Rochelle Hudson

Rochelle Hudson (born Rachael Elizabeth Hudson; March 6, 1916 – January 17, 1972) was an American film actress from the 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. She began her acting career as a teenager, and completed her high school education at a high school on the Fox studios 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). 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 1954–1955 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, (but 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. She 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). Her final marriage was to Robert Mindell, a hotel executive. The two remained together for eight years before they divorced in 1971.
She 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.
Filmography
Sinkin' in the Bathtub (1930 short) as Honey (uncredited voice)
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
1916 births
1972 deaths
American child actresses
American film actresses
Actresses from Oklahoma City
People from Palm Desert, California
20th-century American actresses
WAMPAS Baby Stars