Marsha Hunt obit

 

Marsha Hunt, Actress Blacklisted in Hollywood, Dies at 104

She was a star at Paramount and MGM before making a trip to Washington to protest the House Un-American Activities Committee.

She was not on the list.

Marsha Hunt, the bright-eyed starlet who stood out in such films as These Glamour Girls, Pride and Prejudice and Raw Deal before her career came unraveled by the communist witch hunt that hit Hollywood, has died. She was 104.

She died Wednesday of natural causes at her Sherman Oaks home, where she had lived since 1946, Roger C. Memos — writer-director of the documentary Marsha Hunt’s Sweet Adversity — told The Hollywood Reporter.

he appeared in many films, including Born to the West (1937) with John Wayne, Pride and Prejudice (1940) with Greer Garson and Laurence Olivier, Kid Glove Killer (1942) with Van Heflin, Cry 'Havoc' (1943) with Margaret Sullavan and Joan Blondell, The Human Comedy (1943) with Mickey Rooney, Raw Deal (1948) with Claire Trevor, The Happy Time (1952) with Charles Boyer, and Dalton Trumbo's Johnny Got His Gun (1971).

Hunt also appeared opposite Mickey Rooney in the best picture Oscar nominee The Human Comedy (1943) during a period in which she was known as “Hollywood’s Youngest Character Actress.”

A former model who signed with Paramount Pictures at age 17, the Chicago native made her first big splash as a suicidal co-ed opposite Lana Turner in MGM’s These Glamour Girls (1939). Some of her early costars include:Walter C. Kelly, Stepin Fetchit, Johnny Downs, Robert Cummings, Virginia Hammond. Buster Crabbe, Raymond Hatten, Betty Jane Rhodes, Johnny Downs, Paul Kelly, Kent Taylor, George Burns, Gracie Allen, Martha Raye, Ben Blue, Mary Boland, Leif Erickson, Jackie Searl, John Howard, Eugene Pallette, James Ellison, John Mack Brown and Robert Cummings.

Playing Walter Brennan’s sweetheart in Joe and Ethel Turp Call on the President (1939), Hunt aged from age 16 to 65 onscreen. She portrayed the dowdy sister Mary Bennet in Pride and Prejudice (1940), and in Anthony Mann’s film noir classic Raw Deal (1948), she was the good girl opposite Claire Trevor and Dennis O’Keefe.

Years later, in Johnny Got His Gun (1971) — penned by blacklisted writer Dalton Trumbo — Hunt played the mother of Timothy Bottoms’ quadruple-amputee character.

Though she never achieved the stardom of some of her co-stars, Hunt was proud of her career, especially early on. “Before I was 30, I had played four aging roles, and I was Hollywood’s youngest character actress … no two roles alike,” she told the website Ms. in the Biz in 2015.

In 1947, Hunt and her second husband, screenwriter Robert Presnell Jr., joined the Committee for the First Amendment, which questioned the legality of the House Un-American Activities Committee that was seeking to flush communists out of the entertainment industry.

The committee, which also included Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall, Danny Kaye, John Huston and other Hollywood liberals, chartered a plane to Washington to sit in on the HUAC hearings and support 19 creatives who had been under scrutiny.

However, Bogart and others quickly backpedaled, saying they were duped by communists and their trip to Washington was ill-advised. While that helped save their careers, Hunt did not repent. In June 1950, she was listed in Red Channels, the right-wing pamphlet that fingered scores of actors, directors, screenwriters and others for being sympathetic to “subversive” causes.

“You know, I was never interested in communism,” she said in a 2004 interview. “I was very much interested in my industry, my country and my government. But I was shocked at the behavior of my government and its mistreatment of my industry. And so I spoke out and protested like everyone else on that flight. But then I was told, once I was blacklisted, you see, I was an articulate liberal, and that was bad. I was told that in fact it wasn’t really about communism — that was the thing that frightened everybody — it was about control and about power.

“The way you get control is to get everyone to agree with whatever is proper at the time, whatever is accepted. Don’t question anything, don’t speak out, don’t have your own ideas, don’t be articulate about it, don’t ever be eloquent, and if you ever be one of those things, you’re controversial. And that’s just as bad, maybe worse, than being a communist. Which was still quite legal to be, you know: the Communist Party was still legal in America, running candidates for public office. But you lost your career, your good name, your savings, probably your marriage, your friends, if you had been a communist. It was appalling, just appalling.”

Filmography

Year       Title       Role

1935      The Virginia Judge            Mary Lee Calvert

1936      The Arizona Raiders        Harriett Lindsay

The Accusing Finger        Claire Patterson

College Holiday Sylvia Smith

Easy to Take       Donna Westlake

Gentle Julia         Julia Atwater

Desert Gold        Judith Belding

Hollywood Boulevard     Patricia Blakeford

1937      Annapolis Salute               Julia Clemens

Born to the West              Judy Worstall

Thunder Trail     Amy Morgan

Murder Goes to College                Nora Barry

Easy Living           Girl

1938      Come On, Leathernecks!               Valerie Taylor

1939      These Glamour Girls        Betty Ainsbridge

Star Reporter     Barbara Burnette

Winter Carnival                 Lucy Morgan

Long Shot            Martha Sharon

Joe and Ethel Turp Call on the President                Kitty Crusper

The Hardys Ride High     Susan Bowen

1940      Irene     Eleanor Worth

Flight Command               Claire

Pride and Prejudice         Mary Bennet

Ellery Queen, Master Detective Barbara Braun

1941      I'll Wait for You Pauline Miller

Blossoms in the Dust      Charlotte

Unholy Partners                Gail Fenton

The Trial of Mary Dugan                Agatha Hall

Cheers for Miss Bishop   Hope Thompson

The Penalty        Katherine Logan

1942      Kid Glove Killer Jane Mitchell

The Affairs of Martha     Martha Lindstrom

Panama Hattie   Leila Tree

Joe Smith, American       Mary Smith

Seven Sweethearts         Regina Van Maaster

1943      Cry 'Havoc'          Flo Norris

Lost Angel           Katie Mallory

The Human Comedy       Diana Steed

Pilot ♯5 Freddie Andrews

Thousands Cheer             Marsha Hunt (herself)

1944      Bride by Mistake              Sylvia Lockwood

None Shall Escape            Marja Pacierkowski

Music for Millions            Rosalind

1945      The Valley of Decision    Constance Scott

1946      A Letter for Evie                Evie O'Connor

1947      Carnegie Hall      Nora Ryan

Smash-Up, the Story of a Woman              Martha Gray

1948      Raw Deal             Ann Martin

The Inside Story                Francine Taylor

1949      Mary Ryan, Detective     Mary Ryan

Take One False Step        Martha Wier

Jigsaw   Mrs. Hartley's Secretary (uncredited)

1952      The Happy Time                Susan Bonnard

Actor's and Sin Marcia Tillayou

1954      Diplomatic Passport        Judy Anderson

1955      A Word to the Wives (short)        Alice

1956      No Place to Hide               Anne Dobson

1957      Back from the Dead         Kate Hazelton

Bombers B-52    Edith Brennan

Legend of the Lost           (uncredited)

1959      Blue Denim         Jessie Bartley

1960      The Plunderers Katie Miller

1964      Gunsmoke, "The Glory and the Mud"      Sarah

1969      Fear No Evil        Mrs. Varney

1971      Johnny Got His Gun         Joe's mother

1987      Star Trek: The Next Generation Anne Jameson

2006      Chloe's Prayer   Elizabeth Lyons

2008      The Grand Inquisitor (short)        Hazel Reedy

Empire State Building Murders   Norah Strinberg

2014      Marsha Hunt's Sweet Adversity (documentary) Self

Radio appearances

Year       Program               Episode/source Character

1945      Suspense             "Pink Camellias"        

1947      Suspense             "Self Defense"            

1947      The Unexpected               "Birthday Present" 7/18/1947               Anne

1959      Suspense             "Night Man" 7/26/1959          Miss Rhodes