TCM Honors Rock Hudson’s 100th Birthday as November Star of the Month
Turner Classic Movies celebrates actor Rock Hudson every Tuesday in November 2025, starting at 8pm ET. The month-long tribute honors the Hollywood icon’s 100th birthday on November 17.
Standing 6’4″ with chiseled features and soft brown eyes, Rock Hudson embodied the ideal leading man of the 1950s and early ’60s. His earnest look and sometimes even mild bashfulness (packaged with that high school quarterback’s body) endeared him to audiences and made him a top box office draw. He also appeared on screen with many of Hollywood’s top leading ladies of the era, including Elizabeth Taylor, Jane Wyman, and Doris Day, with whom he formed a lifelong friendship.
Hudson kept his private life out of the spotlight for most of his career, and although he never formally came out as gay, his 1985 disclosure of his AIDS diagnosis made his sexuality public. He became the first major Hollywood star to announce having AIDS. Hudson died from AIDS-related complications on October 2, 1985, at age 59 — just weeks before his 60th birthday.
The full month’s schedule of Hudson’s films follows. Just looking for the full month calendar? Scroll to the bottom to download.
Tuesday, Nov. 4 – Begins at 8pm ET
Everett Collection
Hudson’s first marathon night includes one of the finest American movies ever, director George Stevens‘ Giant (1956). Costarring other movie greats Elizabeth Taylor and James Dean, it’s an intramural Texas scrimmage of cattlemen vs. oilmen, Hudson’s straightforward, often overwhelming charisma vs. Dean’s smoldering intensity. The epic story covers decades in the entangled, passionate lives of the three leads and the evolution of the Lone Star State from wide open prairies to a skyline dotted with oil rigs. It also earned Hudson his only Academy Award nomination.
Tuesday, Nov. 11 – Begins at 8pm ET
Everett Collection
Nov. 11’s lineup includes small early roles in Fighter Squadron (1948) and Bright Victory (1951), and the box office disappointment A Farewell to Arms (1957). Ice Station Zebra (1968) is the standout movie of the evening with Hudson playing a nuclear submarine commander navigating spies and saboteurs while headed to the North Pole in the action-adventure yarn.
Tuesday, Nov. 18 – Begins at 8pm ET
Everett Collection
The highlight of Hudson’s third night (Nov. 18) is his collaboration with director Douglas Sirk in a string of popular mid ’50s melodramas full of lush colors and sensational adult entanglements. The first one Magnificent Obsession (1954) costarring Jane Wyman, propelled Hudson to stardom. The actors teamed up again in the night’s second movie, All That Heaven Allows (1955).
Tuesday, Nov. 25 – Begins at 8pm ET
Everett Collection
Hudson’s final night on Nov. 25 includes the bright lights and frothy stories of his three delightful pairings with Doris Day: Pillow Talk (1959), Lover Come Back (1961) and Send Me No Flowers (1964). Day’s beauty and allure, like Hudson’s, was always accessible and never intimidating. They looked like they belonged together. Their first, Pillow Talk, shot in gorgeous widescreen Cinemascope, is still their top romantic romp.