1950s Heartthrob Tab Hunter Has Died at Age 86 | THR News - video Dailymotion

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Tab Hunter, who starred as Joe Hardy in the 'Damn Yankees!' movie, had a No. 1 record and starred in two outlandish films with the drag queen Divine, passed away Sunday night.

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00:001950's Hollywood heartthrob Tab Hunter has passed away at age 86 from a blood clot

00:04that caused a heart attack. Hunter's partner of more than 30 years, Alan Glazer, told

00:08The Hollywood Reporter that his death was unexpected and sudden, while a Facebook

00:12page linked to the actor also announced his passing with a message that read,

00:16"'Sad news, Tab passed away tonight three days shy of his 87th birthday. Please honor his

00:21memory by saying a prayer on his behalf. He would have liked that.'" In 2005, Hunter, who

00:26played Joe Hardy in 1958's Damn Yankees, confirmed long-standing rumors about his

00:30homosexuality in his autobiography, Tab Hunter Confidential, The Making of a Movie Star.

00:34Hunter said he had been told by Glazer that someone was planning to write a book about him.

00:39"'I thought, look, get it from the horse's mouth and not from some horse's ass after I'm

00:44dead and gone,' he told THR Scott Feinberg in 2015. I didn't want someone putting a spin

00:49on my life.'" Born Arthur Andrew Kelm on July 11, 1931, in New York City, Hunter and his

00:54family moved to California when he was young, and he made his movie debut in 1950's

00:58The Lawless. In 1952, he appeared opposite Linda Darnell in the romantic South Sea

01:03adventure Island of Desire, and also worked on 1953's Gun Belt and 1954's Return to

01:08Treasure Island before signing a seven-year contract with Warner Brothers, where he was a

01:11top-grossing star from 1955 to 1959. Hunter's recording of young love for Dot Records in

01:171957 reached number one and stayed there for six weeks, knocking Elvis Presley's Too Much

01:21out of the top spot and prompting the creation of Warner Brothers Records. Hunter, who was in a

01:26long-term relationship with fellow actor Anthony Perkins, kept his sexual orientation a secret

01:31while being seen in public with the likes of Natalie Wood, Sophia Loren and Debbie Reynolds.

01:35"'I never mention my sexuality to Warner Brothers at all, and they never mention it to me,

01:40thank God,' Hunter told Feinberg." In a 2015 column written for THR, Hunter said that Luella Parsons

01:45of the Los Angeles Examiner and Hedda Hopper of the Los Angeles Times would never openly discuss my

01:50sexuality — they couldn't in those days — but both periodically made subtle references to it in their

01:56columns, wondering when I was going to settle down with a nice girl. And then, after the studio began

02:01pairing me with my dear friend Natalie Wood on faux dates, asking if I was the sort of guy she wanted to

02:06end up with. From 1960 to 61, Hunter starred for a season on NBC's The Tab Hunter Show, playing a

02:12bachelor cartoonist who lives in Malibu. He also starred in such films as 1959's That Kind of Woman,

02:171963's Operation Bikini, and 1964's Man With Two Faces. Hunter's teen idol image went out of fashion

02:23in the 60s as long hair and rebellion became popularized by actors such as Dennis Hopper

02:27and Jack Nicholson. Still, Hunter continued to appear in films and television shows such as

02:31Burke's Law, The Virginian, Cannon, Macmillan and Wife, The Six Million Dollar Man, Ellery Queen,

02:36The Love Boat, Benson and Masquerade. Skewing his surfer boy image, Hunter played Todd Tomorrow,

02:41a dashing owner of a drive-in opposite drag queen Divine in the John Waters black comedy

02:45Polyester in 1981. In 2015, a feature documentary about him, also titled Tab Hunter Confidential,

02:52was produced and released by Glazer.

02:53If I had come out during my acting career in the 1950s, I would not have had a career, Hunter said

02:58in a 2017 interview. Not much in Hollywood has changed in 60 years. I really didn't talk about my

03:03sexuality until I wrote my autobiography. My film career had long since been over by then.

03:08I believe one's sexuality is one's own business. I really don't go around discussing it.

03:12Call me old school on that topic.

03:14To read more on the life and career of Tab Hunter, head to THR.com.

03:17For The Hollywood Reporter News, I'm Lyndsey Rodrigues.

1950s Heartthrob Tab Hunter Has Died at Age 86 | THR News

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