Kim Hunter was born Janet Cole in Detroit, Michigan, on November
12, 1922, the daughter of Grace Lind, who was trained as a concert pianist, and
Donald Cole, a refrigeration engineer. She attended Miami Beach High School.
Her first film role was in the 1943 film noir, The Seventh
Victim. In 1947, she performed in the original Broadway production of A
Streetcar Named Desire, playing the role of Stella Kowalski. Recreating that
role in the 1951 film version, Hunter won both the Academy and Golden Globe
Awards for Best Supporting Actress. In the interim, however, back in 1948, she
had already joined with 'Streetcar' co-stars Marlon Brando, Karl Malden, and 47
others, to become one of the very first members accepted by the newly created
Actors’ Studio.
In 1952, fresh on the heels of her Supporting Actress Oscar,
Hunter would become Humphrey Bogart's leading lady in Deadline USA. From Brando
to Bogart, both critical and commercial success; it certainly seemed that
Kim's star was on the rise. For Kim, however, as for so many, such
certainties were about to be short-circuited.
Kim was blacklisted from film and television in the 1950s,
amid suspicions of communism in Hollywood, during the McCarthy Era. She still
appeared in an episode of CBS's anthology series Appointment with Adventure and
NBC's Justice, based on case files of the New York Legal Aid Society.
In 1956, with McCarthyism subsiding, she co-starred in Rod
Serling's Peabody Award winning teleplay on Playhouse 90, Requiem for a
Heavyweight. The telecast won multiple Emmy Awards, including Best Single
Program of the Year. She appeared opposite Mickey Rooney in the 1957 live
CBS-TV broadcast of The Comedian, another drama written by Rod Serling and
directed by John Frankenheimer. In 1959 she appeared in Rawhide season 1/16
episode Incident of the Misplaced Indians as Amelia Spaulding. In 1962, she
appeared in the NBC medical drama The Eleventh Hour in the role of Virginia
Hunter in the episode "Of Roses and Nightingales and Other Lovely
Things". In 1963, Hunter appeared as Anita Anson on the ABC medical drama
Breaking Point in the episode "Crack in an Image". In 1965, she
appeared twice as Emily Field in the NBC TV medical series Dr Kildare. In
1967, she appeared in the pilot episode of Mannix. In 1968 she
appeared as Ada Halle in the NBC TV western series Bonanza in the episode
"The Price of Salt".
Her other major film roles include the love interest of David
Niven's character in the film A Matter of Life and Death (1946), and Zira, the
sympathetic chimpanzee scientist in the 1968 film Planet of the Apes and two
sequels. She also appeared in several radio and TV soap operas, most notably as
Nola Madison on TV's The Edge of Night, for which she received a Daytime Emmy
Award nomination as Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series in 1980. In 1979
she appeared as First Lady Ellen Axson Wilson in the serial drama Backstairs at
the White House.
Hunter starred in the controversial TV movie Born Innocent
(1974) playing the mother of Linda Blair's character. She also starred in
several episodes of the CBS Radio Mystery Theatre during the mid-1970s. In 1971
she appeared in an episode of Cannon. In the same year she starred in a Columbo
episode "Suitable for Framing." In 1973, she appeared twice on Lorne
Greene's short-lived ABC crime drama Griff, including the episode "The
Last Ballad", in which she portrayed Dr Martha Reed, an abortionist held
by police in the death of a patient. In 1974, she appeared on Raymond Burr's
Ironside. In 1977, she appeared on the NBC western series The Oregon Trail
starring Rod Taylor, in the episode "The Waterhole", which also
featured Lonny Chapman.
Although not recognizable because of the costume and make-up,
Hunter's most frequently played movie role was that of Dr Zira in the film
Planet of the Apes and its first two sequels.
Kim Hunter died of a heart attack in New York City on September
11, 2002, nearly two months shy of her 80th birthday.
She received two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, one
for motion pictures at 1615 Vine Street and a second for television at 1715
Vine Street.
- from Wikipedia (edited)
A Matter Of Life And Death (1946)
A Streetcar Named Desire (1951) with Marlon Brando
Planet Of The Apes (1968) with Buck Kartalian
Beneath The Planet Of The Apes (1970)
Planet Of The Apes (1968) with Roddy McDowall
Deadline - USA (1951) with Humphrey Bogart
A Matter Of Life And Death (1946) with David Niven
Escape From The Planet Of The Apes (1971) with Sal Mineo and Roddy McDowall
A Matter Of Life And Death (1946)
Planet Of The Apes (1968)
Planet Of The Apes (1968) with Charlton Heston
Kim attends the New York premiere of Tim Burton's Planet Of The Apes, July 23rd 2001.
Kim Hunter was a much-loved actress and a much-loved ape. Strangely, her biography on IMDb doesn't mention her Planet Of The Apes appearances at all!
Her Zira makeup, which at first took five hours to apply (it was later trimmed down to three and a half), made her feel claustrophobic and she was prescribed valium to help get her through it.
Kim Hunter, 1922 - 2002.
