Hunter & Wagner

Ah, oh yes, Robert Wagner and Jeffrey Hunter.  Back in the day I was pretty crazy about the pair of them although I had a decided leaning for Hunter.  They both were brought on as young contract players at 20th Century Fox in 1950.  Those hired in that decade were far different than those under contract to the studio in the 1940's.  Fox was going for clean-cut, young romantic leads.


Others at the studio in those days were Jean Peters, Debra Paget, Richard Egan, Don Murray, Hope Lange, Bradford Dillman, Stuart Whitman, Diane Baker, Tony Franciosa, Sheree North, Stephen Boyd, Joan Collins and of course, Marilyn Monroe.  Hunter and Wagner (particularly the latter) were cut-ups, playful, good actors and developed a large fan following very quickly.  Of course they seemed to find one another very quickly and became close friends, at least around the studio.  They also became friendly rivals for some of the same parts.  They would also appear in seven films together.

Jeff Hunter

Hunter was born in 1926 in New Orleans but grew up in Milwaukee. He began performing in his teens, did some summer stock and radio and then spent a short time in the Navy.  From there is entered Northwestern University in Illinois and received a B.A. degree in drama.  He then moved to Los Angeles and attended UCLA working toward a Master's in drama and radio.  It was here that he was discovered by both Paramount and Fox.  The latter's Darryl F. Zanuck realized the competition for Hunter's services and quickly offered him a seven-year contract.

 

Robert Wagner

Wagner was born in Detroit in 1930.  Both he and Hunter were named after their fathers but Wagner would forever be known as R.J.  He wanted to be an actor at least as early as when the family moved to L.A. when he was seven.  He never studied acting and probably thought his good looks, his knack for sartorial splendor and immense charm would do the trick and it seems it did.  He was discovered at a Beverly Hills restaurant with his parents.  He signed with the infamous Henry Willson, who interestingly enough did not give him one of his specialty names as he had Rock Hudson, Rory Calhoun, Guy Madison and Troy Donahue.

Both actors' Fox careers started off in ingenue parts.  Hunter took his shirt off a little more and was elevated to more dramatic parts a little sooner than Wagner.  Wagner, however, worked with bigger name actors at the time like Susan Hayward, James Cagney, Claudette Colbert and Clifton Webb.

Boys will be boys

They first appeared together in The Frogmen (1951), a war drama about the Navy Underwater Demolition Team.  It proved exciting and brought in the public who oohed and aahed over the two new stars although the leads were Fox reliables, Richard Widmark and Dana Andrews.  It was the only film in which Hunter was billed over Wagner.

By the time of their next pairing in 1955, both had risen in the ranks.  Hunter was impressive in Red Skies of Montana, Lure of the Wilderness and Sailor of the King.  Wagner was lucky enough to get into bigger films such as With a Song in My Heart, Stars and Stripes Forever and Titanic, both with his newest good pal, Clifton Webb.

In 1955 came one of my favorite B westerns, White Feather.  It featured Wagner as an understanding Indian agent, loved by both Debra Paget and Virginia Leith, and trying to establish peace with the Cheyenne.  Hunter plays the renegade, Little Dog, who rebuffs his frenemie's efforts.  The ending of this film is both exciting and touching. 

Peace offering in White Feather

It looked like Wagner had the edge.  He was top-billed in White Feather while Hunter was fourth.  But while they were working in other projects, things turned around.  John Ford hired Hunter to become one of the title stars in the western classic, The Searchers (1956).  It is the best film that Hunter (or Wagner, for that matter) would ever make.  It was one of those parts that the friends vied for.  Despite having worked for Ford earlier in a bit part, Wagner was not one of the director's favorites while Ford would work with Hunter twice more (The Last Hurrah and Sergeant Rutledge).  Hunter was wonderfully paired with John Wayne, had good comic scenes with Vera Miles and tender ones with Natalie Wood.  I always wished she and Hunter had worked together in a contemporary love story.  That was a lot of beauty up there on that screen.  Wood and Wagner had begun spending time together off screen.

While Hunter was hitting home runs as Martin Pawley in The Searchers, Wagner put on a silly wig to play Prince Valiant while looking more like Jane Wyman playing Princess Valiant.  The public was taken in but critics and Hollywood honchos harpooned the actor.  Even good work in Broken Lance couldn't erase the memory of Valiant.

Wagner needed to change some people's minds about his talent and choices and it seemed to work in A Kiss Before Dying (1956), playing a social-climbing killer, which he nailed.  Watching him push Joanne Woodward off a rooftop is chilling.  Hunter is along as a cop.

A Kiss Before Dying

The True Story of Jesse James (1957) is the usual untrue hooey about the famous outlaw brothers but it was a yummy pairing of the two actors.  Western garb looked good on them and Fox added a generous dose of its rosy Technicolor.  Hope Lange as Jesse's wife and Agnes Moorehead as the boys' mother added some class.

With Hope Lange in The True Story of Jesse James

The inevitable rumors floated around Hollywood about them... not surprisingly.  They were two handsome, young actors who kept making movies together.  Maybe no one whispered those things about Abbott and Costello, but this was Wagner and Hunter.  Neither was happy about it.

Lange and a whole slew of Fox folks (Brad Dillman, Sheree North, Dana Wynter, France Nuyen and Mort Sahl) joined up for In Love and War (1958), a quite decent look at life on and off the battlefield.  This time Hunter was married to Lange and Wagner and North were paired.  Here's a pic of the cast:

Mardi Gras (1958) shouldn't be counted because Hunter and Wagner only played themselves in brief cameos.  They and most of American and European superstars appeared in Zanuck's ambitious and wildly-successful war epic, The Longest Day (1962) but they had no scenes together.  Nonetheless, it was the last time they would share screen credit for the same film.

I am sure I saw all of their work in the 50's, no matter how minor.  I thought they both made very appealing films.  We know how I loved 20th Century Fox and all who called it home.  Each appeared in a lot of B work but also quality work.  Their early promise seemed to predict bright careers and lives but it didn't happen.

Hunter's career after The Longest Day became very mediocre.  He appeared in a great deal of television and a few forgettable movies. I wish I knew why this was so... I don't get it.  Perhaps his career could have been revived later but we'll never know because in 1969 he died at age 42 from a stroke that was a result of a fall down a flight of stairs.

Wagner's movie career careened into dark waters after the superior 1963 comedy, The Pink Panther, and the murky detective yarn Harper (1966).  Except for a brief turn in The Towering Inferno (1974), he's been almost exclusively a television staple with multiple series' and a host of movies.  His life hasn't worked out so well either.  

I am pleased to have seen both of them.  I said in my earlier posting on Hunter that I stood behind him in a line at a post office and I ran into Wagner several times when I caddied at the Bel Air Country Club.



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