His Real Name
Like many other stars from Hollywood’s Golden Age, Rock Hudson didn’t use his real name. He was welcomed into the world on November 17, 1925, as Roy Harold Scherer, Jr., and took on the hunky stage name when he got into showbiz.
Young Rock Hudson. Photo By Getty Images/ Bettmann
His mother Katherine was a homemaker and later a telephone operator, and his father Roy Harold senior was an auto mechanic, so they were of hardy working-class stock. But as we will soon see, Young Rock didn’t have an ideal childhood. His father wasn’t the nicest man, and his mother didn’t protect him.