Hunter was born in New Orleans, Louisiana, the son of Edith Lois (née Burgess) and Henry Herman McKinnies.

[1]: 5–6 From 1942 to 1945, he spent his summers appearing in small roles for a touring summer-stock theater company from New York called the Northport Players.

Although he served during World War II, he did not see any battle duty because of a broken arch bone suffered in a high-school football injury.

[4] In college, Hunter appeared in two NU stage productions, including Ruth Gordon's Years Ago (as Captain Absolute).

He also acted with the NU Theatre summer-stock company at Eagles Mere, Pennsylvania, in 1947, appearing in Too Many Husbands, The Late George Apley, Payment Deferred, The Merchant of Venice, and Fata Morgana.

In 1950, he was appearing in a college production of All My Sons (in the role of Chris) and was spotted by talent scouts from 20th Century Fox and Paramount.

[2] Fox started off Hunter in a small role in Fourteen Hours (1951), shot in New York City for director Henry Hathaway; Debra Paget and he were two young people who connect while watching a man about to jump off a ledge.

He had a two-minute scene in Call Me Mister (1951) and was a "campus Casanova" in a Jeanne Crain drama, Take Care of My Little Girl (1952), directed by Jean Negulesco.

[1]: 25 Marilyn Monroe later gave an interview where she discussed Hunter's appeal: To me, Jeff is the acme of young American manhood.

[7]Fox gave Hunter his first starring role in Lure of the Wilderness (1952), a remake of Swamp Water, directed by Negulesco and opposite Jean Peters.

After Dreamboat (1952), where Hunter supported Clifton Webb and Ginger Rogers, he was given his best role yet, the starring part in a war film, Sailor of the King (1953), based on C. S. Forester's book, Brown on Resolution.

"[9] Fox lent him out, along with Debra Paget, to Allied Artists to play the abolitionist Owen Brown in Seven Angry Men (1955), with Raymond Massey in the lead.

Disney borrowed him to play William Allen Fuller in the Civil War action movie The Great Locomotive Chase (1956), opposite Fess Parker.

[11] The success of The Searchers and The Great Locomotive Chase reignited Fox's interest in Hunter and the studio re-signed him, while giving him the right to make one "outside" film a year.

Hunter went over to Universal Studios and supported another older star, Fred MacMurray, in another Western, Gun for a Coward (1957), in a role originally meant for James Dean.

He was one of several leads in Fox's look at young people, No Down Payment (1957) – not a big hit, but the early work for director Martin Ritt received some critical acclaim.

In October 1957, Hunter started shooting for his role in the Universal film If I Should Die (later Appointment with a Shadow), but collapsed following his first day on the set, and was replaced by George Nader.

John Ford used him for a third (and final) time as the lead in the Western legal drama Sergeant Rutledge (1960) starring Woody Strode, and the film was not a big success.

There are some things that can't be measured in dollars and cents and how can anyone put a price—even the price of a million-dollar career—on the role of the greatest Being this mortal world has ever known?

"[19] When Hunter returned to Hollywood, he deliberately selected parts that were different, such as that of a psychopathic killer in an episode of Checkmate and as the lead in a heist thriller Man-Trap (1961), directed by actor Edmond O'Brien.

Hunter provided a climactic heroic moment playing a sergeant who is killed while leading a successful attempt to breach the defense wall atop Omaha Beach in Normandy.

He was set to costar with Spencer Tracy and James Stewart in The Long Flight when he received an offer to appear in a television show.

Temple Houston did not survive beyond 26 weeks, and in 1964, Hunter accepted the lead role of Captain Christopher Pike in "The Cage", the first pilot episode of Star Trek, completed in early 1965 (with a copyright date of 1964).

[24][25] 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 an occasional television guest part in Hollywood.

After a cameo in A Guide for the Married Man (1967), Hunter took the lead role in a Western shot in Spain for Sidney W. Pink, The Christmas Kid (1967).

He appeared in Italian films such as Sexy Susan Sins Again (1968) and Cry Chicago (1969), and was set to make A Band of Brothers with Vince Edwards when he died.

After landing, Hunter was taken to Good Samaritan Hospital in Los Angeles, but doctors could not find any serious injuries except for a displaced vertebra and a concussion.

You may be certain I hold no grudge or ill feelings and expect to continue to reflect publicly and privately the high regard I learned for you during the production of our pilot.David Alexander, Star Trek Creator: The Authorized Biography of Gene Roddenberry, Roc, 1994, p. 244.