Marsha Hunt: Hollywood Actress Blacklisted in the Red Scare Dies at 104
Marsha Hunt was an American actress and activist whose career spanned nearly 80 years. Born Marcia Virginia Hunt on October 17, 1917, in Chicago, Illinois, she signed with Paramount in 1935 at age 17 and moved to MGM in 1941.
Hunt appeared in films including Pride and Prejudice (1940), in which she played Mary Bennet, and The Human Comedy (1943). In 1947 she joined the Committee for the First Amendment to protest the House Un-American Activities Committee, and she was named in Red Channels in 1950, after which her film work dried up. She continued in television and on stage, including Star Trek: The Next Generation in 1988.
Hunt campaigned against world hunger and for the homeless for decades. A documentary about her life, Marsha Hunt's Sweet Adversity, debuted in 2015. She married Robert Presnell Jr. in 1946, and the marriage lasted until his death in 1986. She died at her home in Sherman Oaks, Los Angeles, on September 7, 2022, at age 104.
Achievements: Signed with Paramount (1935), starred in films at MGM, joined the Committee for the First Amendment (1947), subject of the documentary Marsha Hunt's Sweet Adversity (2015).
Birth: October 17, 1917 - Chicago, Illinois.
Profession: Actress and activist.
Interesting Facts: She received a Hollywood Walk of Fame star in 1960. She acted into her nineties.
