Rock Hudson was an American actor renowned for his performances in classic Hollywood films, such as "Giant" and "All That Heaven Allows." He was one of the first major celebrities to openly disclose his battle with AIDS during the peak of the epidemic in the 1980s. In 1984, Hudson was diagnosed with the disease and publicly announced his condition a year later. Hudson, who kept his homosexuality secret while starring in a string of box-office hits with actors such as Elizabeth Taylor and Doris Day, flew to France in July 1985, during the last months of his life, to seek experimental treatment with the drug HPA-23 that was unavailable in the US. He collapsed at the Ritz hotel and was taken to the American hospital in the French capital. The commanding officer of the Percy military hospital in Clamart initially refused to admit Hudson because he was not a French citizen.

Following his announcement, Hudson became an advocate for AIDS research and education. He…