"One-time Hollywood colleagues, President Ronald Reagan and first lady Nancy Reagan invited Hudson to a White House state dinner in May 1984. Hudson found out he had AIDS a month later, a diagnosis he kept secret from all but a few friends for more than a year. <a href=""http://articles.latimes.com/1985-09-20/news/mn-6330_1_aids-project"" target=""_blank"">Ronald Reagan, who called Hudson while he was hospitalized, didn't refer to AIDS publicly</a> until shortly before the star's death in 1985; he didn't give <a href=""http://www.nytimes.com/1987/06/01/us/reagan-urges-wide-aids-testing-but-does-not-call-for-compulsion.html"" target=""_blank"">a formal speech on the health crisis until May 1987</a>."