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.
Tab Hunter
People believe what they want to believe.
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.
John Wayne treated me fine, but that macho stuff turns me off. It's not real.
I'm a very private person who grew up with a strict German mother who believed 'loose lips sink ships.'
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.
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.
I turned into a workaholic to the point of where my health was in jeopardy.
I did Polyester, and I don't regret one minute of it. It was wonderful.
Hollywood cools, and when it cools you have to go to where the work is. I ran off to Italy to do spaghetti westerns.
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.
I've been a very, very fortunate man. I've had a lot of highs - and a great deal of lows.
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.
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.
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.
Rock Hudson wasn't my type. He's a great guy and had a great sense of humor.
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.
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.
I was born in New York. I grew up in San Francisco, Long Beach, and Los Angeles.
There would be no Tab Hunter if it were not for Dick Clayton.
I lived a very don't-ask, don't-tell life.
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.
I knew Jimmy Dean. He tested for 'Battle Cry'. Paul Newman tested for 'Battle Cry'. I did nine tests to finally get that role.
I learned denial from my mother. I just never confronted things and if anybody did, I just would go crazy.
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.
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.
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.
I'd work for John Waters again, because he's so off the wall.
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.
Without a doubt, my sexuality was something that I just never discussed, especially in the 1950s.
A person's life is hopefully more than just one thing.
I feel closest to God with a pitchfork full of crap in my hands. I'm serious!
People are too quick to criticize and condemn. We've got to be more positive.
If I had come out during my acting career in the 1950s, I would not have had a career.
I really didn't talk about my sexuality until I wrote my autobiography.
In my personal life, I was quite a different Boy Next Door than the one Mr. and Mrs. Middle America imagined me to be.
I hate labels.
I never mentioned my sexuality to Warner Bros. at all, and they never mentioned it to me, thank God.
I don't care about being in the public eye.
My sexuality is only a thread of the tapestry of my life.
I lived in those old movie houses as a kid. I just loved them. What total escapism for someone.
