But their relationship was conducted in secret. Off-screen Hunter fell in love with ice skater Ronnie Robertson the ice-skating chiefs of the time warned Robertson to keep Hunter away from watching him compete. He put Hunter into movies where his clothes were either swimming trunks or military duds.
#TAD HUNTER TV#
“On TV shows Hunter was hailed ‘Hollywood’s most eligible bachelor.’ Hunter, as he said years later, was in an industry ‘where you are rewarded for being someone you are not.’”Įnter Henry Willson, the agent who had all the hunks on his books at the time, including Rock Hudson. He never made a move on Hunter, but he led him to Hollywood. There, at a stables where a young Hunter worked, an actor named Dick Clayton came one day. He revealed all at confession, was told how bad being gay was, and fled from the church.Īn early, pre-Hollywood love was horses the same love would sustain Hunter long after Hollywood’s lights had dimmed. His looks caused such a stir at school with girls he sought out empty classrooms to hide in. His story could be a story of today, the story of young gay kid eternal. He pushed what he was from his mind he didn’t want to be different. He heard the words “fairy” and “queer” as insults. Movies were Hunter’s escapism, or Art Gelien’s escapism as he was then known. He was raised, he recalled, in a not-happy home. Hunter was so anguished about his life of enforced silence, and by being a naturally private person-and where those two things intersect is a fascinating netherland-that it’s pretty amazing he did come out. Being openly gay today may not get you thrown off the production line as it did in the 1950s, but it may not get you the best window display.
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Hunter knew he was a product, just as the actors know they are products. In one interview after he came out, Hunter mused that “the boy next door label” Hollywood gave him, as it built his image as a classic fifties prettyboy heartthrob, was merely a selling label: “They grind it out like a sausage factory.”
#TAD HUNTER MOVIE#
It’s not 1950 any more, but it may as well be it’s just that the high-profile outings of stars like Ellen DeGeneres and Zachary Quinto ( soon to make a movie about Hunter’s closeted love affair with Anthony Perkins) fool us with a veneer of an entertainment industry that is more open and accepting. This closet, as actors like Noah Wyle and Portia de Rossi make clear in other interviews in the documentary, is still in existence. Watching the documentary is an object lesson in how the Hollywood closet operates, which Hunter embraced and was suffocated by. Glaser is thirty years Hunter’s junior, and the documentary sweetly documents their courtship which began when Glaser left a lucrative studio job to produce Lust in the Dust (1985), one of Hunter’s films he did opposite Divine (four years after John Waters’ Polyester). “He was athletic, more like a 60-year-old not an 86-year-old.” “This was sudden and unexpected,” Glaser added. “He said he couldn’t breathe, so I called 911, and we went to the hospital.” “We were walking home and he collapsed in my arms in our front yard,” Glaser said. Glaser said Hunter had died on Sunday as a result of a blood clot that caused cardiac arrest. Hunter’s death, at 86, was announced Monday by his partner Allan Glaser. When we do, we depend on our loyal, helpful readers to point out how we can do better.“Sharper” was, of course, a euphemism for careful which was a euphemism for being closeted and that was the way Hunter stayed until he finally came out in 2005 in his autobiography, upon which the documentary was based. However, despite our best efforts, we sometimes miss the mark. Our editors are instructed to fact check thoroughly, including finding at least three references for each fact. Our credibility is the turbo-charged engine of our success. Please submit feedback to Thanks for your time!ĭo you question the accuracy of a fact you just read? At Factinate, we’re dedicated to getting things right. Your suggestions can be as general or specific as you like, from “Life” to “Compact Cars and Trucks” to “A Subspecies of Capybara Called Hydrochoerus Isthmius.” We’ll get our writers on it because we want to create articles on the topics you’re interested in.
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