During the 1950s and 1960s, in his twenties and thirties, Hunter was a Hollywood heart-throb, acting in numerous roles and appearing on the covers of hundreds of magazines.

His notable screen credits include Battle Cry (1955), The Girl He Left Behind (1956), Gunman's Walk (1958), Damn Yankees (1958), and Polyester (1981) .

He was raised in California, living with his mother, his brother, and his maternal grandparents, John Henry and Ida (née Sonnenfleth) Gelien; the family resided in San Francisco, Long Beach and Los Angeles.

[8] Dick Clayton introduced Gelien to agent Henry Willson, who specialized in representing beefcake male stars such as Robert Wagner and Rock Hudson.

Small used him again for a war film, The Steel Lady (1953), supporting Rod Cameron, and as the lead in an adventure tale, Return to Treasure Island (1954).

[citation needed] His breakthrough role came when he was cast as the young Marine Danny in 1955's World War II drama Battle Cry, which was the year's third most financially successful film.

It was based on a bestseller by Leon Uris and became Warner Bros.' largest grossing film that year, cementing Hunter's position as one of Hollywood's top young romantic leads.

The innuendo-laced article, and a second one focusing on Rory Calhoun's prison record, were the result of a deal Henry Willson had brokered with the scandal rag in exchange for not revealing to the public the sexual orientation of his more prominent client, Rock Hudson.

Hunter, James Dean, and Natalie Wood were the last actors to be placed under an exclusive studio contract at Warner Bros. Warner decided to promote him to star status, teaming him with Natalie Wood in two films, a Western, The Burning Hills (1956), directed by Heisler, and The Girl He Left Behind (1956), a service comedy.

Hunter received strong critical acclaim for a television performance he gave in the debut episode of Playhouse 90 ("Forbidden Area", 1956) written by Rod Serling and directed by John Frankenheimer.

"[15] Hunter starred in the musical film Damn Yankees (1958), in which he played Joe Hardy of Washington, D.C.'s American League baseball club.

He also appeared in the western They Came to Cordura (1959) (with Gary Cooper and Rita Hayworth) and starred in the romantic drama That Kind of Woman (1959) (with Sophia Loren).

[citation needed] Hunter's failure to win the role of Tony in the film adaptation of West Side Story (1961) prompted him to agree to star in a weekly television sitcom.

He stayed in England to make another picture for AIP, the science fiction film War Gods of the Deep (1965) starring Vincent Price.

[19] For a short time in the late 1960s, after several seasons of starring in summer stock and dinner theater in shows such as Bye Bye Birdie, The Tender Trap, Under the Yum Yum Tree,[20] and West Side Story with some of the New York cast, Hunter settled in the south of France and acted in some Italian films including Vengeance Is My Forgiveness (1968), The Last Chance (1968), and Bridge over the Elbe (1969).

He won a co-starring role in the successful western film The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean (1972), starring Paul Newman.

[citation needed] Hunter's career was revived in the 1980s,[2] when he starred opposite actor Divine in John Waters' Polyester (1981) and Paul Bartel's Lust in the Dust (1985).

Hunter, a longstanding horse owner,[22] wrote the original story and co-produced the film with his life partner, Allan Glaser.

According to William L. Hamilton of The New York Times, detailed reports about Hunter's alleged romances with close friends Debbie Reynolds and Natalie Wood during his young adult years had been strictly the product of studio publicity departments.

And then my Hollywood life, which was just trying to learn my craft and succeed..." The star emphasized that the word "'gay' ... wasn't even around in those days, and if anyone ever confronted me with it, I'd just kinda freak out.

"[28] "There was a lot written about my sexuality, and the press was pretty darn cruel," the actor said, but what "moviegoers wanted to hold in their hearts were the boy-next-door marines, cowboys, and swoon-bait sweethearts I portrayed.

"[30] He also had relationships with champion figure skater Ronnie Robertson, actor Neal Noorlag, and Soviet-born ballet dancer Rudolf Nureyev before settling down and marrying his partner/spouse of more than 35 years, film producer Allan Glaser.

[22] On July 8, 2018, three days shy of his 87th birthday, Hunter died after suffering cardiac arrest that arose from complications related to deep vein thrombosis.