Actress Marsha Hunt, star of Hollywood’s golden age and first major film activist, whose career was marked by Communist paranoia and the US Congressional witch hunt, died Wednesday (7/9) from natural causes at his home in Sherman Oaks, where he had lived since 1946. He was 104 years old.
The announcement was made on Saturday (9/10) by director Roger C. Memos, who filmed a documentary about her life, “Marsha Hunt’s Sweet Adversity” (2015).
A former model who signed with Paramount Pictures at the age of 17, the Chicago actress made her film debut in 1935, with a role in the legal drama “Follow the Law”.
She appeared as a naive and amorous interest in several films – John Wayne attended her in “Trumps on the Table” (1937) -, and at the end of her contract in 1938 she switched to acting for MGM, where she starred. for the first time great success, as a suicide student alongside Lana Turner in “These Grandmothers of Today” (1939).
In the same year, she attracted attention in “Heroica Mentira”, in which she played the same character aged 16 to 65. And then she played sloppy sister Mary Bennet in a version of “Pride and Prejudice” (1940) in which Laurence Olivier played the arrogant Mr. Darcy.
Hunt also worked on the noir “A Killer in Gloves” (1942), which was director Fred Zinnemann’s first feature film in the United States, and appeared opposite Mickey Rooney in “The Human Comedy” (1943), which is was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Picture.
Among her last roles at this stage, the classic noir “Desespero” (1947), in which she was slapped with Susan Heyward, and “Between Two Fires” (1948), in which she played the young lawyer who helps Dennis O ‘ Keefe get out of jail and get out of a Raymond Burr trap.
Although she never achieved co-star status, she had more than 50 films to her credit when she teamed up with her second husband, screenwriter Robert Presnell Jr., in a free speech movement that in 1947 questioned the legality of the Film House Un-American Activities Committee, created with the intent to identify and expel Communists from the entertainment industry.
The protest group, which also included Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall, Danny Kaye, John Huston and other Hollywood liberals, chartered a plane to Washington to attend hearings in support of 19 screenwriters who were under scrutiny on charges of being communists.
When conservatives reacted to the movement with the imposition of the infamous Black List, which banned Hollywood from hiring alleged subversives, all supporters of the movement backed down, including Bogart, who has experienced countless on-screen bullies. They publicly said that they had been deceived by the Communists and that their trip to Washington had been reckless.
This may have saved their careers, as Marsha Hunt has neither repented nor retracted, and was blacklisted in June 1950, having been banned by the right-wing pamphlet from working in Hollywood.
“You know, I’ve never been interested in communism,” she said in a 2004 interview. “I was very interested in my industry, my country and my government. But I was shocked by the behavior of my government and the mistreatment of the government. my sector. And so I complained and protested like everyone else on that flight. But then I was told that I was not a liberal activist, but a Communist and I was blacklisted. It was about control and power. “
“The way you gain control is to get everyone to agree on what’s appropriate in that moment, what’s accepted. Don’t question anything, don’t talk, don’t have your ideas, don’t ask questions, never be eloquent, and if you If you are one of those things, you are controversial. And for them it was bad, maybe worse than being a communist. That’s why they accused me of it, why you lost your career, your good name, your savings, probably yours marriage and your friends if you became a communist. It was terrible, just terrible. “
Calling her a communist was a huge aberration typical of the witch hunt era, because when she wasn’t acting, Hunt was hostess to the famous Hollywood soup kitchen for the American military.
Hindered by the US government, his career has never been the same. Without work, he decided to devote himself to causes. He went on to travel the world as an activist for humanitarian efforts, making appearances on behalf of the United Nations and becoming what he called a “patriot of the planet”.
Gradually, the Black List lost its effectiveness, which allowed the actress to begin appearing, little by little, as a guest star on TV programs, starring in episodes of the week of series such as “Alfred Hitchcock Presents” , “The Twilight Zone”. (The Twilight Zone), “Fifth Dimension” (The Outer Limits), “Gunsmoke”, “Ben Casey” and “Steel Tempera” (Ironside).
She also reprized film work, but in much smaller roles than she was used to, such as the mother of young Brandon De Wilde in “Blue Jeans” (1959) and hotel owner in the western “The Destroyers”. (1960). ).
Years later, he starred in the famous “Johnny Goes to War” (1971), written and directed by famed Blacklist writer Dalton Trumbo. Hunt played the mother of the amputated soldier, played by Timothy Bottoms, in a drama so strong it turned the protest against the Vietnam War into a work of terror.
She remained active on screen until the 1980s, when she could still be seen in some popular series such as “Murder in Writing”, “Matlock” and “Star Trek: The Next Generation”. But acting soon became secondary to her work on the board of the Union of American Actors, where she chaired several progressive committees. One of them began hiring the studios to hire minority actors in roles that weren’t stereotyped.
Unsatisfied, she was still dedicated to helping the homeless in her hometown, becoming honorary mayor of Sherman Oaks.
Despite having so many roles, he surprisingly returned to the screen at the age of 91 in Maura Mackey’s acclaimed independent film “Chloe’s Prayer” (2006), and also starred, two years later, in the telefilm “Meurtres à the Empire State Building, “which brought together several old Hollywood stars, including his longtime partner Mickey Rooney and Kirk Douglas, in his latest role.
In April 2015 it became the name of an award, the Marsha Hunt for Humanity, created by Kat Kramer, daughter of renowned director and producer Stanley Kramer, to recognize the artists’ efforts on behalf of humanity.
Hunt was “one of the first great Hollywood actresses to dedicate her life to causes,” noted Kramer that she chose her name to represent the award, “and paved the way for Angelina Jolie, Sean Penn, Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin, Patricia Arquette, Sharon Stone, George Clooney, Matt Damon, Don Cheadle, Tippi Hedren, Ed Begley Jr., Ed Asner and Martin Sheen – and all the celebrities who use their fame to make change. “
Source: Terra
Camila Luna is a writer at Gossipify, where she covers the latest movies and television series. With a passion for all things entertainment, Camila brings her unique perspective to her writing and offers readers an inside look at the industry. Camila is a graduate from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) with a degree in English and is also a avid movie watcher.
