Tab Hunter Obituary, Tab Hunter 86, Death Cause

Tab Hunter Obituary, Death – Tab Hunter, a tall, blond, blue-eyed actor who was one of the last products of the Hollywood studio system when he became a teen idol in the 1950s and had an unlikely comeback in a very un-Hollywood picture when he was almost 50, passed away on Sunday in Santa Barbara, California. He was 86.

Allan Glaser, Mr. Hunter’s spouse, acknowledged his passing by saying that cardiac arrest brought on by the spread of a blood clot from Mr. Hunter’s leg to his lung was the official cause of death.

At the age of seventeen, actor Arthur Gelien had his name changed by his agent Henry Willson, whose other clients included Rock Hudson, Robert Wagner, and Rory Calhoun, among others.

Mr. Hunter claimed that “acting skill” was secondary to chiseled looks and a beautiful body in his 2005 autobiography, “Tab Hunter Confidential” (authored with Eddie Muller).

While he lacked the necessary experience, he certainly looked the part; he embodied every ideal of the wholesome all-American youth celebrated in Hollywood movies for decades.

When he originally tried out for the role of Tom in “Island of Desire” (1952), he had to take his shirt off. Later, a screening was conducted. Based on his performance in the film—in which he played a cocky Marine corporal stranded on a South Seas island with Linda Darnell—he was named the year’s top new male star by the readers of Photoplay magazine.