His shirt remained off for a good portion of the film, which certainly did not go unnoticed. His fetching handsomeness and trim, athletic physique landed him a role in the British production Saturday Island (Stuart Heisler, 1952) opposite Linda Darnell. With no previous experience Tab made his first, albeit minor, film debut in the racially trenchant drama The Lawless (Joseph Losey, 1950) starring Gail Russell. He was given the stage name Tab Hunter by his first agent, Henry Willson.
Returning home, his life-long passion for horseback riding led to a job with a riding academy. He was eventually discharged when the age deception was revealed. While in the Coast Guard, he gained the nickname ‘Hollywood’ for his penchant for watching movies rather than going to bars while on liberty. Coast Guard at the age of 15, lying about his age to enlist. As a teenager, Hunter was a figure skater, competing in both singles and pairs. Tab’s older brother Walter John Gelien (1930) would die in Vietnam in 1965 leaving seven children. Hunter's father was an abusive man and within a few years of his birth, his parents divorced and his mother moved with her two sons to California. He is the son of Gertrude (Gelien) and Charles Kelm. Tab Hunter was born Arthur Andrew Kelm in New York City, in 1931. In the 1980s Hunter returned in the camp classics Polyester (1981) and Lust in the Dust (1985). When his career faded during the 1960s, he starred in Italy in Spaghetti Westerns. The American actor, singer, and author portrayed boy-next-door marines, cowboys and swoon-bait sweethearts, and had a huge hit with the song Young Love (1957). With his blond, tanned, surfer-boy good looks, Tab Hunter (1931) was one of Hollywood’s hottest teen idols of the 1950s era. Dutch postcard by Gebr, Spanjersberg N.V., Rotterdam.
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