Tab Hunter

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Tab Hunter (born Arthur Andrew Kelm; July 11, 1931 – July 8, 2018) was an American actor, singer, film producer and author.

He appeared in over 40 films and was a well-known Hollywood star and heartthrob of the 1950s and 1960s, known for his blond, clean-cut good looks.

Early life

Arthur Andrew Kelm was born in Manhattan, New York City, the son of Gertrude (née Gelien) and Charles Kelm. Kelm's father was Jewish, and his mother was a Catholic German immigrant from Hamburg. He had an older brother, Walter. Kelm's father was reportedly abusive, and within a few years of his birth, his parents divorced. He was raised in California, living with his mother, his brother, and his maternal grandparents, John Henry and Ida (née Sonnenfleth) Gelien; the family resided in San Francisco, Long Beach and Los Angeles. His mother re-assumed her maiden surname, Gelien, and changed her sons' surnames as well. As a teenager, Arthur Gelien (as he was then known) was a figure skater, competing in both singles and pairs. Gelien was sent to Catholic school by his religious mother.

Gelien joined the United States Coast Guard at age fifteen, lying about his age to enlist. While in the Coast Guard, he gained the nickname "Hollywood" for his penchant for watching movies rather than going to bars while on liberty. When his superiors discovered his true age, they discharged him. Gelien met actor Dick Clayton socially; Clayton suggested that he become an actor.

Personal life

Hunter came out publicly as a gay man in his 2005 memoir. According to William L. Hamilton of The New York Times, detailed reports about Hunter's alleged romances with close friends Debbie Reynolds and Natalie Wood during his young adult years had strictly been the fodder of studio publicity departments. As Wood and Hunter embarked on a well-publicized but fictitious romance, insiders had developed their own headline for the item: "Natalie Wood and Tab Wouldn't". Regarding Hollywood's studio era, Hunter said, "[life] was difficult for me, because I was living two lives at that time. A private life of my own, which I never discussed, never talked about to anyone. And then my Hollywood life, which was just trying to learn my craft and succeed..." The star emphasized that the word "'gay' ... wasn't even around in those days, and if anyone ever confronted me with it, I'd just kinda freak out. I was in total denial. I was just not comfortable in that Hollywood scene, other than the work process." "There was a lot written about my sexuality, and the press was pretty darn cruel," the actor said, but what "moviegoers wanted to hold in their hearts were the boy-next-door marines, cowboys, and swoon-bait sweethearts I portrayed."

Hunter had a long-term relationship with actor Anthony Perkins after having met him at the Chateau Marmont during the filming of Friendly Persuasion in 1956. Their relationship spanned two to four years, and Hunter has said that they only broke up because of Perkins's movie studio, Paramount, and the studio system. However, he remembered Perkins as a "special part of my journey. He wanted to be a movie star more than anything. I wanted that too, but not with the same kind of drive he had. We were such opposites - but then maybe that was the attraction." He also had a relationship with champion figure skater Ronnie Robertson before settling down and marrying his partner/spouse of more than 35 years, film producer Allan Glaser.

Hunter was raised in his mother's Catholic faith. Except for a period in his youth, Hunter was a practicing Catholic for the rest of his life. When asked about his Jewish identity, due to his father and partner/spouse being Jewish, Hunter stated that he did not identify as Jewish. Hunter was an avid horse owner.

Hunter's brother Walter Gelien, who was killed in Vietnam on October 28, 1965, was survived by his wife and seven children.

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Career

Dick Clayton introduced Gelien to agent Henry Willson, who specialized in representing beefcake male stars such as Robert Wagner and Rock Hudson. Willson was the one who called him "Tab Hunter."

The Lawless (1950), Hunter's first film appearance was a minor part of a film noir. Hunter was a friend of character actor Paul Guilfoyle, who suggested him to director Stuart Heisler; Heisler was looking for someone unknown to play the lead in Island of Desire (1952) opposite Linda Darnell. Hunter and Darnell's film, which was essentially a two-hander, was a huge success.

In Gun Belt (1953), a Western manufactured by Edward Small, Hunter was a fan of George Montgomery in the Gun Belt (1953). Small used him again in a war film, The Steel Lady (1953), supporting Rod Cameron and as the protagonist in an adventure story, Return to Treasure Island (1954). He began performing on stage, appearing in a production of Our Town. Hunter was then offered and accepted a Warner Bros.

The Sea Chase (1955), one of Hunter's first films for Warner Bros., starred John Wayne and Lana Turner. It was a big success, but Hunter's role was modest. William A. Wellman, who directed Hunter to play Robert Mitchum's younger brother in Track of the Cat (1954), was seen by the rushes. It was a good hit, and Hunter began to pay more attention.

He made his breakthrough role in 2005's World War II drama Battle Cry, the year's third most financially successful film. His character has an affair with an older woman, but the girl is eventually married next door. It was based on a Leon Uris bestseller and became Warner Bros.' highest grossing film of the year, cementing Hunter's reputation as one of Hollywood's finest young romantic leads.

Hunter was jailed in 1950 for disorderly conduct, according to the tabloid magazine Confidential. The innuendo-laced article and a second one focusing on Rory Calhoun's prison records were the result of Henry Willson's divorce from the scandal rag in exchange for not revealing to the public the sexual orientation of his most popular client, Rock Hudson. Hunter's career had no effect on the study. In a nationwide poll sponsored by the Council of Motion Picture Organizations, he was named Most Promising New Personality a few months later. He received 62,000 valentines in 1956. Hunter, James Dean, and Natalie Wood were the last actors to be cast in Warner Bros.' exclusive studio deal, The Burning Hills (1956), directed by Heisler, and The Girl He Left Behind (1956), a service comedy. These films were also huge hits with audiences. Hunter and Wood intended a third teaming of Hunter and Wood, but Hunter turned down the third photograph, effectively ending Warners' attempt to make Hunter and Wood the William Powell and Myrna Loy of the 1950s. Hunter was Warner Bros.' most well-known male comedian from 1955 to 1959.

Hunter's debut in the debut episode of Playhouse 90 ("Forbidden Territory," 1956) written by Rod Serling and directed by John Frankenheimer received critical attention.

Hunter's acting career was at its high point. In a war film, Lafayette Escadrille (1958), William Wellman used him once more. He was borrowed by Columbia Pictures for a Western, Gunman's Walk (1958). "When Gunman's Walk premiered the following summer, it was one of my career's proudest moments," Hunter said. Hunter appeared in the film Damn Yankees (1958), in which he portrayed Joe Hardy of Washington, D.C.'s American League baseball team. The film had originally been a Broadway musical, but Hunter was the only one in the film version who had not appeared in the original cast. Douglass Wallop's best-selling 1954 book The Year the Yankees Lost the Pennant was based on his book The Year the Yankees Lost the Pennant. Hunter later said that the shooting was horrific because director George Abbott was only interested in recreating the stage version word for word. He appeared in They Came to Cordura (1959) (with Gary Cooper and Rita Hayworth) and That Kind of Woman (1959) (with Sophia Loren).

Hunter had a hit song "Young Love" in 1957, which was No. 1 in the United States. The Billboard Hot 100 chart has been at 1 for six weeks (seven weeks on the UK chart), and it has been one of the biggest hits of the Rock 'n' Roll period. The RIAA has awarded a gold disc to more than two million copies, and it has been rewarded with a gold disc.

Hunter's "Ninety-Nine Ways," his second hit single, peaked at No. 1, was a hit single. 11 in the United States and No. 1 in the No. 10 and No. In the United Kingdom, there are 5 in the country. His popularity prompted Jack L. Warner to insist that the actor's deal with the Warner Bros. studio was terminated by prohibiting Dot Records, the company's parent company, from releasing a follow-up album he had produced for them. Hunter's Warner Bros. Records were created specifically for him.

Hunter's inability to win Tony in the film version of West Side Story (1961) inspired him to act in a weekly television sitcom. Due to being on opposite The Ed Sullivan Show) and the Tab Hunter Show ran for one season (1960–61) of 32 episodes. It was a hit in the United Kingdom, where it was ranked as one of the year's most watched situation comedies. Richard Erdman, Jerome Cowan, and Reta Shaw were among the series's costars.

In The Pleasure of His Company (1961), Hunter appeared as Debbie Reynolds' love interest. He was in charge of a swashbuckler shot in Egypt, The Golden Arrow (1962) and was in charge of American International Pictures' Operation Bikini (1963).

He appeared on Broadway opposite Tallulah Bankhead in Tennessee Williams' The Milk Train Doesn't Stop Here Anymore in 1964.

Ride the Wild Surf (1964) was a surf film for Columbia followed by a film in the United Kingdom called Troubled Waters (1964). He stayed in England to take another picture for AIP, War Gods of the Deep (1965). He appeared in The Loved One (1965) and Birds Do It (1966), both in Hollywood. The Fickle Finger of Fate (1967) was produced by Richard Rush.

Hunter spent a short time in the late 1960s and 1970s in summer stock and dinner theater, including Bye Bye Birdie, The Tender Trap, Under the Yum Yum Yum Yum Tree, and West Side Story with some of the New York cast members, he landed in the south of France and appeared in several Italian films, including Vengeance Is My Forgiveness (1968), and Bridge over the Elbe (1969).

Hunter appeared in Sweet Kill (1973), the first film from director Curtis Hanson. He appeared in the hit film The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean (1972) with Paul Newman. He appeared in Won Ton Ton Ton Ton, the Dog That Saved Hollywood (1976) and Katie: Portrait of a Centerfold (1978). He appeared on Forever Fernwood, a spinoff of soap-like sitcom Mary Hartman, in 1977. He played George Shumway, the father of Mary Hartman (played by Louise Lasser).

Hunter's career was revived in the 1980s, when he appeared in John Waters' Polyester (1981) and Paul Bartel's Lust in the Dust (1985). He portrayed Mr. Stuart, the substitute teacher in Grease 2 (1982), who performed "Reproduction." Hunter appeared in Cameron's Closet in 1988.

Hunter appeared in the horse-themed family film Dark Horse (1992). Hunter, a long-serving horse owner, wrote the original story and co-produced the film with his life partner, Allan Glaser.

The Making of a Movie Star (2005), co-written with Eddie Muller, became a New York Times bestseller, as well as the paperback version in 2007. Hunter came out as gay in his book, confirming rumors that had circulated before his time. Several awards had been given to the book. On June 28, 2015, the New York Times' bestseller list made its way into the New York Times' top bestseller list for the third time. Jeffrey Schwarz was the film's producer and Allan Glaser produced it. At Paramount Pictures, Glaser, J. Abrams, and Zachary Quinto's Hunter feature film was in production as of June 2018. Doug Wright, a Pulitzer Prize-winning writer and singer, is assisting with the script.

On the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6320 Hollywood Blvd., Hunter is known for his contributions to the music industry. The Palm Springs Walk of Stars dedicated a Golden Palm Star to him in 2007.

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