Hunter tab

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Tab Hunter (2008)
Tab Hunter (2008)
Chart positions
Explanation of the data
Singles
Young Love
  US 1Template: Infobox chart placements / maintenance / NR1 link 01/12/1957 (21 weeks)
  UK 1Template: Infobox chart placements / maintenance / NR1 link 02/14/1957 (18 weeks)
  DE 29 05/01/1957 (4 weeks)
Red Sails in the Sunset
  US 57 02/02/1957 (9 weeks)
Ninety-nine ways
  UK 5 04/18/1957 (12 weeks)
  US 11 03/23/1957 (14 weeks)
Jealous Heart
  US 62 10/20/1958 (10 weeks)
(I'll Be with You in) Apple Blossom Time
  US 31 02/02/1959 (11 weeks)
There's No Fool Like a Young Fool
  US 68 04/27/1959 (5 weeks)

Tab Hunter (* 11 July 1931 in New York as Arthur Andrew Kelm , later Arthur Andrew Gelien , † 8. July 2018 in Santa Barbara , California ) was an American actor , pop singer and author . He reached the peak of his career in the 1950s as a teenage idol.

Life

From Art Kelm to Tab Hunter

Tab Hunter was born in New York City under the name Arthur Andrew Kelm (called Art) as the son of German immigrants. His father was a thug, which is why mother Gertrude Gelien divorced during Hunter's childhood. The boy moved to California with his mother and was given his mother's maiden name, Gelien. As a teenager, he was a figure skater . At the age of 15 he went to the coast guard, for which he had to make himself a little older on papers. At the age of 18 he received his first small film role without any acting training. When he got into the movie business, his agent Henry Willson gave him his new name, Tab Hunter . When asked when he got used to his new stage name, Hunter once replied, “I think that was when I received a check that said: To be paid to Tab Hunter. I thought: Wow, $ 250! "

Star of Warner Brothers

His first major role was played by Hunter in 1952 in the island of promise ( Iceland of Desire , also Saturday Iceland ) as a partner of Linda Darnell . In the film, which is set on a South Sea island, the blond, well-trained Hunter can be seen shirtless in most of the scenes. Thanks to his good looks, he quickly established himself as a teenage idol on the big screen and on television. He finally became famous in 1955 through major roles in the war films Urlaub bis zum Wecken and Der Seefuchs , in the latter of which he played alongside John Wayne and Lana Turner . He then became a film partner of well-known actresses such as Natalie Wood on Playboy - March, March! (1956) and Sophia Loren in Sidney Lumet's tragic comedy Something from Woman! (1959). Between 1955 and 1959, Hunter was consistently the most commercially successful Warner Brothers star at the box office .

With a differentiated villain role in the western duel at dawn from 1958, Hunter tried to break away from his image as a friendly “boy next door”. Also in 1958 was the film adaptation of the same name by Damn Yankees! Directed by Stanley Donen, with an Oscar and a Golden Globe nomination, a huge success in the US; With the exception of Hunter, the entire cast of the film had already appeared on Broadway in the musical by Jerry Ross and Richard Adler . The play tells of a baseball fan (Hunter) who makes a pact with the devil so that his team wins. Hunter also played the title role in a television broadcast of the ice skating musical Hans Brinker, or the Silver Skates, in 1958 .

Music career

In 1956 he recorded his first record, the cover version of a song by Ric Cartey , Young Love , which country star Sonny James had already released. Although he was actually just an amateur singer, he landed a number one hit in the US and UK in 1957 ; James, on the other hand, had to settle for 2nd place (USA) and 11th place (UK). All in all, Young Love in the tab hunter version stayed at number 1 in the American charts for six weeks. The follow-up single Ninety-Nine Ways came in at number 11 (USA) and number 5 (UK). More singles made it into the US charts, but did not appear in the top ten. The success of Tab Hunter's records prompted Warner Brothers to set up their own record label, Warner Bros. Records .

Drop in popularity and second career

Tab Hunter bought himself out of his contract with Warner Brothers in order to be able to choose his roles without the studio's influence. Between 1960 and 1961, he had his own half-hour sitcom , The Tab Hunter Show , on television. At the time, he was also selected to star in West Side Story , but the producers thought he was too old. In July 1960, Glendale police arrested him for allegedly beating his dog. The ad came from a neighbor who was angry with Hunter for not accepting her invitation to dinner. The jury acquitted him, but his clean image was damaged by the incident.

In the USA his popularity declined noticeably after the departure of Warner Brothers and he was soon only receiving offers for second-rate productions. He then worked increasingly as a theater actor. In the second half of the 1960s, Hunter temporarily settled in the south of France and played in several Spaghettiwestern . In the 1970s, he was increasingly in front of the camera in individual episodes of television series such as The People of Shiloh Ranch , Cannon , Love Boat or Hawaii Five-Zero . In addition to acting, Hunter also worked as a horse breeder on his ranch. Hunter described horses as a lifelong passion; he had already worked as a stable boy as a teenager.

His career was revived in the 1980s when he starred in John Waters ' Polyester (1981) and Paul Bartel's Vultures, Money and Golden Eggs ( Lust in the Dust , 1985) with Divine . In these comedies he parodied his image as a heartthrob. Tab Hunter also sang the Polyester theme song , written by Blondie by Debbie Harry and Chris Stein . He was also seen in 1982 as a biology teacher Mr. Stuart in the musical film Grease 2 , in which he sang the song Reproduction . In 1992 he wrote and produced the horse film Jet, the Black Stallion (Dark Horse) , in which he also played a supporting role. Then he retired from the film business. For his cinema work, Hunter received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame .

The coming out

In October 2005, Hunter published his autobiography Tab Hunter Confidential: The Making of a Movie Star . He came out as homosexual in it , confirming rumors that have been circulating since the height of his career. In the book, he also tells of a two-year relationship with Anthony Perkins . He also had a relationship with figure skater Ronald Robertson and affairs with Rudolf Nureyev and Helmut Berger .

Hunter's homosexuality was in sharp contrast to his 1950s image as a " womanizer ". As Hunter was at the height of his career, his agency circulated stories in youth magazines and tabloids associating him with many of the young starlets of his day. For some time he was considered the "boyfriend" of his multiple film partner Natalie Wood . Hunter was always in danger of being outed by the mighty Hollywood gossip papers. In 1955, Confidential magazine ran a scandal report suggesting Hunter's arrest for attending a gay party. Hunter's former agent Willson had revealed the story to Confidential , who in return decided not to come out to Willson's client, Rock Hudson . The publication ended up having little effect on Hunter's career.

In 2015 appeared under the title Tab Hunter Confidential , a film documentary by Jeffrey Schwarz about Hunters life, in both the over 80-year-old actor and former colleagues and companions such as Debbie Reynolds , Robert Wagner , George Takei and Clint Eastwood to Word come. The film started with good reviews in the USA. In June 2018, JJ Abrams and Zachary Quinto announced that they were planning to film his relationship with Anthony Perkins based on Hunter's autobiography.

Tab Hunter last lived with the film producer Allan Glaser, who had been his partner since 1983, in Montecito (California). Hunter died unexpectedly of a blood clot- induced cardiac arrest in July 2018, three days before his 87th birthday .

Filmography (selection)

Discography

Tab Hunter with former film partner Debbie Reynolds (2016)

Albums

  • 1958: Tab Hunter
  • 1958: When I Fall in Love
  • 1960: RFD Tab Hunter
  • 1961: Young Love
  • 2001: The Very Best of Tab Hunter (compilation)
  • 2005: Young Love - The Best of Tab Hunter (Compilation)

Soundtracks

with songs by Tab Hunter:

  • 1958: Hans Brinker, or the Silver Skates
  • 1958: Damn Yankees
  • 1981: polyester
  • 1982: Grease 2

literature

Web links

Commons : Tab Hunter  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Charts UK Charts US
  2. ↑ US singles: Joel Whitburn's Top Pop Singles 1955-2006. Billboard Books, New York 2007, ISBN 0-89820-172-1 .
  3. ↑ Article in the New York Times
  4. ↑ “Probably when I got a check that said 'Pay to the order of Tab Hunter.' I thought, wow, $ 250. " quoted in CBS News , p. u.
  5. ↑ Tab Hunter at the Hollywood Reporter
  6. ^ Warner Brothers Records Story. Retrieved February 27, 2018 .
  7. ^ Portrait in the Los Angeles Times
  8. ^ Tab Hunter Confidential: The Making of a Movie Star, pp. 227-235
  9. ↑ Interview in the Los Angeles Times
  10. ↑ Tab Hunter's star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame
  11. ↑ Reviewed by Louis Bayard: The Celluloid Closet . October 9, 2005, ISSN  0190-8286 ( washingtonpost.com [accessed February 27, 2018]).
  12. ^ Tab Hunter - Hollywood Star Walk - Los Angeles Times. Retrieved February 27, 2018 .
  13. ^ Tab Hunter on (Almost) Being Outed in 1955: "I Thought My Career Was Over" (Guest Column) . In: The Hollywood Reporter . ( hollywoodreporter.com [accessed February 27, 2018]).
  14. ↑ "Tab Hunter Confidential"
  15. ^ Tab Hunter, Anthony Perkins Forbidden Love Drama in the Works From JJ Abrams, Zachary Quinto (Exclusive) . In: The Hollywood Reporter . ( hollywoodreporter.com [accessed July 9, 2018]).
  16. ↑ Lisa Respers France and Stella Chan CNN: Tab Hunter, iconic 1950s actor, dead at 86. Retrieved March 11, 2019 .
personal data
SURNAME Hunter, tab
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Kelm, Arthur Andrew (maiden name); Gelien, Arthur Andrew (last name after parents divorce); Gelien, Kind (surname after parents divorced)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American actor and pop singer
DATE OF BIRTH July 11, 1931
PLACE OF BIRTH New York , United States
DATE OF DEATH July 8, 2018
Place of death Santa Barbara , California , United States