Jeffrey Hunter

Jeffrey Hunter (November 25, 1926 – May 27, 1969)

Hunter was a film and television actor and producer known for his roles in classic films such as The Searchers and King of Kings. On television, Hunter was known, following his death, for his 1965 role as Capt. Christopher Pike in the original pilot episode of Star Trek and the later use of that footage in "The Menagerie". He supported Robert Ryan in a Western, The Proud Ones (1956). Hunter went over to Universal and supported another older star, Fred MacMurray in another Western, Gun for a Coward (1957), in a role originally meant for James Dean. Back at Fox, Hunter was reunited with Robert Wagner as the James brothers in The True Story of Jesse James (1957), directed by Nicholas Ray (Hunter played Frank); it was mildly popular although considered a critical disappointment. Fox gave him a leading role, The Way to the Gold (1957), another Western. It was low budget but proved profitable. He was one of several leads in Fox's look at young people, No Down Payment (1957) - not a big hit but it received some critical acclaim, an early work for director Martin Ritt. Fox sent him to Britain to be an American star in a British war film once more: Count Five and Die (1957). With the demise of the studio contract system in the early 1960s and the outsourcing of much feature production, Hunter, like many other leading men of the 1950s, found work in B movies produced in Italy, Hong Kong, and Mexico, with the occasional television guest part in Hollywood. A second divorce and dispute with his manager left him wiped out financially. While in Spain in November 1968 to film Cry Chicago (¡Viva América!), a story of the Chicago Mafia, Hunter was injured in an on-set explosion when a car window near him, which had been rigged to explode outward, accidentally exploded inward. Hunter sustained a serious concussion.

According to Hunter's wife Emily, he "went into shock" on the plane ride back to the United States after filming and "couldn't speak. He could hardly move." After landing, Hunter was taken to Good Samaritan Hospital in Los Angeles but doctors could not find any serious injuries save for a displaced vertebra and a concussion. On the afternoon of May 26, 1969, Hunter suffered an intracranial hemorrhage while on a three-stair set of steps at his home in Van Nuys, California. He fell, knocked over a planter, and struck his head on a banister, fracturing his skull. Hunter was taken to the hospital, where he died the following day at age 42. He is buried at Glen Haven Memorial Park, in Sylmar, California.