In the films of the 1930s and 40s, the actor Marsha Hunt, who has died aged 104, usually played sweet, pretty, rather empty-headed young girls. In real life she was articulate, committed, a passionate defender of minority rights and a Screen Actors Guild activist, who became a victim of McCarthyite innuendo and the politics of her own union. She was never subpoenaed by the House Un-American Activities Committee (Huac), but she became associated with the “wrong” people and causes at the wrong time.
She was talent-spotted in her teens by a Paramount scout and given a contract in 1935. The studio confined her to pallid roles in a number of B-films, often teamed with a fellow contract player, Robert Cummings.
