When it was announced this week that beloved actor Tab Hunter had passed away on July 8th just a few days shy of his 87th birthday, every corner of Hollywood was understandably shaken. At the height of his fame in the ‘50s and ‘60s, Hunter looked like someone tailor-made for the pages of Teen Screen Magazine. With his perfectly-coiffed blonde hair and striking blue eyes, Hunter was the studio-era heartthrob who epitomized youthful American masculinity. A trailer for one of his earliest films captures his appeal best: “Six feet of rugged manhood who could stir the heart of every woman.”
With the charm, good looks, and “it” factor that many actors imitate but few actually embody, Hunter became one of the biggest stars of his time with roles in hits like Damn Yankees! and That Kind of Woman. It’s almost difficult to grasp just how beloved the young actor was at the height of his career, with recent teenybopper crazes like Shawn Mendes and Timothée Chalamet mere shadows of the frenzy that surrounded Hunter.
At face value, it’d be easy to dismiss Hunter as an easy-going California surfer boy who had it all. Fame, money, good looks, critical acclaim, box office success, and every young woman in American knocking down his door. But as would be revealed later in his life, this period that should’ve been the time of his life was all an elaborate facade orchestrated by everyone from studio executives to Hunter himself.
As a gay man navigating his way through Hollywood during this era, Hunter was advised by everyone from friends to industry insiders to lovers to keep his sexual orientation a secret. Through that lens, it’s hard not to look back on his career with a touch a sadness when you see him parading around Hollywood with various starlets or playing up his bachelor image each week on The Tab Hunter Show.
Similar to other closeted actors at the time like Rock Hudson or Spencer Tracy, a lot of effort was put into maintaining Hunter’s hunky leading-man (i.e. straight) image. When he was infamously caught at a “limp-wristed pajama party,” it was reported as an arrest for “disorderly conduct” that in all honesty likely aided his public persona as a rowdy boy-next-door. In the 2015 documentary about his life, Tab Hunter Confidential, Hunter recounts that after the incident his lawyer advised him “You gotta be a lot sharper than you are. You’re in Hollywood now, you wanna be an actor?”
But while Hunter didn’t officially come out publicly until 2005, that didn’t stop him from indulging in the basic pleasures members of the queer community were denied in this era. While studios set up highly-publicized romances with fellow Hollywood darlings like Natalie Wood and Debbie Reynolds (whom he would pretend to go on dates with), Hunter would romance fellow closeted actor Anthony Perkins and figure skater Ronnie Robertson behind closed doors. As Hunter started to grow more comfortable in his own skin, the roles stopped coming and his matinee idol status petered out by the time the ‘70s rolled around.
Which is probably how John Waters was able to snag Hunter for what might’ve turned out to be his most iconic role in his 1981 film Polyester alongside the drag queen Divine. Waters reportedly approached Hunter by asking “How would you feel about kissing a 350-pound transvestite?,” to which the ever-charming Hunter replied “Well, I’m sure I’ve kissed a hell of a lot worse!” Starring Divine as a suburban housewife whose life is falling apart and Hunter as her conniving lover, the dark comedy was such a success that the unlikely duo teamed up again for 1985’s absurdist western Lust In The Dust. It was during that film’s production that Hunter met Allan Glaser, a film producer that Hunter fell in love with and would go on to spend the rest of his life with.
In his later life, Hunter retreated from the spotlight completely to settle down on his farm in Santa Barbara, away from the bright lights and prying eyes of Hollywood. But even though his later years were spent mostly walking dogs on the beach with Glaser and taking care of his beloved horses, Hunter’s status as a gay icon only continued to grow. Particularly because while the sexual identities of other secretly-queer stars from Hollywood’s Golden Age were always revealed posthumously, Hunter managed to go through hell and come out the other end on his own terms.
Even though Hunter’s story has a happy ending, it’s worth noting the struggles he faced along the way that make his story especially resonant. From a strict Catholic upbringing that repressed his sexuality (“I was always taught, if there’s something bad just push it from your mind.”) to his position in an industry that did everything in its power to present him as something he wasn’t, Hunter stands as a testament to queer resilience. Especially to gay men (including myself) who found strength in his famously shy demeanor, slowly coming into their identities as they make their way through a world that isn’t always as welcoming as they wish it could be. The camp value of his Polyester performance also certainly helped.
Even in death, Hunter’s legend will only continue to grow. Just last month it was announced that Zachary Quinto and J.J. Abrams are collaborating with Glaser on a film called Tab & Tony, about the secret love affair between Hunter and Anthony Perkins. And with the documentary Tab Hunter Confidential available on Netflix, a new generation is discovering Hunter that might’ve never before been aware of his place in queer history.
But no matter how influential Hunter may have been to a generation of young gay men, Hunter’s instinct was to downplay it. After all, he was just a movie-obsessed kid from New York with a dream who hit it big and made a pretty okay life out of it. Whether he was being hounded about his fame or his sexuality, Hunter always reacted with the same air of casual modesty:
“This is my life. Big deal.”
