Marsha Hunt: Who Was She? Star of MGM and Paramount Who Was Blacklisted in Hollywood Passes Away At Age 104
Marsha Hunt, a well-known actress, model, and activist, died on September 6 at the age of 104. She passed away in her Sherman Oaks home, where she had lived since 1946, from natural causes.
Her performances in movies like Born to the West, Pride and Prejudice, Kid Glove Killer, Cry ‘Havoc,’ and others earned her praise. Soon, specifics about her funeral will be made public.
Marsha Hunt’s Career Path
At first, Marsha Hunt wasn’t ready to act in movies. However, she was just 17 years old when she signed a deal with Paramount Pictures in June 1935. She then had appearances in 12 Paramount-produced movies between 1935 and 1938, including Easy to Take, Gentle Julia, The Accusing Finger, Murder Goes to College, and others.
She made several appearances in films made by Republic Pictures and Monogram Pictures after her contract was canceled in 1938. The following year, she appeared in supporting parts in films including These Glamour Girls, Pride and Prejudice, and Cheers for Miss Bishop.
Marsha Hunt: Who Is She?
Marsha Hunt was an American actress, model, and activist who had a nearly 80-year career (born Marcia Virginia Hunt; October 17, 1917 – September 7, 2022). In the 1950s, during McCarthyism, she was placed on a blacklist by executives of Hollywood film studios.
She appeared in a number of movies, such as Born to the West (1937), which starred John Wayne, Pride and Prejudice (1940), which starred Greer Garson and Laurence Olivier, Kid Glove Killer (1942), which starred Van Heflin, Cry ‘Havoc’ (1943), which starred Margaret Sullavan and Joan Blondell, The Human Comedy (1943), which starred Mickey Rooney, The Happy Time (1952), which starred Charles Boyer (1971).
She became involved in the fight against world hunger during the blacklist era, and in her later years she advocated same-sex marriage, helped homeless shelters, increased awareness of climate change, and encouraged peace in Third World nations.
Marsha Hunt’s Early Years
The younger of two girls, Hunt was born on October 17, 1917, in Chicago, Illinois. Her older sister Marjorie, a teacher, passed away in 2002. Marcia later altered the spelling of her first name to Marsha. Her parents were Earl Hunt, a lawyer who eventually became a Social Security Administrator.
In an interview for a 1999 book, Hunt discussed how her family was active in the Methodist church.
I was fortunate to grow up in the kind of friendly, supportive familial environment that fosters growth. My father earned a Phi Beta Kappa, the highest academic honor. In the concert and opera worlds, my mother worked as a vocal teacher and performers’ pianist. My mother was a liberated woman even if we didn’t know the phrase at the time. They were both raised in Indiana, a state now known as the Bible Belt. They did not smoke or drink, and they never spoke the name of the Lord in disrespect. Never have I come across a four-letter word. It wasn’t present in my upbeat family.
When Hunt was a small girl, her family relocated to New York City, and she started appearing in church services and school plays. At age 16, she earned her diploma from the Horace Mann High School for Girls in 1934.
Marsha Hunt’s Career in Modelling
Although her parents encouraged her to attend college, Hunt was unable to “locate a single college or university in the land where you could major in drama before your third year” so she found work as a model for the John Powers Agency and started taking stage acting lessons at the Theodora Irvine Studio. By 1935, she was one of the highest-paid models and in May of that year she had plans to study stage acting at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in the United Kingdom.
Marsha Hunt’s Movies Duration at Paramount
Hunt, Robert Taylor, Jean Harlow, and Mitzi Green were among the celebrities invited to Washington, D.C., to help with the President’s Birthday Ball fundraising efforts (1937; Eleanor Roosevelt at center)
Born to the West, starring John Wayne (1937)
When viewing the Pride and Prejudice trailer (1940)
In the Cry ‘Havoc’ trailer (1943)
In Smash-Up, the Story of a Woman with Susan Hayward (1947)
Although she was initially hesitant to pursue a career in film, Hunt signed a seven-year contract with Paramount Pictures in June 1935 when she was just 17 years old. Paramount came across her when she was visiting her uncle in Los Angeles and the comedian Zeppo Marx (of the Marx Brothers fame) saw a picture of her in the newspaper. She was then offered a screen test for The Virginia Judge.
Following the studio’s 1938 termination of her contract, Hunt spent a few years appearing in B-movies made by low-budget studios like Republic Pictures and Monogram Pictures. She also traveled to New York City for work in summer stock theater before landing a supporting role in MGM’s These Glamour Girls (1939), which starred Lana Turner and Lew Ayres. The role of Betty was rumored to have been written specifically with Hunt in mind.
Periods at MGM
While filming Blossoms in the Dust, director Mervyn LeRoy praised Hunt for her heartfelt and sincere acting ability. During this time, Hunt had starring roles in 21 movies, including The Penalty (1941), in which she starred alongside Lionel Barrymore, Panama Hattie (1942), in which she costarred with Ann Sothern and Red Skelton, Pilot No. 5 (1943), in which she played Franchot Tone’s love (1945). She had previously taken part in a screen test for the role of Melanie Hamilton in Gone with the Wind (1939), and David O. Selznick had told her that she would play the role, but to “keep it a secret for now.” Three days later, it was revealed that Olivia de Havilland had been cast. In 1944, she made an appearance in None Shall Escape, which is now regarded as the first movie about the Holocaust. She portrayed Marja Pacierkowski, the Polish fiancée of Wilhelm Grimm, a German Nazi officer.
Why Marsha Hunt Blacklisted in Hollywood?
Hunt received an invitation to join the Screen Actors Guild board in 1945.
Hunt and her husband, screenwriter Robert Presnell Jr., joined the Committee for the First Amendment in 1947 after becoming upset by the actions of the House Committee on Unamerican Activities (HCUA). According to NPR, Hunt was the last surviving member of the group at the time of her 100th birthday.
At the age of 30, Hunt participated in Hollywood Fights Back, a star-studded radio program co-written by her husband on October 26 of that same year to protest the actions of HUAC. In 2020, Hunt recalled:
We gave our remarks, participated in a radio program called Hollywood Fights Back, and went home believing that we had stood up for our country and our line of work. If there were any communists among us, it was none of our business.
In order to protest the actions of HUAC, Hunt traveled to Washington the following day with a group of about 30 actors, directors, writers, and filmmakers, including John Huston, Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall, and Danny Kaye. By the time she returned to Hollywood three days later, things had changed. She was told to come clean about her actions if she wanted to get additional work, but she refused.
Along with 151 other actors, writers, and directors, Hunt was identified as a potential Communist or Communist sympathizer in 1950 by the anti-Communist publication Red Channels. The publication claimed that Hunt’s alleged subversive actions, such as asking the Supreme Court to review the convictions of John Howard Lawson and Dalton Trumbo, recording a message in support of a rally organized by the Stop Censorship Committee in 1939, and speaking out in support of
Hunt and Presnell experienced a decline in employment following the 1950 release of Red Channels. Hunt stated in 2012 that she was “appalled, saddened, and startled” that journalism could be so rife with prejudice.
The following year, in 1941, Marsha Hunt got a contract with MGM and spent the next six years acting in 21 of their productions, the most well-known of which included The Penalty, Panama Hattie, Pilot No. 5, None Shall Escape, etc.
Marsha Hunt’s Family
Marsha and her husband, Robert Presnell Jr., were troubled by the acts of the House Un-American Activities Committee and joined the Committee for the First Amendment in 1947 after being invited to join the board of the Screen Actors Guild.
She was asked to stop her activities if she wanted to work in the film industry after she and 30 other well-known Hollywood figures went to Washington to protest the actions of HUAC. She was also on a list of 151 actors, writers, and directors who were labeled as potential Communists or Communist sympathizers in the anti-Communist publication Red Channels in 1950.
Marsha Hunt claimed that after the release of Red Channels, filmmakers began to view her and the other actors as unhireable and blamed producer Richard J. Collins for the blacklisting of the actresses. However, she returned in 1957 and was included in six films before she eventually announced her semi-retirement in 1960.
Her book, The Way We Wore: Styles of the 1930s and ’40s and Our World Since Then, was published in 1933. Hunt continued to appear in shows like Breaking Point, My Three Sons, Gunsmoke, and Star Trek: The Next Generation. She also made appearances in movies like Johnny Got His Gun, Chloe’s Prayer, The Grand Inquisitor, and others.
In addition to being a member of the San Fernando Valley Community Mental Health Center’s advisory board of directors, Marsha founded the San Fernando Valley Mayor’s Fund for the Homeless and produced an hour-long television program about refugee issues in 1960.
Marsha Hunt married Robert Presnell Jr. in February 1946 after initially getting divorced from Jerry “Jay” Hopper in 1943. Despite having a daughter in July 1947, who died the following day, Marsha and Robert remained married until the latter’s passing in June 1986.