Kim Hunter makes affection convincing in films that give us plenty else to look at. We prize her emotional directness, particularly in A Matter of Life and Death, where June keeps the romance from becoming an excuse for elaborate scenery.
Fi1m perspective
In A Matter of Life and Death (1946), Kim Hunter’s June is direct enough to make David Niven’s courteous Peter Carter seem someone she might actually choose. We believe her attachment before we have finished sorting out the fantasy. We were moved by the plainness of that affection: she makes the romance worth caring about even when there is so much scenery to admire. Hunter is particularly good at making an emotion clear within a performance that remains deliberately theatrical.
Her first film was the Val Lewton production The Seventh Victim (1943), in which she played Mary Gibson. She first played Stella Kowalski on Broadway in 1947, returning to the role opposite Marlon Brando in A Streetcar Named Desire (1951). Stella’s devotion, and the competing loyalties it brings, gave Hunter more difficult feelings to make intelligible. Her emotionally grounded work there is a useful corrective to any idea that the clarity of June meant she could only play uncomplicated affection.
Powell and Pressburger make room for Hunter within a warmly played ensemble in A Matter of Life and Death. Niven uses courtesy to manage Peter’s fear, and Roger Livesey gives Doctor Reeves a reassuring warmth; June’s directness matters alongside these more comforting manners. The speeches can labour their point, but the performances keep us interested in the people rather than waiting for the next effect.
Her later return to prominence came with Dr Zira, the sympathetic chimpanzee psychiatrist of Planet of the Apes (1968), a role she played in two sequels. The restrictive make-up put considerable weight on her voice, yet intelligence and warmth still come through. This apparently unlikely role makes sense beside June and Stella: Hunter gives us someone whose feelings we can understand, however unfamiliar the circumstances or the face. Start with A Matter of Life and Death.
Biography
Kim Hunter, also credited as Janet Cole, was an American actress of stage, film and television. Born in Detroit, Michigan, she made her screen debut in 1943 and had her first starring role as June opposite David Niven in the British fantasy film A Matter of Life and Death (1946).
She created the role of Stella Kowalski in the original 1947 Broadway production of Tennessee Williams's A Streetcar Named Desire and reprised it in the 1951 film adaptation, winning the Academy Award and Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress. Hunter is also known for playing the chimpanzee psychiatrist Dr Zira in Planet of the Apes (1968) and its two sequels. She studied at the Actors Studio and received two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
