page_title: Jeffrey Hunter
section_title: Temple Houston
hierarchical_section_title: Jeffrey Hunter / Career / 20th Century Fox / Temple Houston
caption_attribution_description: Publicity photo of Jeffrey Hunter from the television program Temple Houston.
context_page_description: Jeffrey Hunter was an American film and television actor and producer known for his roles in films such as The Searchers and King of Kings. On television, Hunter was known for his 1965 role as Capt. Christopher Pike in the original pilot episode of Star Trek and the later use of that footage in "The Menagerie".
context_section_description: Having guest-starred on television dramas since the mid-1950s, Hunter was then offered a two-year contract by Warner Bros. studio boss Jack Warner that included starring as circuit-riding Texas lawyer Temple Lea Houston, the youngest son of Sam Houston, in the NBC series Temple Houston (1963–1964), which Hunter's production company co-produced. Jack Elam was his co-star, as gunslinger-turned-marshal George Taggart.
  Hunter described the Temple Houston that he sought to emulate as having "many sides to his character. He was a flamboyant orator; he was a bit of a dandy; he was tough; he was gentle; he was an excellent marksman," all features which gave the series greater latitude with a western format. Houston was also described as follows: He would ride, shoot, fight, drink, and love with the best of them and maybe better than most. The modesty that he displays in day-to-day life would disappear as soon as he enters a courtroom, becoming the flamboyant attorney famous throughout the American Southwest."
  The pilot was released in theaters as the film The Man from Galveston. Temple Houston proved illusory for Hunter's long-term career prospects. Hunter thought that the series had found its voice, beginning with the twelfth episode, "Enough Rope", by having adopted the light-hearted approach of ABC's former Maverick western series, with James Garner. As Hunter explained the change in format, the series was "conceived in humor and delivered in dead seriousness. Then, about halfway through the season, NBC decided to return to the tongue-in-cheek approach. By that time it was too late. The big joke around town was that the series was about a synagogue in Texas."
  Ruta Lee, who guest starred as Lucy Tolliver in "Enough Rope", said of Hunter: "He was one of the prettiest people that ever was put on the screen. God, he was gorgeous." Another Hunter friend, actor Van Williams, a native of Fort Worth, who also guest starred in the series, said, "Things didn't go right for him, and they should have, because if anybody deserved to be a big star, it was Jeffrey Hunter."
  In taking the Temple Houston role, Hunter was compelled by a scheduling conflict to bow out of John Ford's  final western film, Cheyenne Autumn.
caption: Jeffrey Hunter as Temple Houston (1963)
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