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.
Died of pneumonia brought on by a liver ailment.
Father, Ollie Lee Hudson, worked for the State Employment Bureau in Oklahoma and was a direct descendant of famed explorer Henry Hudson, who discovered the Hudson River and Hudson Bay.
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.
Spoke fluent French and Spanish.
Took singing and dancing lessons at the Ernest Belcher Academy in Hollywood. Belcher was the father of famed dancer Marge Champion.
Was a WAMPAS Baby Star in 1931.
Wed four times. First husband, Harold Thompson, was head of the Storyline Department at Disney Studios; second husband, Dick Irving Hyland, was a Los Angeles Times sportswriter; third husband, Charles Burst, was a businessman; and fourth husband, Robert Mindell, was a hotel executive. All ended in divorce.