Hi everyone and thank you for tuning in to the 229 episode of Awards Chatter,

The Hollywood Reporters Awards podcast.

I'm the host Scott Feinberg,

and on today's episode we are remembering

and celebrating a great star of Hollywood's golden age,

a gay icon, and a wonderful man who I had the privilege of getting to personally

know and love over the last few years, Tab Hunter.

Tab died on Monday just three days shy of his 87th birthday but after a long life very

well lived. He broke into the movies in the early 50s. He, James Dean and Natalie

Wood were the last three actors put under contract by Warner Brothers during the

waning days of the studio system, and he quickly made a name for himself.

He starred in films like 1955's Battle Cry and 1958's Dam Yankees, and from 1955 to 1959, he was Warner's top grossing

star.

He recorded a song, Young Love, that in 1957 knocked Elvis Presley off the top of the Billboard charts and remained there for six weeks,

going gold and prompting Jack Warner to form Warner Brothers Records.

And he was on the cover of every major fan magazine referenced in some as quote unquote the

sigh guy because of his breathtakingly good looks and all American appeal.

But unbeknownst to the public, which saw TAB paired on and off screen with female movie stars, he actually was a gay man who was unable to be open about his sexuality and was constantly under the threat of having his career destroyed because of it.

In the late 50s he bought out his Warner Brothers contract thinking his professional opportunities

would be better if he freelanced, but they weren't, and he largely faded from the public eye.

In the 80s, he experienced a strange career revival of sorts when the eccentric indie filmmaker

John Waters cast him in a couple of projects opposite the transvestite performer

...