Marsha Hunt RIP

No one lives forever -- except, perhaps, Shirley MacLaine. This is where we ring down the final curtain for Filmdom's finest.
Richard M Roberts
Godfather
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Marsha Hunt RIP

Postby Richard M Roberts » Sat Sep 10, 2022 3:30 am

Damn, and right after Cinecon in which she was a regular attending guest for decades:

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movie ... 235216286/

Well 104 is nothing to sneeze at, she lived a good long time, and was in amazingly good shape for many of those years, I remember her coming to the Cinecons in the 90's and she looked decades younger than she was.

She had an interesting career, first a model, then a film actress (Zeppo Marx was her agent) first appearing in Paramount's THE VIRGINIA JUDGE (1935) starring the old racist and Grace Kelly's Uncle, Walter C. Kelly, and many other engenue roles followed, but she also prided herself on becoming a character actress before she was 30. I just rewatched her as the good girl helping Dennis O'Keefe escape prison in RAW DEAL (1949).

You can read her biography in the Hollywood Reporter article, but she was indeed a victim of the Blacklist, but she continued to act and get involved in so many important causes, she was a truly exemplary human being.

One personal story I can witness to; at the 2000 Cinecon, Eddie Bracken was one of the Guests, and he was extremely nervous about appearing there because he had named names during the Blacklist and was not proud of it and was afraid of too many attending cinephiles and historians would remember that fact, he was apparently having difficulty coming down from his hotel room to join the Festival because of this. We were sitting in the lobby of the Roosevelt Hotel when he was finally cajoled into coming down, and as we saw him coming down the stairs rather sheepishly, the first person we saw coming up to greet him was Marsha Hunt. She walked up to him, gave him a big hug, and told him it was allright, it didn't matter, the Blacklist was a horrible thing to all involved whatever they did to survive it, and it was a long time ago. She, who had been blacklisted herself, made him feel welcome, and Eddie brightened considerably and from then on was able to enjoy being honored at the Cinecon.

It was an amazing moment to experience, you can forget sometimes that these things we research and write about were real life to those who were there, with all the haunts, traumas, antagonisms and residual regrets therein. And to see Marsha Hunt, a genuine victim of the Blacklist give a moment of genuine forgiveness to someone on the other side of the fence who had obviously been disturbed by being on that side of the fence, revealed a real strength, depth of character, and grace in someone we already knew was a very nice lady.

Rest in peace Marsha and thank you for all the real effect for good you gave to this world.


RICHARD M ROBERTS

Louie Despres
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Re: Marsha Hunt RIP

Postby Louie Despres » Sun Sep 11, 2022 7:08 pm

Thanks, Richard. A wonderful remembrance.


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