JEFFREY HUNTER

Jeffrey Hunter was an actor from the 1950s to the 1960s. He was born in 1926. This extremely good looking actor surprisingly did not have much success in movies until he was 29, when he was given the role of John Wayne's nephew who accompanies him on his search in John Ford's The Searchers. Four years later he was cast as Jesus in Nicholas Ray's King of Kings, and even though he was 34, he was so young and handsome that some critics said the movie should have been called I Was a Teenage Jesus! He was Captain Christopher Pike in the 1966 TV pilot for Star Trek, but when the pilot was picked up as a series Hunter made the decision to not appear in the show so he could try to revitalize his movie career. That pilot, called The Cage was later adapted into a two-part episode of the series. He spent the next few years making European movies and TV appearances. In 1969, he had a stroke, and soon after fell down a flight of stairs and pased away at just 42 years old.