WEDNESDAY, MAY 28, 1969 carefully studied his roles, Mr. Jeffrey Hunter, Film Actor, Is Dead Hunter was perhaps best known for his portrayals of Frank James in the 1957 "The True HOLLYWOOD. May 27 (AP) biography. Mr. Hunter's simple did the aspiring actor feel he Story of Jesse James;" as an —Jeffrey Hunter, best known enactment was dignified and had made the grade. American raised by Japanese for his role of Jesus in the 1961 was treated respectfully by the Nisei in the 1960 war drama, motion picture "King of Kings," critics. "I was told I had really ar- "Hell to Eternity;" as the news- died today after brain surgery. In essaying that role. an as- rived," he once quipped, "Be- paper reporter nephew of Spen- He was 43 years old. signment avoided by most ac- cause they gave me almost as cer Tracy in the 1957 "The Last Mr. Hunter had been active tors because of religious scru- much ammunition as they gave Hurrah." and as a son of John in recent years in roles on tele- ples or barriers, he was per- John Wayne." Brown in the 1955 "Seven Angry vision and in movies made in A dedicated performer who Men." Europe. The police said he was sonifying a drive toward acting found unconscious yesterday at that dated back to childhood. his home. with a swollen right Mr. Hunter, whose real name was Henry H. McKinnies, Jr., eye. He underwent the surgery was born in New Orleans on at Valley Hospital last night. Nov. 25, 1925, the only child of a sales engineer. The family Began Career in 1951 moved to Milwaukee when the Although there was some va- boy was 4. riety in the roles Jeffrey Hunter He began serious acting stints portrayed, he usually left the on radio while he was a stu- impression of the serious, tall, dent at Whitefish Bay High dark-haired, clean-cut American School outside Milwaukee. He youth he played in a brief ro- performed on radio there in his mantic interlude with Dcbra senior year. He subsequently Paget in "Fourteen Hours," in appeared in summer stock and which he made his debut in radio in Chicago. After a stint 1951. in the Navy in 1945-46, he en- The more than 30 feature tered Northwestern University, films he made since then in- graduating in 1949. A scholar- cluded roles as Western heroes, ship took him to U.C.L.A. Later junior executives, soldiers, sail- a talent scout signed him after ors, a newspaperman, and seeing him in Arthur Miller's Jesus. "All My Sons." "King of Kings," produced by Not until 1956, when he was Samuel Bronston, was more a featured as a tough cowboy, in Natalie Wood, John Wayne and Jeffrey Hunter were the stars of John pageant than an attempt at John Ford's "The Searchers," Ford's 1956 western The Searchers. Included in the all-star cast of King of Kings (1961) were Jeffrey Hunter as Jesus and Siobhan McKenna as Mary..