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THE WAY THEY WERE Success and Hypnotic Good Looks Never Changed the Young Star Who Left Behind a Legacy of Some of the Most Soli

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THE WAY THEY WERE Success and Hypnotic Good Looks Never Changed the Young Star Who Left Behind a Legacy of Some of the Most Soli THE WAY THEY WERE By Walter H. Hogan Success and hypnotic good looks never changed the young star who left behind a legacy of some of the most solid performances seen in Hollywood. hen the eyes of Hollywood November 25, 1927—the year died May 27, 1969 at the age of Ware upon you, three pair Paramount released Cecil B. 41), he left behind a pretty strong come immediately to mind DeMille's silent version of King of list of solid, believable, convincing —the eyes of Elizabeth Taylor, Kings, starring British-born H.B. performances that garnered more Paul Newman, and Jeffrey Hunter. Warner as Christ. And thirty-three critical ayes than nays over the As a matter of fact, it was the near- years later Henry, known to family eighteen years. hypnotic effect of Hunter's blue- and close Hollywood friends as "When you see The Searchers blue eyes (along with his sincerity, "Hank" and to marquees and fans you'll agree with me that Jeff rugged strength, and personal in- as Jeffrey Hunter, would be in Hunter is a fine actor," wrote tegrity) that won for him, over Spain heading an international cast Louella Parsons in May of '56. "He scores of candidates, the role of the in the role many critics would shares honors with John Wayne Savior in Samuel Bronston's 1961 consider the most noteworthy of his and is just as good as Duke, which production of King of Kings. career. is no faint praise. On the strength Henry H. McKinnies, Jr., was And though he never hit super- of this picture and other past per- born in New Orleans, La., on stardom in his cut-short life (he formances, 20th Century-Fox is 59 He was always fond of saying, "Luck is preparedness when it meets with op- portunity," and it proved an aptly chosen motto for his film career. an interviewer, "I was blessed. My he later became president of his parents are two very devoted fraternity, Phi Delta Theta. people." At Northwestern he couldn't In Jeff's childhood, his father play college football, because of a was out of town much of the time broken arch bone suffered in a late because of his business as a sales high school game, so he switched engineer, but Jeffrey recalled that his interest to skiing, tennis, when his father was home they had swimming, and archery. Also at a great time together, playing ball Northwestern he made his screen or working on electric trains. debut—as an unbilled member of When he was older, there were the cast headed by Charlton fishing trips to Wisconsin and one Heston in a student production of a time up to the Lake of the Woods 16mm film of Julius Caesar. in Canada. "After I had my A.B. degree "I remember one time Dad and I from Northwestern," Jeff said, "I fished for fourteen hours straight came to UCLA [this incidentally on without getting a single bite, but a scholarship too] to study for my we still had a swell time together." master's degree in educational He was heroic in Princess of the Nile. And when his first son was born radio and was doing little theatre (mother: Barbara Rush), he said, work, too, when I was given my building Jeff to top stature." "Those are things I want to share screen test." Writing of Walt Disney's The with Chris, too, seeing this great Jeff had acted in student Great Locomotive Chase in June of country of ours, fishing, swim- productions of Years Ago and The the same year, Bosley Crowther ming, playing tennis." Rivals among other plays, but it said in the New York Times: "The But football was a big thing in was in the role of Chris in Arthur actors all do very well. Jeffrey Jeff's life from the age of 11 when Miller's All My Sons that he was Hunter's positively staggering as he won a state-wide contest held by discovered. The play opened May the valiant Confederate conductor the Milwaukee Journal for passing, 7, 1950, and two talent scouts in who leads the chase." kicking, punting and placekicking the audience (from 20th Century- In the New York Herald Tribune in the juvenile football division. In Fox and Paramount) wanted to in May, 1960 Paul V. Beckley Whitefish Bay High School he screen test him. Hunter, who was wrote, "Sergeant Rutledge may not became co-captain of a champion- always fond of saying, "Luck is be John Ford's masterpiece, but it ship team. He was president of his when preparedness meets oppor- is a sweet breeze among current high school class, president of the tunity," was signed to a contract by films. Jeffrey Hunter turns in student body, recipient of a 20th that very month. under Ford's influence the best Citizenship Award and a scholar- "Although there was some performance of his young career." ship in radio for his freshman year variety in the roles Jeffrey Hunter Hunter's career started early, in at Northwestern University, where portrayed, he usually left the im- Milwaukee, where his parents moved when he was about four. "We had a big backyard," he once said, "and I was always putting on a carnival or circus. I had a puppet show, too, and I also did magic tricks." He made his thespian bow playing a 60-year-old man in "Goldilocks and the Three Bears" for the Children's Theatre in Mil- waukee. And he must have been pretty good. "I always expected perfection from Hank," said his mother in an interview in Photoplay (July 1956), "but I wasn't conscious of it at the time. What mothers are? Nat- urally, I wouldn't do it again. It isn't fair and I'm sure it put a great strain on him. above all, we wanted him to be a fine person." Referring to his happy, har- monious home life, Jeff once told As John Brown's son with Debra Paget and Raymond Massey (Seven Angry Men). 61 pression of the serious, tall, dark- out of her way to observe that his haired, clean-cut American youth courtesy toward and consideration he played in a brief romantic for her would be remarkable any- interlude with Debra Paget in where but especially in Holly- Fourteen Hours, in which he made wood." Miss Peters co-starred with his debut in 1951," said The New Jeffrey in Lure of the Wilderness York Times obituary, adding: ('52) and then later was the Mrs., "A dedicated performer who then ex-Mrs. Howard Hughes. Said carefully studied his roles, Mr. Meyer: "Hunter's tentative love Hunter was perhaps best known scenes with Miss Peters were ex- [besides for his role of Jesus in the traordinarily touching." 1961 King of King] for his por- Many people agreed with Miss trayals of Frank James in the 1957 Peters in her thoughts on Hunter. True Story of Jesse James, as an And one friend once said, "He's the American raised by Japanese Nisei first good-looking actor I've met in the 1960 war drama, Hell to who wasn't hopelessly in love with Eternity, as the newspaper nephew himself." of Spencer Tracy in the 1957 The Hunter himself once quipped, Last Hurrah, and as a son of John "This face of mine. Shouldn't the Brown in the 1955 Seven Angry As he appeared in The Searchers (1956). ravages of time be doing something Men." to it?" In his second film, Hunter had a idol on its lot. After an interview with Hunter brief scene as a barracks buddy of Critic Irene Thirer called Hunter when he'd just returned from Dan Dailey in Call Me Mister ('51), "violet-eyed and handsome in color Chicago, where he'd played The then played a college fraternity film" when she reviewed The Rainmaker at Carl Stone's Pheas- snob who lost sorority girl Jeanne Proud Ones (1956). "Hunter is an ant Run Playhouse, Florabel Muir Crain to Dale Robertson in Take extraordinarily handsome—almost wrote in The Daily News on May Care of My Little Girl. pretty—actor, but such looks can 31, 1961: "I talked to Jeffrey Jeffrey got his first featured be a drawback and a distraction in Hunter, whose eyes seem to get billing in his fourth film, The poorly developed roles," wrote bigger and bluer with the years, Frogmen, which starred Richard Variety in its review of No Man Is and whose prematurely graying Widmark. And he received star An Island (1962). hair is making him even more billing for the first time (after "Did Hunter's good looks make handsome than when he was Widmark and Constance Smith) in him arrogant, overbearing and younger." his fifth film, Red Skies of hard to work with?" asked Jim To interviewer Sally Hammond Montana, in which he played a Meyer in his article, "Notes on for an article in The New York Post young forest ranger with a grudge Jeffrey Hunter and His Films" in in September of 68, Barbara Rush against Widmark. The picture had Filmograph (Vol. IV, No. 2) and called Hunter "the handsomest a spectacular forest fire—and then gave this answer: "Possibly I've ever seen" and said it was love Jeffrey—in Technicolor, and the not, when one recalls that Jean at first sight, she was quite sure, studio knew it had a new teen-age Peters, a co-star of his, once went because of his blue eyes. Hunter and Barbara, a Paramount starlet then, eloped on Dec.
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