Tab Hunter Opens Up About Life As a Closeted Gay Star Durg Hollywood’s Goln Age – The Hollywood Reporter

*BEAR-MAGAZINE.COM* WAS RORY CALHOUN GAY

Summary of Event</tle><p>In 1955, film star Rory Calhoun, who had been born Los Angel 1922, was at the peak of his reer. His agent was Henry Willson, who also reprented film star Rock Hudson, whose reer was risg faster than that of Calhoun. Willson found out that <x-term><primary><i>Confintial</i> magaze</primary></x-term> <i>Confintial</i> magaze was on the verge of publishg an article claimg that Hudson was gay. Willson, who was himself also gay, approached the magaze to attempt to make a al: If <i>Confintial</i> would ncel the Hudson story, he would give edors rmatn about Calhoun’s juvenile crimal past. The al went through. The ver story, “Movie Star Rory Calhoun: But for the Grace of God, Still a Convict,” ran the May, 1955, issue of <i>Confintial</i> wh a photograph of film-star Calhoun featured next to a smaller mug shot of Calhoun om 1940, when he had been arrted as a teenager for send-gree burglary. <x-term><primary>[kw]Actor Rory Calhoun’s Crimal Past, Sndal Magaze Reveals (May, 1955)</primary></x-term> <x-term><primary>[kw]Calhoun’s Crimal Past, Sndal Magaze Reveals Actor Rory (May, 1955)</primary></x-term> <x-term role=personag><primary>Calhoun, Rory</primary></x-term> <x-term role=personag><primary>Willson, Henry</primary></x-term> <x-term role=personag><primary>Hudson, Rock</primary></x-term> <x-term><primary><i>Confintial</i> magaze</primary></x-term> <x-term role=personag><primary>Calhoun, Rory</primary></x-term> <x-term role=personag><primary>Willson, Henry</primary></x-term> <x-term role=personag><primary>Hudson, Rock</primary></x-term> <x-term><primary><i>Confintial</i> magaze</primary></x-term> <x-term><primary>[g]Uned Stat;May, 1955: Sndal Magaze Reveals Actor Rory Calhoun’s Crimal Past[00970]</primary></x-term> <x-term><primary>[c]Publishg and journalism;May, 1955: Sndal Magaze Reveals Actor Rory Calhoun’s Crimal Past[00970]</primary></x-term> <x-term><primary>[c]Hollywood;May, 1955: Sndal Magaze Reveals Actor Rory Calhoun’s Crimal Past[00970]</primary></x-term> <x-term><primary>[c]Public morals;May, 1955: Sndal Magaze Reveals Actor Rory Calhoun’s Crimal Past[00970]</primary></x-term></p><fig fig-type=athetic posn=float><p>Rory Calhoun.<p></p><permissns><pyright-statement>(Hulton Archive/Getty Imag)</pyright-statement></permissns></fig><p>Calhoun had begun appearg as an uncreded actor films durg the early 1940’s, wh the backg of actor Alan Ladd and agent Sue Carol (who had also disvered Ladd). By the late 1940’s, Calhoun was starrg low-budget films and, wh <i>Massacre River</i> (1949), began workg Wterns, the genre for which he would bee bt known. Durg the 1950’s, he add romantic edi such as <i>How to Marry a Millnaire</i> (1953) and <i>A’t Misbehav’</i> (1955) to his creds. Then his past ught up wh him.<p><span id=ezoic-pub-ad-placeholr-121 class=ezoic-adpicker-ad></span>The Calhoun exposé, wrten by <x-term role=personag><primary>Rhmore, Howard</primary> </x-term>Howard Rhmore, scrib the actor as beg “Tall for his age wh heavy shoulrs and a wicked punch, a kid of 19 wh an Irish gr and an Irish name.” It ntu, “You know him as Rory Calhoun!” The five-page article shows that his arrt rerd as a teenager clud Calhoun’s e of several nam (Timothy Durg, Francis Norton, Francis McCown, and Jack Rae). His rerd shows that he had been juvenile urt three tim at the age of thirteen for burglary and posssn of firearms. His rap sheet clus r theft at the age of fourteen, robbery at fifteen, and transportg a stolen r across a state le, a feral charge, at seventeen. He ped several tim om rceratn and was emed rrigible by thori. He was sentenced to a juvenile facily, where he was to stay until he was twenty-one years old; he was then sent to San Quent as an adult to serve twenty years on the feral charge.<p><i>Confintial</i>’s real target had been Rock Hudson. The magaze had even offered a bounty for evince that Hudson was gay. Hudson had been disvered by Willson, who was well known for turng good-lookg young men to beefke film stars, matee idols, and sex symbols. He also reprented Troy Donahue, Tab Hunter, John Saxon, Robert Wagner, Guy Madison, and other leadg men of the 1950’s. Willson had a talent for g the fan prs to promote his clients. When seemed that Hudson’s homosexualy was about to surface, Willson arranged a <x-term><primary>Marriage;Rock Hudson[Hudson]</primary></x-term> marriage <x-term><primary>Marriage;and homosexualy[homosexualy]</primary></x-term> between Hudson and Phyllis Gat, Willson’s secretary. At this time Hollywood, accatns of homosexualy would doom any leadg man’s actg reer.<span id=ezoic-pub-ad-placeholr-130 class=ezoic-adpicker-ad></span><p>Calhoun’s longt time behd bars, more than three years, had been at El Reno Feral Reformatory Oklahoma. “At El Reno,” Rhmore wr his exposé, Calhoun had “slugged a gangster [and] sent him to the hospal.” Calhoun, “the ’agator,’ was sent to the ’hole’ for eight days. From here he went to the ’lockup’—no smok and half ratns for 42 days. . . . And then he met Father <x-term role=personag><primary>Kanaly, John J.</primary> </x-term>John J. Kanaly.”<p>John J. Kanaly, the reformatory prit, told Calhoun that he was not as tough as he looked, but he ved the neteen-year-old prisoner to acpany him to the boxg rg the reformatory’s gymnasium. “That day Rory learned there was a man who uld lick him,” the article ntu. “He also learned enough about boxg to w 10 out of 12 bouts agast profsnal fighters who were servg time El Reno, bouts staged by the prit.”<p>Eventually, the prit helped turn Calhoun’s outlook around. The future actor was facg a longer sentence at San Quent for prev nvictns once he pleted his juvenile sentence, but California urt officials eventually dropped the charg. Acrdg to the article, Calhoun felt that his own prayers, spired by the prit, had somethg to do wh the charg beg dropped. At the age of twenty-one, Calhoun walked out of prison. He went to work at an ironworks plant, worked at a loggg mp, and then beme a fort ranger after he was offered the job the head ranger. Calhoun had even told the ranger about his crimal past. A few years later, while horseback ridg a Los Angel park, he beme acquated wh Ladd—and the rt was history.<p>As turned out, the Calhoun exposé proved not to be greatly damagg to the young actor-to-be. Rather, the article told the story of a youth who had beiend the wrong people and ma bad choic but who neverthels managed to turn his life around. The <i>Confintial</i> article clud a photo of Calhoun wh his wife, actor La Baron, whom he married 1948. The article reveals that Calhoun had nfid his past to Baron before their weddg, and then quoted her as sayg, “You were a bad boy, weren’t you? . . . When do we get married?” The magaze even tracked down Father Kanaly, who is quoted as well. <disp-quote></disp-quote><span id=ezoic-pub-ad-placeholr-122 class=ezoic-adpicker-ad></span><p>Tim Durg [Calhoun’s name as a prisoner] was good wh his fists, all right. But, more important, goodns emanated om him. I had fah Tim—Rory Calhoun, that is. His transformatn to a rpected place the world is a great personal satisfactn to me.<p><p>Calhoun divorced Baron 1970. In 1971, he married Sue Rhos, wh whom he remaed until his ath 1999, at the age of seventy-six.</sec><sec sec-type=bodytext xed=te><tle>Impact .