'Damn Yankees!' star Tab Hunter dead at 86
- by Winston Welch
- in Culture&Arts
- — Jul 10, 2018
Actor, singer and author Tab Hunter, a teen heartthrob of the 1950s and '60s, died Sunday night at Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital, just days before his 87th Birthday.
Hunter also starred in "Battle Cry" (1955), "The Girl He Left Behind" (1956), "Burning Hill " s (1956) and two movies with drag queen icon Divine, "Polyester" (1981) and "Lust in the Dust" (1985).
But in his memoir, "Tab Hunter Confidential: The Making of a Movie Star", Hunter recounted the stresses of being a love object to millions of young women when he was, in reality, a gay man.
Hunter had a 1957 hit record with the song "Young Love", which was No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart for six weeks (seven weeks on the UK Chart) and became one of the larger hits of the Rock "n" Roll era. "He was athletic, more like a 60-year-old not an 86-year-old".
During his most prominent years in Hollywood, despite the fact that being gay at the time was very taboo, Tab Hunter had relationships with Psycho star Anthony Perkins and figure skater Robbie Robertson.
Born Arthur Andrew Kelm, he was given the name Tab Hunter by his agent, according to legend. Glaser also shared with THR that Hunter's passing was "unexpected and sudden". He also went on to star in his own sitcom, The Tab Hunter Show, in the 1960s and landed leading roles in The Pleasure of His Company, The Golden Arrow and Operation Bikini. At the age of 15, he entered the Coast Guard after lying about his age. His vocal abilities and film success led to his being cast as Joe Hardy in Damn Yankees; Mr. Hunter is the only principal player in the film that did not originate his role in the original Broadway cast.
Writing the book was hard, he told The Associated Press in 2005, "because I'm a really private person". Her official accounts have joined Matthew Bourne, Zachary Quinto and many others in heartfelt tributes to Tab.
"We were walking home and he collapsed in my arms in our front yard", Glaser said.
In 2015 we interviewed the director of a documentary film about Tab's life as a Hollywood star, we were fortunate enough to speak to the man himself who gave the following piece of coming out advice.
"I thought, 'Look, get it from the horse's mouth and not from some horse's ass after I'm dead and gone, '" he told the Reporter in 2015. "They'd say, 'Can I have your autograph?' and he'd sign Troy Donahue's name", Stevenson said.
