Theatre And Film Talent Agent Jeff Hunter Dies At Age 91

Former theatrical and motion picture talent agent Jeff Hunter died on Saturday, January 27, at age 91.

Born September 5, 1926 in Queens, New York the only child of parents Samuel and Estelle, Jeff was a lifelong New Yorker, having lived in the West Village for decades before moving to a condominium tower on 57th Street.

He graduated from New York University at the age of 16 and enrolled in medical school. After his first year, Jeff abandoned his plan to become a doctor and took a job as a copy editor, but it was a few years later while working at a talent agency that he found his calling.

Jeff took a leap of faith-as well as a number of the agency's dissatisfied actors, including Franchot Tone -and left to start the Jeff Hunter agency. He later became a founding partner of Triad Artists. In 1992, Triad was acquired by the William Morris Agency (later William Morris Endeavor) where Jeff eventually became the Senior Vice President of Motion Picture Talent.

Jeff discovered many luminaries of film and stage including Kevin Kline, Raul Julia and Mandy Patinkin. Hunter signed Morgan Freeman when he was a struggling newcomer on the New York stage at a time when he was moonlighting in the cast of the PBS kids show "The Electric Company" and remained his agent for 40 years, one of the longest running actor-agent relationships in the movie business. Over the years Jeff's impressive list of clients included Barbra Streisand, Harvey Keitel, Whoopi Goldberg, F. Murray Abraham, Jim Dale, Nathan Lane, Raul Esparza, Montgomery Clift, Celia Weston, Frances Sternhagen, Gloria Stewart, Bernadette Peters, Patti LuPone, Robert Sean Leonard, Christine Lahti, Linda Hunt, Adina Porter, Donna Murphy, Rebecca Luker, Marlena Dietrich and Mary Martin.

Jeff was well-loved by family, friends, colleagues and clients. Former assistant (and current WME agent) Brian DePersia said of him, "He was an incredible human being. I've never known someone in this business with so much integrity and honesty. He was stubborn in the greatest of ways. Never afraid to give someone his opinion." Bonnie Timmermann, an industry friend for many years, said of Jeff, "I went with Jeff to many openings on Broadway, at The Public Theatre and the Roundabout which he supported. He read every script and responded openly and quickly to producers and casting directors. He gave everything to his clients and fought fiercely for each of them. That was his life."

Always an iconoclast with terrific taste, Jeff helped break new ground in the late 1990s when he pushed to have Morgan Freeman play the American President in "Deep Impact". And when Nathan Lane left the Broadway production of "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum" he insisted that Whoopi Goldberg would make the perfect replacement - and he was right.

He is survived by his cousin Martin Hirsch.