The actor, who died on Sunday at the age of 86, kept his sexualy a secret at a time when the dtry wasn’t ready for an openly gay heartthrob
Contents:
TAB HUNTER: HOW HOLLYWOOD'S BOY NEXT DOOR BEME A GAY IN
* the boy next door is gay *
A blon, square-jawed and wholome symbol of mid-century Amerin masculy, Hunter, born 1931 as Arthur Gelien, was gay but kept his sexualy a secret for the bulk of his reer, until g out his 2005 tobgraphy Tab Hunter Confintial: The Makg of a Movie Star.
”A product of an era that was famoly hospable to gay entertaers, Hunter kept up secret romanc wh film star Anthony Perks and figure skater Ronnie Robertson as movie studs trotted him out alongsi screen sirens Natalie Wood and Debbie Reynolds, wh whom he’d go on pretend dat.
But not before an article Confintial, the bimonthly gossip rag om which Hunter’s memoir borrows s name, reported on the then 24-year-old’s volvement an arrt at a “limp-wristed pajama party” where other gay mal were attendance. The article, Hunter felt, suated he’d been party to a “gay y”, a mor that might have torpedoed his reer given the ntemporaneo moral panic around homosexualy and the “lavenr sre” that led to mass firgs.