Was a secretary for influential Hollywood agent Henry Willson when she
agreed to marry actor Rock Hudson, whom she had been a fan of. The marriage
was not a happy one, and Gates claimed that he struck her on several
occasions. They divorced a few years later.
Henry Willson, an influential Hollywood agent, had arranged the secret
wedding but minutes after the ceremony ended he called Hollywood gossip
columnists Hedda Hopper and Louella Parsons.
Put her spin on the whole marriage "coverup" in the book "My Husband,
Rock Hudson," which was published two years after Hudson's death from
AIDS in 1985. During his lifetime, Phyllis never revealed Hudson's
homosexuality.
Is a successful interior decorator who has had several celebrity
clients. (2005)
Married Hollywood heartthrob Rock Hudson in the 1950's and later
insisted that she married him out of love and not to cover up his
homosexuality. However some of Hudson's friends said Gates was a lesbian who married Hudson for his money.