Tab Hunter

Born Arthur Gelien on 11 July 1931 in New York City, the blond-haired, blue-eyed singer and actor first drew notice in 1948 while employed at a stable. Talent scout Dick Clayton spotted him there and arranged an introduction to Harry Wilson, the Hollywood agent who also represented Rock Hudson. Wilson remarked, “We’ve got to tab you something,” and promptly gave him the name Tab Hunter. His first screen appearance came in the 1950 film The Lawless, followed two years later by a co-starring role opposite Linda Darnell in the British production Saturday Island, released in the United States as Island Of Desire.

In late 1956 Randy Wood, president of Dot Records, telephoned to invite Hunter to cut “Young Love,” a ballad recently recorded by country artist Sonny James. Both renditions entered the American charts, with Hunter reaching number 1 and James stopping at number 2; in Britain Hunter also claimed the top spot while James peaked at number 11. Remaining with Dot, he scored another success in 1957 with the brisker “99 Ways,” which fell just short of the U.S. Top 10 yet climbed into the British Top 5. The following year he joined Gwen Verdon and Ray Walston in the screen adaptation of the Broadway musical Damn Yankees.

Because Warner Brothers held him to a film contract, the studio objected to his outside recording work and launched its own label in 1958; Hunter signed with the new imprint and enjoyed moderate hits. In 1960 he headlined his own weekly series on NBC. Acting assignments continued, among them a 1964 appearance opposite Fabian in the beach-party film Ride The Wild Surf. During the 1980s he worked again with Divine in John Waters’s Polyester and Lust In The Dust, and he also appeared in Grease 2. In the late 1980s Hunter relocated to Mexico, where he began writing and established a production company whose first notable release was the 1992 family feature Dark Horse.