Marsha Hunt (actress)

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Marsha Hunt in November 2013

Marsha Hunt (* 17th October 1917 in Chicago , Illinois as Marcia Virginia Hunt ) is an American actress .

life and career

Marsha Hunt was born the daughter of a lawyer and a musician. The family initially lived in Chicago but later moved to New York City . After graduating from Horace Mann School in New York, Hunt worked as a model and took first acting lessons. The film career of the then 18-year-old Hunt began in 1935 with the film The Virginia Judge , directed by Edward Sedgwick. In the years that followed, Hunt played the lead roles in numerous B-movies without attracting much attention. At the side of young John Wayne , she was seen in 1937 in the b-western The Wyoming Gambling Hall . While she took leading roles in smaller films, Hunt was mostly limited to supporting roles in large-scale productions. So she played in Irene (1940) alongside Ray Milland and Anna Neagle and as Mary Bennett in the literary film Pride and Prejudice (1940) on the side of Greer Garson and Laurence Olivier . This was followed by other appearances alongside Mickey Rooney in And the Life Goes On (1943) and in The Decision (1945) alongside Gregory Peck .

On October 27, 1947, Hunt joined a group of 30 directors and actors (including John Huston , Humphrey Bogart , Lauren Bacall, and Danny Kaye ) protesting in Washington DC against the actions of Congress in connection with the actions of the Committee for to protest un-American activities . Back in Hollywood she was asked by the authorities to confess her communist activities if she did not want to run the risk of no longer receiving engagements. Hunt refused. She received roles until 1949 when her name appeared on the Red Channel list . After that, she only appeared in three films over the next eight years, having previously appeared in 52 films from 1935 to 1949.

Marsha Hunt (second from left) at a birthday ball at the White House, in the middle First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt (1937)

After the end of the McCarthy era and with it her professional restrictions, Hunt resumed her film career at the end of the 1950s, but without being able to build on her old successes. In 1960 she announced her extensive retirement from the film business, but remained a familiar face as a guest actress on television for the next few decades. In 1971 she got a bigger role again in the film Johnny Goes to War , the script of which was written by Dalton Trumbo , one of the Hollywood Ten . In this anti-war film, she played the mother of Timothy Bottoms .

Marsha Hunt has been Honorary Mayor of Sherman Oaks , California, since 1980 . From 1937 until the divorce in 1945 she was married to the director Jerry Hopper . Her second marriage to Robert Presnell Jr. lasted until his death in 1986, and she has a child. Marsha Hunt celebrated her 100th birthday in October 2017.

Awards

  • Marsha Hunt received a "Golden Boot Award" in 2002.
  • Marsha Hunt also has a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for her film work.

Filmography (selection)

Web links

Commons : Marsha Hunt  - Collection of Images

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Entry at filmreference.com
  2. ^ Marsha Hunt, on being called a Communist: Actress Marsha Hunt, 100, Has Matters Of Principle. Retrieved January 28, 2020 (English).
  3. ^ Marsha Hunt in: Hollywood, 1940-2008 , by Marc Wanamaker, Arcadia Publishing, 2009, p. 17
personal data
SURNAME Hunt, Marsha
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Hunt, Marsha Virginia (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION US-american actress
DATE OF BIRTH October 17, 1917
PLACE OF BIRTH Chicago , Illinois , United States