Tab Hunter
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Tab Hunter (born Arthur Andrew Kelm on July 11, 1931) is an American actor and singer.
Contents |
[edit] Biography
[edit] Early life
Hunter was born in New York City, New York to immigrants from Germany. His father, Charles Kelm, was Jewish and his mother, Gertrude Gelien, a Lutheran who later converted to Judaism. Within a few years of his birth, his parents divorced and his mother moved with her two sons to California. All three took her maiden name of Gelien. Hunter's older brother, Walter, a medic, was killed in Vietnam. As a teenager, Hunter was a figure skater, competing in both singles and pairs.
[edit] Career
Hunter was signed to a contract at Warner Brothers and re-named "Tab Hunter" by his first agent, Henry Willson. His good looks got him pegged as a teen idol. He landed a role in the film Island of Desire opposite Linda Darnell. Although he believed that he had a mediocre singing voice, he had a 1957 hit record with a cover of the Sonny James song, "Young Love," which was #1 for Hunter for over a month. Hunter's success led Warner Brothers to form Warner Bros Records.
Hunter was perhaps best known for his starring role in the 1958 musical movie, Damn Yankees. In the movie, Hunter plays Joe Hardy of Washington D.C's American League baseball club. (The movie had originally been a broadway show, but Hunter was only in the movie version. The show was based on the 1954 best-selling book, "The Year The Yankees Lost the Pennant" by Douglass Wallop).
While doing The Tab Hunter Show (1960-1961) on television, he was one of the finalists for the lead in the movie version of West Side Story, but he didn't get the part, because the producers felt he was "too old" at 29. On July 9, 1960, he was arrested by Glendale, California police for beating his dog. He was acquitted by a jury, but the incident dealt a severe blow to his squeaky-clean image.
For a short time in the late 1960s, Hunter settled in the south of France, where he acted in "spaghetti westerns". His career was revived in the 1980s, when he starred opposite transvestite actor Divine in John Waters' Polyester (1981) and Paul Bartel's Lust in the Dust (1985). He is particularly remembered by later audiences as Mr. Stewart, the substitue teacher in "Grease 2," when he sang "Reproduction." He also wrote and starred in Dark Horse (1992).
[edit] Personal life
In his autobiography, Tab Hunter Confidential: The Making of a Movie Star (ISBN 1-56512-466-9), he disclosed his homosexuality, confirming rumors that had circulated since the height of his fame; it became a best-seller. Hunter lives in Montecito, California, near Santa Barbara with his partner of 23 years, film producer Allan Glaser. He has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6320 Hollywood Blvd.
Hunter's homosexuality contrasted sharply with his image as a "ladies man." His agent planted stories in Teen and gossip magazines that Hunter was involved in many famous young starlets of the day, and, for a long time, Hunter was linked as Natalie Wood's "boyfriend." The expression bantered about amongst the Hollywood elite at the time was :"Natalie Wood, but Tab wouldn't."
His agent would go so far as to have Hunter appear at red carpet events and at night clubs with the starlet he was linked to. According to his E! True Hollywood story, this made Tab, who knew he was a homosexual at the time, extremely uncomfortable.
[edit] Filmography
- The Lawless (1950)
- Saturday Island (1952)
- Gun Belt (1953)
- The Steel Lady (1953)
- Return to Treasure Island (1954)
- Track of the Cat (1954)
- Battle Cry (1955)
- The Sea Chase (1955)
- The Burning Hills (1956)
- The Girl He Left Behind (1956)
- Lafayette Escadrille (1958)
- Gunman's Walk (1958)
- Damn Yankees (1958)
- They Came to Cordura (1959)
- That Kind of Woman (1959)
- The Pleasure of His Company (1961)
- The Golden Arrow (1962)
- Operation Bikini (1963)
- Man with Two Faces (1964)
- Ride the Wild Surf (1964)
- War-Gods of the Deep (1965)
- The Loved One (1965)
- Birds Do It (1966)
- The Fickle Finger of Fate (1967)
- Hostile Guns (1967)
- Vengeance Is My Forgiveness (1968)
- The Last Chance (1968)
- The Legion of No Return (1969)
- The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean (1972)
- Sweet Kill (1973)
- Timber Tramps (1975)
- Won Ton Ton, the Dog Who Saved Hollywood (1976)
- Polyester (1981)
- Pandemonium (1982)
- Grease 2 (1982)
- Lust in the Dust (1985)
- Grotesque (1988)
- Out of the Dark (1989)
- Dark Horse (1992) (also producer and writer)
- Wild Bill: Hollywood Maverick (1996) (documentary)
