Indiana Connections of Actress Marsha Hunt Include Her Father, Earl '05

October 31, 2014

"Although Marsha Hunt spent much of her life in Hollywood, the veteran actress has many memories of Indiana," begins a story in the Indianapolis Star. "My parents lived in Huntsville, and I was born shortly after we moved to Chicago," says Hunt, now 97, who began her film career in 1935 and was blacklisted by Hollywood in the 1950s. (at right: Hunt as seen in the trailer for 1943's Cry 'Havoc')

"My father was a Phi Beta Kappa scholar at DePauw University, a violin soloist in the Glee Club, and became the men’s singles collegiate tennis champion of Indiana," she recalls. Earl Hunt was a 1905 graduate of DePauw.

The article by Nick Thomas notes that Hunt is the subject of a documentary, Marsha Hunt’s Sweet Adversity. Directed by Emmy Award-winner director Roger C. Memos, the film is due to be released before the year's end.

"I’ve had an interesting life," Hunt tells the Star. "I’m touched they wanted to tell my story."

Thomas writes, "She won leading roles in many of her 20 films released during the 1930s, appearing with costars Bob Cummings, Buster Crabbe and John Wayne. Her star status continued to rise throughout the 1940s, and she made another 30 films during the decade. But relations between the studios and some actors, including Hunt, took a dramatic dive in the late ’40s as a wave of anti-communism paranoia swept the nation. When a congressional committee accused a group of writers of communist affiliations, Hunt and others spoke out but found themselves vilified during the McCarthy-era Hollywood blacklisting period."

"I was punished by being denied work by the industry I went to defend,” Hunt tells the newspaper. "While it killed the momentum of my film career, I was determined to continue acting. Happily, Broadway opened up for me, then television, and eventually movies. But I was never again given film roles as richly challenging, or the same billing or salary."

Access the complete feature at IndyStar.com.

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