# The Heart knows (THROB)--Tab Hunter is GAY! **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 9, 2003, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-heart-knows-throb-tab-hunter-is-gay/200583 "2003-09-09T18:54:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![lissener](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lissener/32/6139_2.png) [@lissener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lissener)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2003, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-heart-knows-throb-tab-hunter-is-gay/200583/21 "2003-09-10T16:41:20Z")
Well, gobear, YM, as they say, MV. ---
**Author:** ![mojave66](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5f9b8f/32.png) [@mojave66](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mojave66)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2003, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-heart-knows-throb-tab-hunter-is-gay/200583/22 "2003-09-10T17:04:47Z")
\ Oooh, oh, oh my god, Gene Tierney turns me into Sapphic jelly. Please, please, someone tell me she was secretly lesbian. Even if she wasn’t. \ ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2003, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-heart-knows-throb-tab-hunter-is-gay/200583/23 "2003-09-10T18:13:52Z")
The only surprise to me is that he got a book deal out of the “revelation”. Richard Chamberlain, a much bigger star and much more recently, just released his autobio this summer and I’ve already seen it on discount bins (though it has sailed up the charts to #2,062 at Amazon). LUST IN THE DUST also starred one of the great closet gays from the 30s, Cesar Romero (one time love, according to one source, of fellow gay caballero Ramon Novarro and of Tyrone Power [who was married several times but seems to have shagged Truman Capote and Rock Hudson among others). So what would be the nearest thing to a Tracy/Hepburn gay affair in Hollywood (other than, according to some sources, Tracy/Hepburn? I know that William S. Haines and his boyfriend were together for 50-odd years, but I don’t think his partner was famous. There are the rumors about Cary Grant/Randolph Scott carrying an affair off and on for 40 years, but nothing’s confirmed. ---
**Author:** ![DMark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@DMark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DMark)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2003, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-heart-knows-throb-tab-hunter-is-gay/200583/24 "2003-09-10T18:53:55Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by MidnightRadio \* > \*\* > But to sort of get back to the OP, **DMark** , do you really think young gay kids should look up to a _porn star_ as a role model? \*\* That was meant tongue in cheek…so to speak. ---
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2003, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-heart-knows-throb-tab-hunter-is-gay/200583/25 "2003-09-10T18:58:17Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Sampiro \* > **So what would be the nearest thing to a Tracy/Hepburn gay affair in Hollywood (other than, according to some sources, Tracy/Hepburn?** Color me naive – but I don’t understand this reference. ---
**Author:** ![gobear](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/8dc957/32.png) [@gobear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gobear)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2003, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-heart-knows-throb-tab-hunter-is-gay/200583/26 "2003-09-10T19:20:10Z")
> [@](#): > > Originally posted by Sampiro > So what would be the nearest thing to a Tracy/Hepburn gay affair in Hollywood (other than, according to some sources, Tracy/Hepburn? > > (Originally posted by Twickster) > Color me naive – but I don’t understand this reference. Thar’a a reference to the unfounded rumors that both Tracy and Hepburn were bisexual. ---
**Author:** ![mojave66](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5f9b8f/32.png) [@mojave66](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mojave66)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2003, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-heart-knows-throb-tab-hunter-is-gay/200583/27 "2003-09-10T20:07:30Z")
Didn’t Danny Kaye have a torrid affair with a famous actor? That might qualify. ---
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2003, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-heart-knows-throb-tab-hunter-is-gay/200583/28 "2003-09-10T20:20:30Z")
Aha. Thanks, **gobear**. ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2003, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-heart-knows-throb-tab-hunter-is-gay/200583/29 "2003-09-10T21:01:53Z")
IIRC, a biography of Laurence Olivier described his longterm affair with Danny Kaye. It was supposedly the only trip to the dark side by either and was okay with their wives. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2003, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-heart-knows-throb-tab-hunter-is-gay/200583/30 "2003-09-10T21:03:08Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by mojave66 \* > \*\*Didn’t Danny Kaye have a torrid affair with a famous actor? That might qualify. \*\* Sir Laurence Olivier, according to rumor. Re: Tracy/Hepburn, there seems to be more speculation about her than him, largely because of her female roommates, marriage to a homosexual, and her longtime live-in companions. Great actress, either way (well, not really, but a great star). [hijack]Grandpa and Grandma Walton (Will Geer and Ellen Corby) are the two “golden era” actors who seem to bother more people than others, for some reason, I suppose because of the wholesomeness of the show. (Grandpa was a confirmed and semi-open bi [which is to say he married and had children but seemed to prefer men]; Grandma is speculation because she never married and had a lengthy Boston marriage with a roommate who also never married- incidentally, Earl Hamner’s real grandmother wasn’t a crotchety old woman but was in fact only in her mid-late 30s when he was born.) I suppose if I had a gay role model as a kid it was Gore Vidal, who ironically claims he isn’t gay. (He’s one of those bisexuals who only screws around with men.) As a teenager I really liked the Tony Randall show SIDNEY SHORR about a Manhattan artist who was initially gay but ultimately mutated into a fussbudget old bachelor who even had an affair with a young woman in one episode.[/hijack] ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2003, 1:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-heart-knows-throb-tab-hunter-is-gay/200583/31 "2003-09-11T01:32:12Z")
It occurs: an excellent title for his autobiography could be “ALT TAB”. ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2003, 2:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-heart-knows-throb-tab-hunter-is-gay/200583/32 "2003-09-11T02:04:17Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Sampiro \* > \*\*It occurs: an excellent title for his autobiography could be “ALT TAB”. \*\* . . . And that would give some modern Dorothy Parker the chance to review it, “ALT TAB? DELETE.” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-heart-knows-throb-tab-hunter-is-gay/200583.md?page=1)