Method.’ Rock was riddled with an inferiority complex,” she says.
“[Hudson’s] looks hurt him a lot. It was like being a beautiful woman in Hollywood.
“If you were considered pretty, you might as well have been a waitress trying to act – you were treated with no respect at all. If you were ugly as sin, [you] were taken seriously.”
The legendary actress says Dean was childlike.
“He had suffered so much in his life – a horrendous childhood,” she said. “You just wanted to put your arms around his wounds, and kiss all the harm away.”