- Born
- Died
- Birth nameRochelle Elizabeth Hudson
- Nickname
- Shelly
- Height5′ 4″ (1.63 m)
- Rochelle Hudson was born on March 6, 1916 in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, USA. She was an actress, known for Imitation of Life (1934), The Officer and the Lady (1941) and Born Reckless (1937). She was married to Robert Louis Mindell, Charles Kenneth Brust Jr., Richard Francis Hyland and Harold Edward Mexia Thompson. She died on January 17, 1972 in Palm Desert, California, USA.
- SpousesRobert Louis Mindell(1968 - January 8, 1972) (divorced)Charles Kenneth Brust Jr.(September 29, 1956 - July 16, 1957) (divorced)Richard Francis Hyland(December 18, 1948 - July 25, 1950) (divorced)Harold Edward Mexia Thompson(August 15, 1939 - September 1, 1945) (divorced)
- Prior to the Pearl Harbor attack on December 7, 1941, in a minor way she assisted her husband Harold Thompson, who was doing espionage work in Mexico as a civilian. Together they posed as a vacationing couple to various parts of Mexico, to detect if there was any German activity in these areas. One of their more successful vacations uncovered a supply of high test aviation gas hidden by German agents in Baja.
- Prodded by an ambitious stage mother into an early career, some sources state that Rochelle, who was quite mature for her age, was actually born in 1916. It seems that RKO Pictures, which had signed the teenager, added two years to her age because the public would never accept or condone a 15-year-old in romantic leads.
- Died as result of pneumonia brought on by a liver ailment.
- Abandoned Hollywood for a time after playing Natalie Wood's mother in Rebel Without a Cause (1955) to run a 10,000 acre ranch in Arizona. She later moved to Tulsa, Oklahoma and worked for a petroleum refinery. Missing California, she returned in 1963 and, briefly, restarted her career, but left Hollywood for good in 1967. She moved to Palm Desert where she found success in real estate.
- Spoke fluent French and Spanish.
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