Background

Kim Hunter was born on November 12, 1922, in Detroit, Michigan. She was the daughter of Grace Lind, a concert pianist, and Donald Cole, a refrigeration engineer.

Education

Kim Hunter attended Miami Beach High School. Also, she studied acting in Miami with Charmine Lantaff Canine between 1938 to 1940.

Career

Kim Hunter acted in school and made her professional debut at the age of seventeen in a Miami Women's Club production of Penny Wise. After education, she moved to California, where a talent scout saw her in a production of Arsenic and Old Lace.

Kim Hunter's film debut came in 1943 with the horror movie The Seventh Victim. In 1947 she starred as Stella in the stage version of Streetcar, and in 1950 she toured with a road production of Two Blind Mice. However, Kim was in unpleasantness in the 1950s. She learned that she had put on the blacklists of the television networks for her involvement in a peace rally. Although she won an Academy Award and a Golden Globe Award for playing Stella in the 1951 film adaptation of Streetcar, she was blackballed by television networks and movie studios for several years.

Kim Hunter finally reemerged in 1956 in the movie Storm Center. Despite this unjust treatment, she did not hold a grudge and continued to work on stage, in movies, and all kinds of television shows. Kim acted two years on the soap opera Edge of Night and in series such as Marcus Welby, M.D., and Ironside. Kim was probably best remembered for playing Doctor Zira alongside Charlton Heston in the 1968 film The Planet of the Apes as well as in its sequels. Other significant stage productions she acted included The Lion in Winter, Death of a Salesman, The Cocktail Hour, and The Gin Game. Some of Kim's other films include A Canterbury Tale, Bermuda Affair, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, and, most recently, The Hiding Place, Abilene, and Old Hats.

Besides, Kim Hunter was a writer. She was the author of two books: Kim Hunter: Loose in the Kitchen and Jesus Died on the Electric Chair.

Achievements

• Kim Hunter was widely known as an actress. She was the holder of an Academy Award and a Golden Globe Award for playing Stella in the 1951 film adaptation of Streetcar. Also, Kim was a nominate to a Daytime Emmy Award in the Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series category in the film The Edge of Night. One more Kim's memorable role was a Doctor Zira in the 1968 film The Planet of the Apes. Besides, as a writer, Kim Hunter was the author of two books: Kim Hunter: Loose in the Kitchen and Jesus Died on the Electric Chair.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Loose in the kitchen 1975

• movie

  • A Matter of Life and Death

    (After miraculously surviving a jump from his burning plan...)

    1946
  • The Young Stranger

    (Before he gained his fame directing cinematic masterpiece...)

    1957
  • The Hiding Place

    (Screen legends Timothy Bottoms and Kim Greist join forces...)

    2000
  • Storm Center

    (Directed and co-scripted by Daniel Taradash (From Here To...)

    1956
  • Beneath the Planet of the Apes

    (In the acclaimed sequel to Planet of the Apes, another as...)

    1970
  • Money, Women and Guns

    (Just after making a large gold discovery, an old prospect...)

    1958
  • Watch A Streetcar Named Desire

    (A neurotic belle Blanche du Bois struggles to hold on to ...)

    1951
  • Deadline U.S.A.

    (Screen legend Humphrey Bogart (Casablanca) stars as a fic...)

    1952
  • Escape from the Planet of the Apes

    (Roddy McDowall and Kim Hunter reprise their roles from th...)

    1971
  • A Canterbury Tale

    (A 'Land Girl,' an American GI, and a British soldier find...)

    1944
  • When Strangers Marry

    (Before he made Betrayed, Robert Mitchum was picking up oc...)

    1944
  • A Price Above Rubies

    (This widely acclaimed motion picture features outstanding...)

    1998
  • Tender Comrade

    (Their husbands are thousands of miles away from home, ris...)

    1943
  • The Seventh Victim 1943
  • Anything Can Happen 1952
  • Lilith 1964
  • Planet Of The Apes 1968
  • The Swimmer 1968
  • Jennifer on My Mind 1971
  • Dark August 1976
  • The Kindred 1987
  • Due Occhi Diabolici 1990
  • Out of the Cold 1999
  • Here's to Life 2000

Views

Kim Hunter advocated for civil rights.

Quotations: "There is nothing quite as silent as the silence during the shooting of a film in a studio."

"That's fairly accurate, I think, for a great number of us. Becoming a star wouldn't have bothered me, but what is a star? A star isn't anything. An actor acts. That's the important thing."

"I see my work as visual meditations on the human experience and my attempts to capture the thin, otherwordly realm I believe exists between what we see and what we cannot."

Connections

Kim Hunter's first husband was William Baldwin. They married in 1944 and divorced in 1946. Then, Kim married Robert Emmett in 1951. Kim Hunter had two children, a daughter from her first marriage, Kathryn Deirdre, and a son from her second marriage, Sean Robert.

Father:

Donald Cole

Mother:

Grace Lind

colleague:

Karl Malden

Karl Malden was an American award-winning actor.

colleague:

David Niven

David Niven was an English actor.

husband:

William Baldwin

William Baldwin was Kim Hunter's first husband. They divorced in 1946. William was a Marine Corps pilot.

husband:

Robert Emmett

Robert Emmett was Kim Hunter's second husband. He was an American actor.

Daughter:

Kathryn Deirdre

Son:

Sean Robert

colleague:

Marlon Brando

Marlon Brando was an American widely considered the greatest movie actor.