Tab Hunter is notoriously, famously press shy. In fact, the 74-year-old actor admits that at times in his life, he's been "deathly afraid of the press."
As far as Hunter is concerned, the media is the downside to fame. "It's the worst thing ever, having them pry into your personal life and then spread malicious rumors and gossip if you don't cooperate. I nearly ran away from Hollywood for good, just to get away from all that."
A movie star in the 1950s, with various career revivals since, he now finds himself sought after for interviews about his autobiographical memoir "Tab Hunter Confidential: The Making of a Movie Star." He'll will be in Salt Lake City Saturday for a book signing.
"It's such a strange position to find yourself in if you're a private person like I am," Hunter said by phone from Santa Barbara, Calif. "To be honest, it's a little uncomfortable — or at least it was at first. For years I've avoided the media like a plague."
To be fair, Hunter did get a bad impression of the press during the late 1950s and early 1960s, when writers nearly destroyed his career with tabloid reports about his rumored homosexuality. "Eventually, I got over my fears. I had to. I have to admit, though, you guys are a lot nicer than I remember." Then he added with a laugh, "Of course, that wouldn't be difficult."
Hunter quickly shot to fame after starring in "Saturday Island" (1952) and "Battle Cry" (1955). By the late-1960s, however, worthwhile film offers had pretty much dried up. He eventually had a brief career bump after starring in John Waters' 1981 spoof "Polyester," and his last film was "Dark Horse" (1992), in which he had a supporting role as a horse trainer.
Since then, however, he has been mostly retired. And he had no real desire to emerge from seclusion until he heard that an unauthorized biography was in the works. Hence his own book.
"I guess my thinking there," Hunter said, "was that if people were going to hear my life story, it would be better for them to hear it from the horse's mouth, rather than have it come from some horse's (expletive)."
That was three years ago, and Hunter had at least that many collaborators on the book. Ultimately, it was film-noir expert and novelist, Eddie Muller, who helped him "make sense of more than 500 pages worth of material. Eddie did justice to my old friend Evelyn Keyes."
Muller's film-noir compendium "Dark City Dames" had an interview with Keyes, of which Hunter said, "That alone was enough to convince me he was the right person."
He says "Tab Hunter Confidential" is a cautionary tale. "It's the story of how a young, wide-eyed and impressionable guy became a movie star and that nearly destroyed his life."
Hunter said the writing process convinced him that he has nothing to hide. Consequently, the book does talk about his homosexuality and details how studio publicists tried to combat nagging rumors about him by having him "date" such young starlets as Natalie Wood.
The book also discusses his relationships with actor Anthony Perkins, figure skater Ronnie Robertson and long-time partner Allan Glaser. "It's good to be honest about yourself, about who you are."
Reaction to the book, which was published last October, has been quite positive, Hunter said. In fact, this book tour has taken him all over the country.
His visit to Utah is a return to the location of his 1959 Western "They Came to Cordura," a war drama set in Mexico but actually filmed in Enterprise and St. George. And Hunter's campy spaghetti Western farce "Lust in the Dust" had its debut in Park City at the 1985 U.S. Film Festival (which had not yet become the Sundance Film Festival).
"I love the state," Hunter said. "I've had some great times in Utah and still have some very dear friends there." Hunter said he met Sandy residents Paul and Barbara Wicks in 1976, when he was starring in a dinner-theater production of "Here Lies Jeremy Troy" at the now-defunct Tiffany Dinner Theater in Salt Lake City.
At the time, Barbara Wicks interviewed Hunter for Ski magazine and discovered that the actor was an avid equestrian. "We found we had a mutual love for horses and have been thick like thieves ever since."
The Wickses also taught Hunter to ski at the Alta resort. However, he's not sure whether he'll do any skiing during this trip. "That might be a pretty scary sight — I'd be the world's oldest living ski bum."
If you go . . .
What: Tab Hunter book signing
Where: Borders Bookstore, 132 E. Winchester (6400 South)
When: Saturday, 6 p.m.
How much: Free ($24.95 for the book, "Tab Hunter Confidential")
Phone: 313-1020
Web:www.borders.com
E-mail: jeff@desnews.com