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Actresses
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 Jeffrey Hunter
Birthday: November 25, 1926
Birth
Place: New Orleans, Louisiana, USA
Height: 0' 0"
Below
is a complete filmography (list of movies he's appeared in) for
Jeffrey Hunter. If you have any corrections or additions, please email
us at corrections@actorsofhollywood.com.
We'd also be interested in any trivia or other information you have.
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| Biography
Jeffrey Hunter (born in Louisiana as Henry Herman McKinnies Jr.) was an only child. His parents met at the University of Arkansas, and when he was almost four his family moved to Milwaukee, Wisconsin. In his teens he acted in productions of the North Shore Children's Theater, and from 1942 to 1944 performed in summer stock with the local Port Players, along with Eileen Heckart, Charlotte Rae and Morton DaCosta, and was a radio actor at WTMJ, getting his first professional paycheck in 1945 for the wartime series "Those Who Serve". After graduation from Whitefish Bay High School, where he was co-captain of the football team, he enlisted in the U.S. Navy and underwent training at Great Lakes Naval Station, Illinois, in 1945-1946. On the eve of his transfer to duty in Japan, however, he took ill and received a medical discharge from the service. He attended Northwestern University in Illinois and graduated with a bachelor's degree in 1949, where he acquired more stage experience in Sheridan's "The Rivals" and Ruth Gordon's "Years Ago". He also did summer stock with Northwestern students at Eagles Mere, Pennsylvania, in 1948, worked on two Northwestern Radio Playshop broadcasts, was president of Phi Delta Theta Fraternity, and was active in the campus film society with David Bradley, later acting in Bradley's production of Julius Caesar (1950) in 1949. Hunter went to graduate school at the University of Califiornia, Los Angeles, where he studied radio and drama. He was in the cast of a UCLA production of "All My Sons" in May 1950, and on opening night talent scouts for Paramount and 20th Century-Fox in the audience zeroed in on the tall, blue-eyed and impossibly good-looking Hunter. He made a screen test with Ed Begley in a scene from "All My Sons" at Paramount (where he met Barbara Rush, his future wife), but after an executive shake-up at that studio derailed his hiring, he was signed by 20th Century-Fox (where he remained under contract to 1959) and almost immediately sent on location in New York for Fourteen Hours (1951), all before the month was over. Hunter was kept fairly busy in pictures, working his way from featured roles to starring roles to first billing within two years in Single-Handed (1953). His big break came with The Searchers (1956), where he played the young cowboy who accompanies John Wayne on his search for a child kidnapped by Comanches. Hunter got excellent reviews for his performance in this film and justifiably so, as he held his own well with the veteran Wayne. Starring roles in two more John Ford movies followed, and in 1960 Hunter had one of his best roles in Hell to Eternity (1960), the true story of World War II hero Guy Gabaldon. That same year Hunter landed the role for which he is probably best known (although it's far from his best work) when he played the Son of God in King of Kings (1961), which, due to Hunter's still youthful looks, was dubbed by some Hollywood wags "I Was a Teenage Jesus," although he was 33 when he was cast. After the cancellation of his television western series "Temple Houston" (1963) in 1964 and his decision not to continue in the lead role of the new series "Star Trek" (1966) in 1965, his career took a downturn, and Hunter eventually wound up in Europe working on cheap westerns, at the time a sure sign of a career in trouble. In 1969 Hunter suffered a stroke (after just recovering from an earlier stroke), took a bad fall and underwent emergency surgery, but died from complications of both the fall and the surgery.
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Movie
Credits
Trivia
- He desperately lobbied to be cast as Mike Brady for the TV series "The Brady Bunch" (1969). Producer Sherwood Schwartz would not consider him, as he thought Hunter was "too good-looking to be an architect." Ironically, Hunter died just months before the show premiered in 1969.
- Wife Joan Bartlett was a former model. Two sons, Todd and Scott. Hunter adopted her son, Steele Hunter, from a previous marriage.
- Cast as Christopher Pike, captain of the U.S.S. Enterprise, in the original "Star Trek" pilot in 1964. However, when an undecided NBC requested a second pilot in early 1965, Hunter declined, having decided to concentrate on his movie career instead. Producer Gene Roddenberry, after hearing the news, wrote to Hunter, "I am told you have decided not to go ahead with Star Trek. This has to be your own decision, of course, and I must respect it," and then asked Hunter if he would come back for "one day or two of shooting an additional action opening which can result in a fast, tightly cut, exciting film release." But Hunter, who had a six-month exclusive contract for the series lead, declined that request too. Footage from the first pilot was later incorporated into a two-part episode in Star Trek's first season. (Roddenberry later tried to give the impression that it was he who decided not to rehire Hunter for the second pilot. But as executive producer Herbert F. Solow pointed out, major casting decisions for the series were made by Desilu and NBC executives, not the producer.)
- Starred in unsold, unshown NBC series pilot "Journey Into Fear" in 1966. Based on same Eric Ambler novel as the 1942 movie with Orson Welles.
- While playing Jesus in King of Kings (1961), his armpits were shaved for the crucifixion scenes
- While in Spain to film the Chicago Mafia story ¡Viva América! (1969), Hunter was injured in an on-set explosion, suffering facial lacerations from broken glass and powder burns. Later an old friend, a former British commando, accidentally hit him on the chin with a karate chop when Hunter, who knew judo, failed to defend himself in time, banging the back of his head against a door. Then, while on the plane with his wife returning to the United States, Hunter's right arm suddenly became semi-paralyzed and he lost the power of speech, two signs of a stroke. He was taken directly off the plane upon landing, to a hospital in Los Angeles. He recovered and was released after a couple of weeks. Shortly after signing to co-star with Vince Edwards in The Desperados (1969), Hunter suffered another cerebral hemorrhage while on a short flight of steps in his living room, and collapsed, injuring his head in the fall. It was not known how long he had been unconscious when he was finally found. He died, without regaining consciousness, the following day after surgery to repair the skull fracture, at age 42.
- Son with Barbara Rush, Christopher (b. 29 August 1952).
- 20th Century-Fox head Darryl F. Zanuck signed him to a contract and changed his name to Jeffrey Hunter (1 June 1950).
- Graduated from Northwestern University. He majored in speech and radio and minored in psychology and English. (26 August 1949)
- Was working toward his Master's in radio at UCLA when he was discovered.
- Although in studio publicity Hunter claimed to be a descendant of Zachary Taylor, 12th President of the United States, he was not a direct descendant, although he may have been a collateral descendant, through his father's maternal grandmother, from the Taylors of Virginia.
- Following in the footsteps of fellow heartthrob turned hit crooner Tab Hunter, he recorded a never-released album of love songs for Parade Records in 1957, some of which he wrote, including "Dusty", dedicated to his new wife.
- Served in the United States Navy, under the service number 960 39 80, from May 28, 1945 to May 25, 1946. Received a Medical Discharge as a Seaman First Class and was awarded the World War II Victory Medal.
- Under contract to Warner Bros., 1963-1965.
- Proposed marriage to Mai Tai Sing (1966), Sally Ann Howes (1967), ex-wife Joan Bartlett (1968), and Emily McLaughlin (1969).
- Father of Todd Hunter (V)
- In a radio interview in Palm Springs on November 7, 2005, Laurel Goodwin, his co-star in the Star Trek pilot, revealed his wife at the time, Joan Bartlett, demanded he get more money to continue performing in the lead role when the series was picked up as a regular series. After long negotiations, the producers, feeling great pressure, decided to simply recast Hunter for a new actor and captain, James Tiberius Kirk, played by William Shatner. The crew was also recast to bring different ethnic backgrounds to the cast to show how they co-existed peacefully in the future.
- While at Northwestern University, he studied under Alvina Krauss, who also taught such Hollywood luminaries as Charlton Heston, Tony Randall, Cloris Leachman, Claude Akins, Jerry Orbach, Ann-Margret and Warren Beatty. Many years after he graduated, Ms. Krauss stated that Hank McKinnies, as she knew him, was the most talented student she ever had.
- He worked as a model for several Chicago commercial photographers while a student at Northwestern University.
Naked Photos of Jeffrey Hunter are available at MaleStars.com. They
currently feature over 65,000 Nude Pics, Biographies, Video Clips,
Articles, and Movie Reviews of famous stars. |
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