Tab Hunter Docu Bares His Secret Life

In what might well turn out to be the most honest performance on his long film resume, Tab Hunter has agreed to star in a film documentary that will detail what it was like to live a lie. Hunter, a gay man, kept his private life hidden so he could be sold as a heterosexual matinee idol in the 1950s.

"Tab Hunter Confidential,” a documentary named after the 2005 autobiography in which Hunter first came clean, is being shopped for distribution. Hunter has agreed to provide a first-hand glimpse into what it was like to transform overnight from a stable boy to Hollywood contract player at Warner Bros., during a time when studios excelled in presenting a carefully choreographed image of stars to the public. 

Pic will be directed by Jeffrey Schwarz, whose docus include “Wrangler: Anatomy of an Icon”—about gay adult film star Jack Wrangler’s marriage to singer Margaret Whiting--and “Spine Tingler! The William Castle Story,” on the genre filmmaker. "Tab Hunter Confidential" will be produced by Allan Glaser and Neil Koenigsberg. Glaser is Hunter's long-time partner.

Koenigsberg said Hunter’s pledge to cooperate with the film came after interviews the actor and Glaser did with the director for “I Am Divine,” a docu Schwarz is helming about the cross-dressing star of the John Waters films. Hunter starred in (and Glaser produced) the Divine-starrer “Lust in the Dust.”  

Born with the name Arthur Gelien, Hunter was dubbed Tab Hunter by his agent, Henry Willson. Soon, he had a hit record in “Young Love,” was the star of films like “Damn Yankees,” and graced magazine covers and gossip columns that had him romancing young beauties. Hunter didn’t dare reveal the truth, or relationships with the likes of closeted actor Anthony Perkins.

“This will be as frank as Tab’s book,” said Koenigsberg. “While he and Tony Perkins were lovers, they were on the covers of magazines that asked which of them would get married first. Has it changed that much in Hollywood? If a virile old fashioned movie star came along like Tab, how would the studios, the financiers, and the public respond to the idea he might be gay? Would that star not have to stay in the closet, like Tab and Rock Hudson?”

We agree there are exceptions, notably Neil Patrick Harris, the openly gay actor who plays a rambunctious hetero bachelor in the top-rated CBS sitcom “How I Met Your Mother.” 

“You still think of Neil as the child actor, cute and adorable, but with Tab, it was all about selling flesh,” he said. “The film will also explore Tab’s relationship with Henry Willson, this manager who had a stable of stars he exploited. Tab talks about the studio machine, how the publicists and the execs would lock the door and say, `There are rumors.’ They were basically told who to romance, and when Rock Hudson was told to get married, he did. Tab has plenty of stories about the old studio system, about being under contract, and how they swept everything under the rug.”

Koenigsberg said that Hunter had to deal with threats of blackmail on occasion.

Maybe things are different. When David Letterman allegedly was faced with a shake down for his penchant for bedding "Late Show" staffers, Letterman came clean on his show, and pressed charges. His ratings are up, but then again, those staffers were female.