Jeffrey Hunter

Jeffrey Hunter was born Henry Herman McKinnies Jr. on November 25, 1926 in New Orleans, Louisiana, 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.

Hunter was also 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 United States Navy and underwent training at Great Lakes Naval Station, Illinois, in 1945-1946, but on the eve of his shipping out for active duty in Japan he took ill and received a medical discharge from the service.

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 director David Bradley's production of Julius Caesar (1950) in 1949. He then attended graduate school at the University of California at Los Angeles, where he studied radio and drama.

Hunter attended and graduated from Northwestern University 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 was in the cast of a UCLA production of Arthur Miller's "All My Sons" in May, 1950; on opening night, the good-looking Hunter Drew the attention of talent scouts from Paramount and 20th Century-Fox Studios.

Appeared in six films with Robert Wagner: The Frogmen (1951), White Feather (1955), A Kiss Before Dying (1956), The True Story of Jesse James (1957), In Love and War (1958) and The Longest Day (1962).

Had one son with Barbara Rush: Christopher Hunter (born August 29, 1952).

Hunter was kept fairly busy in pictures, working his way from featured roles to starring roles to first-billing within two years in Sailor of the King (1953).

His big break came with John Ford's classic, The Searchers (1956), where he played the young cowboy who accompanies John Wayne on his epic 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.

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.

Hunter 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 until 1959) and within a month was sent on location in New York for Fourteen Hours (1951).

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 Jesus in producer Samuel Bronston's King of Kings (1961), which due to Hunter's still youthful looks at 33, was dubbed by irreverent Hollywood wags "I Was a Teenage Jesus.

" After the cancellation of his Western series Temple Houston (1963), and his decision not to continue in the lead role of the current series Star Trek: The Original Series (1966), 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.

Cast as Christopher Pike, captain of the USS Enterprise, in the original Star Trek: The Original Series (1966) 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. After hearing the news, producer Gene Roddenberry 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". Hunter, who had a six-month exclusive contract for the series lead, also declined that request. Footage from the first pilot was later incorporated into a two-part episode titled "The Menagerie" 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. However, as executive producer Herbert F. Solow pointed out, major casting decisions for the series were made by Desilu and NBC executives, not the producer). This wasn't until 1988 that it was screened intact as a filler episode entitled "The Cage" on Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987) due to a writer's strike.

He desperately lobbied to be cast as Mike Brady for the situation comedy The Brady Bunch (1969). Producer Sherwood Schwartz would not consider him, as he thought Hunter was "too good-looking to be an architect". Hunter died just months before the series premiered in 1969.

In a radio interview in Palm Springs, California on November 7, 2005, Laurel Goodwin, his co-star in the original Star Trek: The Original Series (1966) pilot, revealed that his wife at the time, Joan Bartlett, demanded that he get more money to continue performing in the lead role when the pilot 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 character, Captain James T. 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.

According to studio publicity, Hunter claimed to be a descendant of Zachary Taylor, 12th President of the United States, although he was not a direct descendant; may in fact have been what's known as a collateral descendant, through his father's maternal grandmother, from the Taylors of Virginia.