Out actor Tab Hunter said in a recent
interview that the pressure sill exists for gay actors to stay
closeted.
Hunter had a successful recording
career, was a top star at Warner Brothers – starring in over 40
films – and graced the covers of leading magazines in the 1950s.
He kept quiet about his sexual
orientation despite persistent rumors.
In his 2006 memoir Tab Hunter
Confidential: The Making of a Movie Star, which he wrote with
Eddie Muller, Hunter acknowledged publicly for the first time that he
is gay.
A documentary with the same title was
released in June.
Hunter is in Santa Fe over the weekend
to attend a screening of the film.
He told the Albuquerque
Journal that despite tremendous progress in the LGBT rights
movement, gay Hollywood actors continue to face pressure to stay
closeted.
“Today, there are no leading men who
are gay,” Hunter said in a telephone interview with the Journal.
“There are character actors, there are roles as 'best friends,'
but there are no leading men out there.”
Hunter, 84, has been in a relationship
with Allan Glasier for over 30 years.