Island of Desire
1952
Director: Stuart Heisler
Cast: Linda Darnell, Tab Hunter, Donald Gray.
Gun Belt
1953
Director: Ray Nazzaro
Cast: George Montgomery, Tab Hunter, Helen Westcott, Jack Elam.
The Steel Lady
1953
Director: E. A. Dupont
Cast: Rod Cameron, Tab Hunter, John Dehner, Richard Erdman, Anthony Caruso.
Return to Treasure Island
1954
Director: E. A. Dupont
Cast: Tab Hunter, Dawn Addams, Porter Hall, James Seay, Harry Lauter.Still: Return to Treasure Island
Track of the Cat
1954
Director: William Wellman
Cast: Robert Mitchum, Teresa Wright, Tab Hunter, Diana Lynn, Beulah Bondi, William Hopper, Carl "Alfalfa" Switzer.
Battle Cry
1955
Director: Raoul Walsh
Cast: Van Heflyn, Aldo Ray, Tab Hunter, Dorothy Malone, Anne Francis, Raymond Massey, James Whitmore, Mona Freeman, William Campbell, Nancy Olson, John Lupton, Rhys Williams, Fess Parker, Perry Lopez,
The Sea Chase
1955
Director: John Farrow
Cast: John Wayne, Lana Turner, Tab Hunter, Lyle Bettger, James Arness, Claude Akins, David Farrar.
Notes on The Sea Chase
-- This is the film where John Wayne plays the German captain of a ship. I repeat, this is the film where John Wayne plays the German captain of a ship.
-- Tab and Lana Turner at least look sort of German.
-- The director is Mia Farrow's father.
The Girl He Left Behind
1956
Director: David Butler
Cast: Tab Hunter, Natalie Wood, Jessie Royce Landis, Jim Backus, Henry Jones, James Garner, David Janssen, Murray Hamilton, Alan King.
The Burning Hills
1956
Director: Stuart Heisler
Cast: Tab Hunter, Natalie Wood, Skim Homeier, Edward Franz, Claude Akins, Earl Holliman.
Notes on The Burning Hills
-- The story is based on a Louis L'Amour novel.
-- Natalie Wood plays a half-breed Mexican girl. This must have come in handy when she had to play a Puerto Rican girl a few years later in West Side Story.
Damn Yankees!
1958
Director: George Abbott, Stanley Donen
Cast: Tab Hunter, Gwen Verdon, Ray Walston, Jean Stapleton, Jimmie Komack, Nathaniel Frey.
Notes on Damn Yankees
-- This remains a very entertaining film musical of the 1950s. If you look around you can probably find the original soundtrack on CD, which features Tab on two songs: "Goodbye Old Girl" and "Two Lost Souls," a duet with Gwen Verdon.
-- Around the time of Damn Yankees, Tab had a fairly hot recording career happening on the side. His version of the classic "Young Love" was No. 1 in early 1957. He had a number of other chart singles and soon after "Young Love" he had another big hit with "Ninety-Nine Ways," which peaked at 11 on the Billboard singles chart. At about the same time that Tab hit the top of the charts with "Young Love," country artist Sonny James also had a huge pop-crossover hit with the song and it is this version which seems to get played more often today. Call your radio station and complain.
Lafayette Escadrille
1958
Director: William Wellman
Cast: Tab Hunter, Etchika Choureau, Clint Eastwood, David Jannsen, Tom Lauglin.
Notes on Lafayette Escadrille
-- Some of the supporting cast went on to much bigger things, but what the hell ever happened to Etchika Choureau? For that matter, who the hell is Etchika Choureau?
Gunman's Walk
1958
Director: Phil Karlson
Cast: Van Heflin, Tab Hunter, Kathryn Grant, James Darren.
Notes on Gunman's Walk
-- Kathryn Grant was married to Bing Crosby at the time. Even more important is the fact that Miss Grant was starring with Kerwin Mathews in The 7th Voyage of Sinbad around this time.
-- This film has a good-brother-vs.-bad-brother plot. Oddly, Tab was cast as the bad brother.
That Kind of Woman
1959
Director: Sidney Lumet
Cast: Sophia Loren, Tab Hunter, Barbara Nichols, George Sanders, Jack Warden, Keenan Wynn
Notes on That Kind of Woman
-- Long before Tab and Divine there was Tab and Sophia Loren.
-- This had been filmed twice previously as The Shopworn Angel: in 1929 with Gary Cooper and Nancy Carroll; in 1938 with James Stewart and Margaret Sullavan.
They Came to Cordura
1959
Director: Robert Rossen
Cast: Gary Cooper, Rita Hayworth, Tab Hunter, Van Heflin, Michael Callan, Richard Conte, Dick York.
Debbie Reynolds and Tab Hunter
The Pleasure of His Company
1961
Director: George Seaton
Cast: Fred Astaire, Lilli Palmer, Debbie Reynolds, Tab Hunter, Gary Merrill, Charlie Ruggles.
Notes on The Pleasure of His Company
-- Based on a play by Samuel Taylor and Conelia Otis Skinner.
The Golden Arrow
1963
Director: (?)
Cast: Tab Hunter, Rosana Podesta.
Operation Bikini
1963
Director: Anthony Carras
Cast: Tab Hunter, Frankie Avalon, Eva Six, Scott Brady, Gary Crosby, Jim Backus.
Ride the Wild Surf
1964
Director: Don Taylor
Cast: Fabian, Tab Hunter, Barbara Eden, Anthony Hayes, James Mitchum, Shelley Fabares.
Notes on Ride the Wild Surf
-- This film is excellent proof that you really don't need people like George C. Scott and Stanley Kubrick to create a cinematic masterpiece. This film has Fabian and Tab Hunter on surfboards. What else do you need?
--Try, if you dare, to imagine George C. Scott on a surfboard. I rest my case.
--Jan and Dean had a fairly big hit with the title tune.
Troubled Waters
1964
Director: Stanley Goulder
Cast: Tab Hunter, Zena Walker, Andy Myers, Michael Goodliffe.
The Loved One
1965
Director: Tony Richardson
Cast: Robert Morse, Jonathan Winters, Anjanette Comer, Rod Steiger, Milton Berle, Dana Andrews, Tab Hunter, James Coburn, Roddy McDowell, John Gielgud, Margaret Leighton, Liberace, Robert Morley, Ayllen Gibbons, Bernie Kopell, Lionel Stander, Jamie Farr, Alan Napier, and everybody else on the planet.
Notes on The Loved One
-- The script was a collaboration by Terry Southern and Christopher Isherwood, from an Evelyn Waugh novel.
-- The Loved One was promoted as the movie with something to offend everyone.
--We're not really sure how many movies Liberace appeared in, but we mean to find out.
War Gods of the Deep
1965
Director: Jacques Tourneur
Cast: Vincent Price, Tab Hunter, David Tomlinson, Susan Hart.
Notes on War Gods of the Deep
-- This was the final film for director Jacques Tourneur, who in the 1940s gave us The Cat People, I Walked With a Zombie, The Leopard Man and Out of the Past.
Birds Do It
1966
Director: Andrew Marton
Cast: Andrew Marton, Tab Hunter, Arthur O'Connell, Harry Andrews, Beverly Adams.
Hostile Guns
1967
Director: R. G. Springsteen
Cast: George Montgomery, Yvonne De Carlo, Tab Hunter, Brian Donlevy, John Russell.
Notes on Hostile Guns
-- This was Tab's second film with George Montgomery. They were almost as good together as Tab and Divine.
The Fickle Finger of Fate
1965
Director: Richard Rush
Cast: Tab Hunter, Luis Prendes, Patty Shepard, Gustavo Rojo, Fernando Hilbeck.
La Vendetta e il mio perdono (aka Shotgun)
1968
Director: Roberto Mauri
Cast: Tab Hunter, Erika Blanc, Piero Lulli, Mimmo Palmara, Daniele Vargas, Bernardo B. Solitari, Alfredo Rizzo, Franco Pasquetto, Renato Romano, Dada Gallotti
Country: Italy.
Scacco internazionale (aka The Last Chance)
1968
Director: Nini Rosati
Cast: Tab Hunter, Luisa Baratto, Michael Rennie, Daniela Bianchi.
Country: Italy.
No me importa morir (aka Legion of No Return)
1969
Director: Leon Klimovsky
Cast: Tab Hunter, Bernabe Barta Barri, Alfonso De la Vega, Antonio Delgado, Jose Guardiola, Oscar Pellicer, Angel del Pozo, Howard Ross, Claudio Trionfi, Daniele Vargas, Erika Wallner, Rosanna Yanni.
Country: Italy/Spain
The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean
1972
Director: John Huston
Cast: Paul Newman, Ava Gardner, Victoria Principal, Jacqueline Bisset, Anthony Perkins, Tab Hunter, John Huston, Stacy Keach, Roddy McDowall, Ned Beatty.
Sweet Kill (aka The Arousers)
1972
Director: Curtis Hanson
Cast: Tab Hunter, Cherie Latimer, Nadyne Turney, Isabell Jewell, Sandy Kenyon, John Aprea, Roberta Collins, Angel Fox, Josh Green, Linda Leider, Kate McKeown, Angus Scrimm.
Won Ton Ton, the Dog Who Saved Hollywood
1976
Director: Michael Winner
Cast: Bruce Dern, Madeline Kahn, Art Carney, Phil Silvers, Teri Garr, Ron Leibman, Tab Hunter
Notes on Won Ton Ton, the Dog Who Saved Hollywood
-- This film features many, many cameo appearances -- basically everybody on earth.
-- You may find this running on very early morning cable TV. See if you can sit through it.
Polyester
1981
Director: John Waters
Cast: Divine, Tab Hunter, Edith Massey, Mink Stole, Stiv Bators, Mary Garlington, Ken King, David Samson.
Notes on Polyester
-- This John Waters film actually played in mainstream theaters, where a lot of patrons simply didn't get it. It was "filmed" in a new process called "Odorama," which was actually just a scratch & sniff card with various scents keyed to certain scenes. Many of us still have our Odorama cards put away in trunks. Future archaeologists won't know what to make of them -- or us for that matter.
-- Tab revived his singing career, briefly, by crooning the title song -- composed by Chris Stein and Debbie Harry! -- over the opening credits
Pandemonium (aka Thursday the 12th)
1982
Director: Alfred Sole
Cast: Tom Smothers, Carol Kane, Miles Chapin, Debralee Scott, Candy Azzara, Judge Reinhold, Marc McClure, Paul Reubens; guest stars include Tab Hunter, Eve Arden, Donald O'Connor, and Eileen Brennan.
Grease 2
1982
Director: Patricia Birch
Cast: Maxwell Caulfield, Michelle Pfeiffer, Adrian Zmed, Lorna Luft, Didi Conn, Dody Goodman, Tab Hunter, Connie Stevens.
Notes on Grease 2
-- Lorna Luft's mom, Judy Garland, literally rolled over in her grave when Lorna was cast in this film.
-- Actually, nobody associated with the Meeker Museum has ever even seen this film, but it can't be ALL bad because (a) nothing could be as bad as the first Grease, which was the worst film made between the years 6000 B.C. and 6000 A.D.; and (b) look at the names in the cast!
Lust in the Dust
1985
Director: Paul Bartel
Cast: Tab Hunter, Divine, Lanie Kazan, Henry Silva, Cesar Romero, Woody Strode, Pedro Gonzales-Gonzales, Geoffrey Lewis, Gina Gallego.
Out of the Dark
1988
Director: Michael Schroeder
Cast: Cameron Dye, Lynn Danielson, Tracey Walter, Silvana Gallardo, Karen Black, Bud Cort, Paul Bartel, Lainie Kazan, Divine, Tab Hunter.
Notes on Out of the Dark
-- Note the reunion of the director and some cast members from Lust in the Dust.
Grotesque
1988
Director: John Tornatore
Cast: Linda Blair, Tab Hunter, Donna Wilkes, Brad Wilson, Michelle Bensoussan, Sharon Hughes, Nels Van Patten, Billy Frank, Robert Z'Dar, Stacey Alden.
Cameron's Closet
1989
Director: Armand Mastroianni
Cast: Cotter Smith, Mel Harris, Scott Curtis, Chuck McCann, Kim Lankford, Leigh McCloskey, Tab Hunter.
Dark Horse
1992
Director: David Hemmings
Cast: Mimi Rogers, Ari Meyers, Donovan Leitch, Samantha Eggar, Natasha Wagner, Tab Hunter, Bojesse Christopher, Tisha Sterling, Ed Begley Jr.
Notes on Dark Horse
-- Tab Hunter has a "story" credit.
-- Tisha Sterling is the daughter of Ann Sothern and Robert Sterling. That alone qualifies this film as a classic.
-- Natasha Wagner is the daughter of Natalie Wood and a producer named Richard Gregson.
-- Ed Begley, Jr. is the son of character actor Ed Begley. Well duh.
Wild Bill: Hollywood Maverick
1996
Director: Todd Robinson
Cast: Alec Baldwin, Mike Connors, Nancy Davis, Clint Eastwood, James Garner, Darryl Hickman, Arthur Hiller, Tab Hunter, Gregory Peck, Sidney Poiter, Harry Morgan, Tom Laughlin, Robert Mitchum, Burgess Meredith, Jane Wyman, Robert Redford, Martin Scorsese, Charles "Buddy" Rogers, James Whitmore, Robert Wise, Robert Stack, Tony Scott, Robert Stack, Michael Wayne, Richard Widmark, and everybody else on Earth. . . .
NOTE: This filmography is a work in progress. Feel free to send us comments, corrections, and additional information.