Rock Hudson died in the fall of 1985 of complications from an emerging terminal illness named AIDS, seven weeks before he turned 60. He was one of the first major celebrities to die from an AIDS-related illness.

The COVID-19 Pandemic has got me thinking: How would you have felt upon seeing all those news reports of Rock Hudson's death from AIDS in the fall of 1985? Would you have gotten flipped-out or gotten angry, simply knowing that AIDS DID NOT EXIST during Mr. Hudson's heyday? I've flipped-out and gotten angry myself over certain celebrities' deaths following an official COVID-19 diagnosis because of that disease not existing until well past their heyday.

I'm not really sure which question you are asking, so I'll take a stab at all of them:

Rock Hudson: My mom told me Hudson was gay, before I really understood what gay was. So his eventual demise via aids was a "my gosh, mom was right" type thing mostly.

Aids Specifics: During the Summer of 1985 I just happened to be working in a job that gave me routine coffeeshop encounters with a high level state health official, and the guy was what would today be decried as "homophobic". So, my initial familiarity with the aids epidemic was a colorful one indeed. His off-the-cuff observations were astounding. Not always in a good way.

The Emotional side of epidemiology: We have always had challenges, Polio, Small Pox, Black Plague. If anything I believe the anomaly was the relative lull between the late 50s til the early 80s where we enjoyed slack time. I further think that the rise of pervasive media during this period might have given us a false sense that this was a norm.

Tragedy of Loss: Losing Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, Brian Jones, and Jim Morrison all in such close proximity to one another, bothered me more than losing Freddy Mercury, or Lemmy (or Hudson)

I believe we all have a tendency to impose our own personal sense of loss, onto innocents around us.

I don't really see death as anything wrong. We all go there. It is the finish line.

People sitting around crying at a funeral are (IMO) feeling sorry for themselves, and projecting that sorrow onto the departed

Its sad what happend to him...

I remember when this was big news. Oddly at this point, I didn't know much about his old movies (I mean I did somewhat) but am more familiar with his role on Dynasty. I had gay neighbors so my parents told me he was interested in men like my neighbors. They also said he died of a horrible disease that was mostly hitting gay guys and it was horrible they were victims. I remember my mom and grandma talking about how handsome he was back in the 50s and they never knew he was gay.