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Marsha Hunt A 1940s actress died at 104

A 104-year-old actress Marsha Hunt, one of the last surviving actresses from the 1930s to 1940s, expired on Wednesday. She had a phenomenal career, working with performers including Andy Griffith and Laurence Oliver, having a gap in his career named by the Mc-Cathy era blacklist.

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Marsha Hunt 1940s actress passed away: Read more

She is known to appear in more than 100 TV shows and movies. As stated by Roger Memos, the famous writer and director of the 2015 documentary, named “Marsha Hunt’s Sweet Adversity”, she died on Wednesday in her house at Sheman house, California.

With lots of ups and downs in her career path, she has been an example to the upcoming generation. Read more to know about the ups and downs of her career and personal life.

Cause Of Death

Hunt resided in Sherman Oaks where she owned the home since 1946. Hunt passed away peacefully at her home on September 7, 2024, at the age of 104. The exact reason for her death is not known, probably its her age related factors that caused her natural death.

Watch the trailer of her documentary!

Why she was Marsha Hunt blacklisted?

According to one of the sources, Outside of her film roles, which she appeared in more than 50 of them in 14 years between 1935 and 1949, her career had been greatly defined by the blacklisting she faced from Hollywood executives for protesting the House Un-American Activities Committee.” Hunt voiced his disapproval of the House Un-American Activities Committee.

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She discovered the explanation from her agent: It had been disclosed that she participated in a peace conference in Stockholm and other allegedly dubious events by the communist-hunting Red Channels journal. Hunt travelled to Washington in 1947 to oppose the House Un-American Activities Committee, which was conducting a witch hunt for communists in the film business, alongside Hollywood luminaries Lauren Bacall, Humphrey Bogart, and Danny Kaye.

“I’d made 54 movies in my first 16 years in Hollywood,” Hunt said in 1996. “In the last 45 years, I’ve made eight. That shows what a blacklist can do to a career.”

Hunt focused on the theatre, where the blacklist was not enforced, until the late 1950s, when she started to sporadically acquire film work again. She participated in the Broadway productions of “The Devil’s Disciple,” “Legend of Sarah,” and “The Paisley Convertible,” as well as the touring companies of “The Cocktail Party,” “The Lady’s Not for Burning,” and “The Tunnel of Love.”

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A brief description of her career

She was born in Chicago and moved to Hollywood in 1935. Over the next 15 years, she appeared in dozens of movies, including the comedy “Easy Living” with Preston Sturges and the film adaptation of Jane Austen’s “Pride and Prejudice” with Laurence Olivier and Greer Garson.

When MGM dubbed her “Hollywood’s Youngest Character Actress,” she was much under 40. She was also sufficiently well-known by the early 1950s to grace the cover of Life magazine and seemed poised to succeed in the brand-new medium of television when all of a sudden, as she recounted in 1996, “the work dried up.”

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Her Early life

Daughter of an insurance executive and a vocal teacher, Marcia Virginia Hunt (she later changed the spelling of her first name) was born in Chicago and raised in New York City. Before making her feature film debut, Hunt worked as a model and studied drama. She is slim and fashionable with a warm smile and big, expressive eyes.

Jerry Hopper, a director was the first husband of Hunt, they divorced after a brief marriage. Later she married the screenwriter Robert Presnell Jr. in 1948; the couple had one daughter, who passed very soon after being born too soon. She lost her husband in 1986.

1935’s “The Virginia Judge” was Hunt’s debut motion picture. She continued to play subdued characters in several Paramount movies, such as “The Accusing Finger” and “Come on Leathernecks,” but she told The Associated Press in 2020 that she was sick of playing “nice young things” and pleaded for more challenging roles.

She recalled nearly landing the role of Melanie Wilkes in “Gone with the Wind” in “Marsha Hunt’s Sweet Adversity,” even after receiving assurances from producer David O. Selznick. Days later, it was revealed that Olivia de Havilland will play Melanie in the 1939 epic.

Hunt will be deeply missed by all who knew her. Our heart felt condolences to her family members. May the almighty rest the departed soul in peace.

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