3/30/2023 0 Comments Wiki tab hunter![]() ![]() Wellman-directed Ескадрилья Лафайєт (1958) as, yet again, a wholesome soldier, this time in World War I. Musically, Tab may have been overshadowed but he brought with him major star power and the film became a crowd pleaser. Out of it, however, came the most notable success of his film career top-billing as baseball fan Joe Hardy in the classic Faustian musical Damn Yankees (1958) opposite Gwen Verdon and Ray Walston, who recreated their devil-making Broadway roles. Like other fortunate celebrity-based singers such as Shelley Fabares and Paul Petersen, his musical reign was brief. He topped the charts for over a month with the single "Young Love" in 1957 and produced other "top 40" singles as well. At around this time, Hunter managed to parlay his boy-next-door film celebrity into a singing career. In the meantime, he was seldom out of his military fatigues on film, keeping his fans satisfied in such popular dramas as The Sea Chase (1955), The Burning Hills (1956) and The Girl He Left Behind (1956)-the last two opposite the equally popular Natalie Wood. To combat the destructive tactics, Tab was seen escorting a number of Hollywood's lovelies at premieres and parties. Thoroughly primed as one of Hollywood's top beefcake commodities, the tabloid magazines had a field day initiating an aggressive campaign to "out" Hunter as gay, which would have ruined him. Signed by Warner Bros., stardom was clinched a few years later with another WWII epic Battle Cry (1955), based on the Leon Uris novel, in which he again played a boyish soldier sharing torrid scenes with an older woman (this time Dorothy Malone, playing a love-starved Navy wife). His shirt remained off for a good portion of the film, which certainly did not go unnoticed by his ever-growing legion of female (and male) fans. It didn't seem to make a difference for he co-starred in his very next film, the British-made Saturday Island (1952) opposite a somewhat older (by ten years) Linda Darnell, which was set during WWII on a deserted, tropical South Seas isle. His only line in the movie was eventually cut upon release. With no previous experience Tab made his first, albeit minor, film debut in the racially trenchant drama The Lawless (1950) starring Gail Russell and Macdonald Carey. An introduction to famed agent Henry Willson had Tab signing on the dotted line and what emerged, along with a major career, was the stage moniker of "Tab Hunter." Willson was also responsible with pointing hopeful Roy Fitzgerald towards stardom under the pseudonym Rock Hudson. Hunter's fetching handsomeness and trim, athletic physique eventually steered the Californian toward the idea of acting. Returning home, his life-long passion for horseback riding led to a job with a riding academy. Leaving school and joining the Coast Guard at age fifteen (he lied about his age), he was eventually discharged when the age deception was revealed. His mother changed her sons' surnames to her maiden name, Gelien. Following his parents' divorce, Hunter grew up in California with his mother, older brother Walter, and maternal grandparents, Ida (Sonnenfleth) and John Henry Gelien. ![]() His father was Jewish and his mother was a German Catholic immigrant. Hunter was born Arthur Kelm on Jin New York City, to Gertrude (Gelien) and Charles Kelm. With blond, tanned, surfer-boy good looks, he was artificially groomed and nicknamed "The Sigh Guy" by the Hollywood studio system, yet managed to continue his career long after his "golden boy" prime. Dreamy Tab Hunter stood out in film history as one of the hottest teen idols of the 1950s era. ![]()
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