Susan Stafford, the vivacious original hostess of the popular American TV show, “Wheel of Fortune,” has revealed how she was present in Rock Hudson’s house, when a Catholic priest led the star in the “sinner’s prayer” to receive Jesus Christ into his life just hours before his death aged 59 on Oct. 2, 1985, from complications from AIDS.
Stafford, the original hostess of “Wheel of Fortune” from January 6, 1975 until she left on October 22, 1982, preceded Vanna White on the popular game show. She revealed the inside story of Rock Hudson’s final hours during an exclusive interview just before Pat Boone’s 80th Birthday Celebrity Roast on Sunday, June 1, 2014.
The glittering event, “hosted and roasted” by an impressive lineup celebrities including, Larry King, Wink Martindale, Shirley Jones, and many others at the Beverly Hilton Hotel, for which Stafford played a vital role in helping to recruit many of the “roasters and toasters.” It was to benefit Ryan’s Reach, a charity in honor of Pat and Shirley Boone’s grandson, Ryan Corbin, who suffered a traumatic brain injury in 2001, and was making an amazing recovery and attended the event. The group helps others with similar injuries.
Rock Hudson at the height of his Hollywood success; Photo Courtesy of ASSIST.
Susan explained that, after receiving Jesus Christ into her life, she left the game show, and had just come back from working with former Surgeon General C. Everett Koop with leprosy patients in India, when friends asked her if she would come and help nurse Rock Hudson, who was dying from AIDS, at his home called “The Castle” in Beverly Hills.
The reason she believes she was asked was that she had been working with lepers in India, and they knew that “AIDS was not as frightening” to her “as it would be to most Americans at that time.”
Susan explained that in those early days of the pandemic, AIDS was proving terrifying to people, but because of her work with lepers, it held no fear for her. She said that she just wanted to help make Rock Hudson’s last days as comfortable as she could.
The National Enquirer story about Rock Hudson having AIDS; Photo Courtesy of ASSIST.
“To many, AIDS was the leprosy of that period,” she went on to say. “Do you realize that people would not even go into his house because they were afraid that maybe it’d be contagious? There were some that wouldn’t even call him thinking that they might get AIDS over the phone. But fortunately, there were just a few friends in the house who were taking care of him, including a dedicated nurse called Toni, who was also witnessing to him.”
Stafford said that some “born-again” show business friends, including Pat Boone and Shirley Boone, and “Love Boat” captain Gavin MacLeod and his wife, Patty, would come by to sit with him and gently share about their own personal faith in Jesus Christ.
“They came by themselves, so I didn’t have to ask,” Susan explained. “There’s no doubt in my mind that Rock Hudson was saved before he died.”
Pat and Shirley Boone at the glittering event with their grandson, Ryan Corbin; Photo Courtesy of Dan Wooding.
So, then I asked Susan Stafford what finally led up to his death-bed decision to receive Jesus Christ into his life. She replied, “I think it was the combination of when Pat Boone dropped a seed, then Shirley did the same, and also Gavin and his wife, and I did the same, and enough seeds were planted and then a priest walked in the door and that was the clincher.”
Susan revealed that she knew that Rock Hudson had been raised a Roman Catholic and so, hours before his death, she asked him if he would like to see a priest. He said he would and so it was arranged for Fr. Terrance A. Sweeney, a five-time Emmy Award winning producer and an ex-Jesuit priest, to come to his home. (Susan said that Fr. Sweeney is now producing The Mother Teresa Story, and that she had once worked with the Mother Teresa in India.)
“Frankly, he’s what you call a real priest, just like you’re a real Christian; no dilly dally, and he said, ‘You want me. I’ll be there,” she recalls.
Susan Stafford (with Dan Wooding) gives the Jesus One-Way sign after the interview; Photo Courtesy of ASSIST.
“Rock and myself had a wonderful conversation and then, after the priest arrived, Rock, in a prayer with Fr. Sweeney, accepted our Lord Jesus Christ in his life and then he died shortly afterwards in his own bed on the second floor of the house.”
I asked Susan, if she felt that if she hadn’t left “Wheel of Fortune,” and been at his side during those last days, whether Rock Hudson possibly wouldn’t have experienced his death-bed conversion.
“If the Lord wants someone to find Him, absolutely they will be found,” she said. “But did I have a hand in it? Sure I did, but it could have been someone else, most likely, because God’s God, and nothing’s impossible with Him.”
I concluded the interview by asking Susan Stafford about what she would like to ask Rock Hudson when she gets to heaven. With her voice cracking, she replied, “I’d like to ask him if he could have accepted Christ sooner, and had a better life, because it would have been better if he’d known the Lord and that’s the difference of those that know Him sooner than those that know Him later.”
Want more from this author? Check out Dan Wooding’s latest book: “Mary: My Story from Bethlehem to Calvary.”
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