Resumen
My paper looks at the fragile construction of heroism and its relationship with the so-called general public using as a case study the tragic and much publicised illness and death of Hollywood star Rock Hudson. This paper will explore how the media coped with Hudson’s AIDS diagnosis by presenting
before- and after images, comparing the Hudson on film as a romantic leading actor and the
gaunt and frail Hudson with AIDS. I argue that these images shatter Hudson’s heroic status: his
gaunt looks became a physiognomic index of his homosexual transgressions of the ideal ‘all American virtue’ his younger image was instrumental in setting. (Extraído del documento)
