Jeffrey Hunter Movies

Want to know the best Jeffrey Hunter movies?  How about the worst Jeffrey Hunter movies?  Curious about Jeffrey Hunter box office grosses or which Jeffrey Hunter movie picked up the most Oscar® nominations? Need to know which Jeffrey Hunter movie got the best reviews from critics and audiences and which got the worst reviews? Well, you have come to the right place….because we have all of that information.

Jeffrey Hunter (1926-1969) was an American actor.   Hunter was known for his roles in films such as The Searchers and King of Kings.  On television, Hunter was known for his 1965 role as Capt. Christopher Pike in the original pilot episode of Star Trek.  His IMDb page shows 69 acting credits between 1950 to 1969.  This page will rank Jeffrey Hunter movies from Best to Worst in six different sortable columns of information. Television shows, shorts, cameos, uncredited roles, and movies that we unable to find box office grosses on were not included in the rankings. This page comes from a request by Mike, as well as some help from Mike.

1956’s The Searchers

Jeffrey Hunter Movies Ranked In Chronological Order With Ultimate Movie Rankings Score (1 to 5 UMR Tickets) *Best combo of box office, reviews and awards.

King of Kings (1961)

Jeffrey Hunter Movies Can Be Ranked 6 Ways In This Table

The really cool thing about this table is that it is “user-sortable”. Rank the movies any way you want.

  • Sort Jeffrey Hunter movies by his co-stars
  • Sort Jeffrey Hunter movies by adjusted domestic box office grosses using current movie ticket cost.
  • Sort Jeffrey Hunter movies by domestic yearly box office rank
  • Sort Jeffrey Hunter movies how they were received by critics and audiences.  60% rating or higher should indicate a good movie.
  • Sort by how many Oscar® nominations and how many Oscar® wins each Jeffrey Hunter movie received.
  • Sort Jeffrey Hunter movies by Ultimate Movie Rankings (UMR) Score.  UMR Score puts box office, reviews and awards into a mathematical equation and gives each movie a score.

Sergeant Rutledge (1960)

Possibly Interesting Facts About Jeffrey Hunter

1. Henry Herman “Hank” McKinnies Jr. was born in New Orleans, Louisiana in 1926.

2. Darryl F. Zanuck of Fox offered McKinnies a long term contract after a successful screen test with Ed Begley.  The young actor agreed and the studio changed his name to “Jeffrey Hunter” in 1950.

3.   Tab Hunter wrote in his memoir that he was in Madrid in 1967 to make “The Christmas Kid” and ran into Jeffrey Hunter, who was there to make “The Cups of San Sebastian“.  Figuring that the producers of either movie wouldn’t know the difference between Tab and Jeffrey, they decided to switch roles. Neither the producers nor anyone else involved with the making of either movie, apparently, knew the difference either.

4.  Jeffrey Hunter was the first friend actor Roger Moore made in Hollywood. In his autobiography, Moore says he named his son Geoffrey Moore in his honor.

5.  Jeffrey Hunter 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”.

Check out Jeffrey Hunter’s career compared to current and classic actors.  Most 100 Million Dollar Movies of All-Time.

Steve’s Jeffrey Hunter YouTube Video

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41 thoughts on “Jeffrey Hunter Movies

  1. I saw 3 including top 2. 10 and favorite the longest day. 10 not favorite and hidden gem the last hurrah (incredible cast). 9 not favorite the searchers.

    1. Hey Bob….I find it very interesting that you have The Last Hurrah ahead of The Searchers. I guess, I have not read much about you liking westerns. I have seen The Last Hurrah…one of the last movies that had Spencer Tracy carrying the whole load of the movie on his back. Thanksf or the visit and the tally count. Good stuff.

  2. Considering his extreme good looks, that he starred next to John Wayne in the classic John Ford western, The Searchers, and that he played Jesus in the 1961 box office hit, King of Kings, it’s a little surprising that Jeffrey Hunter did not attain more popularity during his lifetime. In the 1950s, he was often cast as second male lead, notably 4 times to Robert Wagner, and after his success with King of Kings, he quickly fell into low-budget features before meeting a very unfortunate premature death. Still Hunter made a number of memorable films and of course the TV classic Star Trek episodes The Cage/The Menagerie. My favorites are The Searchers, No Down Payment, Sergeant Rutledge and The Longest Day where I thought Hunter made a strong impression as the army engineer managing to blow a hole through the German wall on Omaha Beach (unfortunate he does most of all the work but gets shots just before the explosion). I also liked Hunter in the war films Hell to Eternity, Sailor of the King and No Man Is an Island.

    1. Hey PhilHoF17…good to hear from you….glad you are surviving the Covid19 days. Good points about Hunter not becoming a bigger star. I am a huge movie person (in case you did not know)…but I have only seen a handful of his movies. An argument could be made he is not the reason I have seen the ones I have seen. John Wayne, All-Star casts, John Ford directed movies and Jesus are why I watched the ones I have watched.

      I have seen all of your favorites with the exception of No Down Payment. I need to re-watch The Longest Day….I have an ultimate special version of that on Blu-Ray….but it has remained unopened on my DVD case for years. Thanks for another great comment. Good stuff.

      1. Thanks for the feedback Bruce. Yes it’s no secret that you are a big movie person, lol. By the way, though I’m not a big fan of Jeffrey Hunter, I like him more than Tab Hunter and I count 13 films on the list that I’ve seen. Do I win something? 🙂

        1. Hey PhilHoF17….latest tally count: Bob 17, PhilHoF17 13, Flora 12, Greg 8, Steve 7 and Cogerson 5. So you get the silver medal…and 6 months of free UMR internet access….Bob gets a year. So close but Bob gets a rare victory.

          1. HI PHIL

            Thanks for the acknowledgement and congrats on your silver medal. The big prize though is two of us beating Flora. There will be two blue moons in the sky when that happens again.

            However being a modest chap and a supporter of feminism I welcome a woman consistently whiipping the a***s of the men; whereas most likely two know-it-alls such as Bruce and Steve often can’t sleep at night thinking of Flora’s “have seen” movies successes!

  3. I have seen 8 Jeffrey Hunter movies. The HIGHEST ranked movie I have seen is THE SEARCHERS. The LOWEST ranked movie I have seen is A KISS BEFORE DYING. The highest ranked movie I haven’t seen is KING OF KINGS. Favorites include THE SEARCHERS, SERGEANT RUTLEDGE, THE LONGEST DAY, and THE LAST HURRAH. Other Jeffrey Hunter movies I have seen are BELLES ON THEIR TOES, NO DOWN DAYMENT, A KISS BEFORE DYING and HELL TO ETERNITY.

    1. Hey Greg….your 8 is among the leaders….my total is very low. I have seen all of your favorites….but none of your “other Hunter” movies. A Kiss Before Dying seems like the one, that gets the most support these days. As for King of Kings….a good movie…and Hunter is very good as the chosen one. Good comment.

  4. In the 1955 White Feather Robert Wagner made a big thing of taking out a comb and combing his hair to show nonchalance in embarrassing or dangerous situations.

    In the 1958-64 television series 77 Sunset Strip as the character “Kookie” Edward “Ed” Byrnes [not to be confused with the later Edward Burns] carried on in a similar fashion and ended up getting a hit record with the song “Kookie Kookie lend me your comb.”

    “Kookie, Kookie, lend me your comb
    Kookie, Kookie?
    Well now, let’s take it from the top and grab some wheels
    We’ll wheel along and talk about some cuckoo deals
    But Kookie, Kookie, lend me your comb.
    Kookie, Kookie, lend me your comb
    Kookie, Kookie?

    If you ever cut out, you might be a stray cat
    ‘Cause when I’m flyin’ solo, nowhere’s we’re on that!
    Kookie, Kookie, lend me your comb.

    [Sung by Connie Stevens and Edward Byrnes]

  5. Jeffrey Hunter had a lot of personal problems which contributed to the downfall of his career.

    1. Hey Joan…..thanks for checking out our Jeffrey Hunter page. I agree some personal problems contributed to his career struggles at the end of his career. Good comment.

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