Explore popular quotes and sayings by an American actor Tab Hunter.
Last updated on November 16, 2024.
Tab Hunter, was an American actor, singer, film producer, and author. Known for his blond, clean-cut good looks, Hunter starred in more than forty films. He was a Hollywood heartthrob of the 1950s and 1960s appearing on the covers of hundreds of film magazines. Hunter's film credits include Battle Cry (1955), The Girl He Left Behind (1956), Gunman's Walk (1958), and Damn Yankees (1958). Hunter also had a music career in the late 1950s; in 1957, he released a number one hit single "Young Love". Hunter's 2005 autobiography, Tab Hunter Confidential: The Making of a Movie Star, was a New York Times bestseller.
My sexuality is only a thread of the tapestry of my life.
Hollywood cools, and when it cools you have to go to where the work is. I ran off to Italy to do spaghetti westerns.
I don't care about being in the public eye.
I'm a very private person who grew up with a strict German mother who believed 'loose lips sink ships.'
I'd work for John Waters again, because he's so off the wall.
People place such importance on the external. It's disgusting.
I love singing. You know, my mother always used to encourage me, 'Sing, sing,' and I was in a choir in church, yes.
Unless you're of a certain age, you may not know my name, but you can Google it - I was a pretty big movie star in the 1950s. Oh, and another thing: I was - am - gay.
My nickname, when I was 15 years old in the Coast Guard, they called me 'Hollywood' because I went to the movies all the time. It was such great escapism. That's why I ran away from home.
People believe what they want to believe.
A lot has been written about Tony Perkins and myself and I figured, Let's get it straight. I had a relationship with Tony for two to three years, but those are only threads in the tapestry of my whole life.
John Wayne treated me fine, but that macho stuff turns me off. It's not real.
I lived in those old movie houses as a kid. I just loved them. What total escapism for someone.
I never mentioned my sexuality to Warner Bros. at all, and they never mentioned it to me, thank God.
I lived a very don't-ask, don't-tell life.
There would be no Tab Hunter if it were not for Dick Clayton.
I did Polyester, and I don't regret one minute of it. It was wonderful.
I said, God, the press and people, they just really hate me and I'm really trying. Geraldine Page said, Listen to this, Tab. If people don't like you, that's their bad taste.
Without a doubt, my sexuality was something that I just never discussed, especially in the 1950s.
I learned denial from my mother. I just never confronted things and if anybody did, I just would go crazy.
Divine was like a 400-pound beached whale. He was one of my favorite leading ladies, I've got to tell you. He was really terrific.
I turned into a workaholic to the point of where my health was in jeopardy.
I'm very proud of 'That Kind of Woman' with Sophia Loren, directed by Sidney Lumet, and I loved doing 'Gunman's Walk' because I finally got to play a bad guy.
People think that because you might have a feeling toward another male that you don't enjoy women. I love women. I love being around them. But when we'd go out together, we'd kind of almost go out in disguise. Not in disguise, but in a baseball cap and sunglasses.
There are a lot of people who have the same fears and problems I had as a young man growing up. You read about it all the time. If you can help someone in some way, terrific.
I feel closest to God with a pitchfork full of crap in my hands. I'm serious!
I'm very grateful for this road that I've been on - it's been a good one. It's been a tough one at times, too.
In my personal life, I was quite a different Boy Next Door than the one Mr. and Mrs. Middle America imagined me to be.
People are too quick to criticize and condemn. We've got to be more positive.
I was born in New York. I grew up in San Francisco, Long Beach, and Los Angeles.
Rock Hudson wasn't my type. He's a great guy and had a great sense of humor.
I believe one's sexuality is one's own business. I really don't go around discussing it. Call me 'old school' on that topic.
All the things that happen to people in the industry today, the actors, what they have to put up with, all the people wanting to know every single moment of their lives - I think it's really sad.
The people that really were important, that mattered, had a great foundation. I had no training. I had to learn while doing, and it was really difficult.
If I had come out during my acting career in the 1950s, I would not have had a career.
I wasn't an actor. They they take the externals. Here I was, a kid thrown into Hollywood with a brand-new name, starring in motion pictures.
I don't care whether people like me or dislike me. I'm not on earth to win a popularity contest. I'm here to be the best human being I possibly can be.
I've been a very, very fortunate man. I've had a lot of highs - and a great deal of lows.
I really didn't talk about my sexuality until I wrote my autobiography.
I knew Jimmy Dean. He tested for 'Battle Cry'. Paul Newman tested for 'Battle Cry'. I did nine tests to finally get that role.
A person's life is hopefully more than just one thing.
I did Polyester, and I dont regret one minute of it. It was wonderful.
I was a major fan of people in the industry, I was a major movie fan and I was just thrown into it. I was never a gregarious kind of a young man. I was very frightened. It was difficult to divorce myself from myself.
Once in a while a good opportunity would come along, like the first 'Playhouse 90 ever to air - working in television afforded me my best opportunities. The (film) industry was going through such turmoil at the time - studios didn't know where to go anymore, they were falling apart, television was there. They didn't know what kind of films people wanted. The European films were making a huge impact because those films wanted real people in real situations.