Marsha Hunt, '40s star and blacklist victim, dies at 104

[Omaha Steve]

Source: AP

By JAKE COYLE

TORONTO (AP) — Marsha Hunt, one of the last surviving actors from Hollywood’s so-called Golden Age of the 1930s and 1940s who worked with performers ranging from Laurence Olivier to Andy Griffith in a career disrupted for a time by the McCarthy-era blacklist, has died. She was 104.

Hunt, who appeared in more than 100 movies and TV shows, died Wednesday at her home in Sherman Oaks, California, said Roger Memos, the writer-director of the 2015 documentary “Marsha Hunt’s Sweet Adversity.”

A Chicago native, she arrived in Hollywood in 1935 and over the next 15 years appeared in dozens of films, from the Preston Sturges comedy “Easy Living” to the adaptation of Jane Austen’s “Pride and Prejudice” that starred Olivier and Greer Garson.

She was well under 40 when MGM named her “Hollywood’s Youngest Character Actress.” And by the early 1950s, she was enough of a star to appear on the cover of Life magazine and seem set to thrive in the new medium of television when suddenly “the work dried up,” she recalled in 1996.



FILE - Actor Marsha Hunt arrives at the Hollywood Foreign Press Association Luncheon in Beverly Hills, Calif., on Aug. 13, 2013. Hunt, one of the last surviving actors from Hollywood’s so-called Golden Age of the 1930s and 1940s who worked with performers ranging from Laurence Olivier to Andy Griffith in a career disrupted for a time by the McCarthy-era blacklist, has died. She was 104. Hunt died Wednesday, Sept. 7, 2022 at her home in Sherman Oaks, Calif. said Roger Memos, the writer-director of the 2015 documentary “Marsha Hunt’s Sweet Adversity." (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP, File)


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Marta and I met Marsha twice. She was a lovely lady. Blacklisted for attending a peace conference. Jeez.

Here is the 2002 Twilight Zone Convention: https://graveyardsofomaha.com/tz2002.html

Marsha Hunt, an actress from the days of the studio system at MGM, was there, and I had taken a screenshot of her Outer Limits episode, "ZZZZZZ." She was quite amazed by it, and told us that they had been filming that episode on the day Kennedy was shot, and the set was shut down because of it.




And the 2004 Twilight Zone Convention: https://graveyardsofomaha.com/tz2004.html

Alan Hunt, who was there with his aunt, Marsha Hunt, was on "Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea," and Steve wanted to get his autograph on the same photo that Terry Becker had signed. We also bought a shot of Walter Koenig, signed by him, and Alan Hunt. Marsha was on the TZ episode "Spur of the Moment," and I had a shot from that for her. She wanted a copy of it, and I said I'd send it to Alan for her.

[PlanetBev]

1. ZZZZZZZZ was one of my favorite Outer Limits episodes

I saw it again two months ago, looked up Marsha Hunt and was amazed she was alive and 104. The Sherman Oaks suburb of Los Angeles, where she lived, is still one of my old reliable stomping grounds.

Sad to see the last of that acting generation leaving us, especially those brave souls who were blacklisted.

[Warpy]

3. The blacklist made movies suck for a very long time

since it blacklisted not only talented people like Hunt, but also decimated the creative end like screen writers. Most packed up and either left for NYC or turned to writing books or working for small newspapers.

Much of the credit for finally ending the blacklist goes to Kirk Douglas, who refused to do "Spartacus" unless Dalton Trumbo, the blacklisted screenplay author, got full credit. Unfortunately, 1960 was too late, the damage had been done to too many people.

It had also been done to Hollywood, where scripts told stories but without wit or charm.

[FelineOverlord]

2. There's a wonderful documentary about her

That has shown up on TCM a few times, where I originally watched it with my husband.

The whole thing is not on YouTube (for free) as far as I can tell.

I DID find the whole documentary for free on Tubi TV - which is owned by Fox.

So you can decide if you want to watch it.

https://tubitv.com/movies/491094/marsha-hunt-s-sweet-adversity

[Warpy]

4. Watching now, thanks!

So far, 2 thumbs up.

[burrowowl]

5. Kick for the wrongly persecuted!