July 13

ACTOR TAB HUNTER R.I.P.

Tab Hunter on a studio-orchestrated "date"

with Natalie Wood (1955)

While veteran actor Tab Hunter and Alan Glaser, his partner of 35 years, were walking back to their home in Montecito, CA, last weekend, Mr. Hunter collapsed and later died from deep vein thrombosis, just three days shy of his 87th birthday. While Hunter’s death was unexpected, some decades earlier he had suffered a heart attack and a subsequent stroke.

Tab Hunter in 1967:

Even though your blogger is not old enough to have experienced Hunter’s heyday of frenzied fame during the 1950s, I knew who he was when I spotted him in the dining room of the Red Fox Tavern in Middleburg, VA, near where I live. In the late 1970s Tab Hunter had relocated to a northern Virginia horse farm on the Shenandoah River, and word had gotten around that he was residing in the area to pursue his life-long love of horses – fox hunting and show jumping, specifically. He regularly rode with the local hunt clubs and competed at the venerable Upperville horse show every June. Although fellow patrons allowed him and his companions to dine in peace that night, there was buzz among the staff that a celebrity was on site. Mr. Hunter was in his 50s at the time, and he was so handsome it hurt. Exactly my kind of good looking, and I can still see him in that gray turtleneck, seated near the crackling fireplace.

My mother remembers the hysteria* of the bobby-soxers who mobbed his personal appearances in the 50s, but I remembered him from his film career revival in Polyester (1981), a John Waters cult film (!). I also knew that Tab Hunter was gay. Although I never met him, we had a gay friend in common, a gentleman who still trades in equestrian estates at a Middleburg real estate office.

*In February 1956 he received 62,000 valentines. Not a typo.

Long known to industry insiders as homosexual, Tab Hunter publicly outed himself in 2005 with the publication of his autobiography, Tab Hunter Confidential: The Making of a Movie Star. I had to sort through several boxes of books to locate my copy, and I just re-read it. It triggered some specific memories. Some decades ago I was visiting a waterfall and gardens high above Ocho Rios, Jamaica, when a guide mentioned that during the 1950s a Hollywood cast had stayed at the Shaw Park property’s former great house that had been turned into a luxury hotel (subsequently burned to the ground). By revisiting the book, it was revealed that the film was Island of Desire (1952), starring Tab Hunter and Linda Darnell. The producers had wanted a young unknown for the male lead, and when Hunter tested on a Saturday, he was asked to remove his shirt. On the following Monday the incipient leading man was procuring a passport to shoot the film in Jamaica, where Hunter celebrated his 20th birthday.

Hunter's lust for automotive bling led him to custom order a 1957 black Mercedes 220s convertible. He picked it up in Germany, even though the purchase broke the bank. His previous automotive thrills had been Thunderbirds. Several of them.

Highlights of his film career (40+ movies) were Battle Cry (1955) and Damn Yankees (1958), but Hunter also had a stage career. By middle age he kept bread on the table by touring the country in dinner theater productions, which he enjoyed. As well, he had a successful singing career and a period of active television work. Fortunately, there were other interests that took his mind off his flagging movie career. His first love was horses, and he rode his own horse in many of the westerns on his film roster. As a teenager he was a competitive figure skater (singles and pairs), and he later played the lead in Hans Brinker and the Silver Skates, a 1958 Hallmark Hall of Fame live television musical (60 million viewers upon original broadcast) directed by Sidney Lumet. In his autobiography, Hunter joked that there was little competition for the role of Hans Brinker, since it required the trifecta of live acting, singing and professional level figure skating.

At the time of Tab Hunter’s death a feature film, titled Tab and Tony, is in development at Paramount Pictures. To be produced by Zachary Quinto, J. J. Abrams and Hunter’s partner Alan Glaser, the film will explore the private relationship between Tab Hunter and fellow actor Anthony Perkins.

The Loved One (1965) is one of my favorite cult films. It's a send-up of the funeral industry and hilarious from beginning to end. Tab Hunter had a cameo role as a cemetery grounds tour guide: