Martita Hunt
Encyclopedia
Martita Hunt was an English theatre and film actress.
, Argentina
on 30 January 1900 to British parents Alfred and Marta Hunt (née Burnett). She spent the first ten years of her life in Argentina before she returned with her parents to England
to attend Queenwood Ladies' College
, in Eastbourne
, and then to train as an actress under Dame Genevieve Ward
and Lady Benson.
before moving to London
. She first appeared there in the Stage Society
's production of Ernst Toller
's The Machine Wreckers at the Kingsway Theatre in May 1923. From 1923-9 she appeared as the Principessa della Cercola in W. Somerset Maugham
's Our Betters
(Globe
, 1924) and as Mrs. Linden in Ibsen's
A Doll's House
(Playhouse
, 1925) in the West End
, along with engagements at club theatres such as the Q Theatre
and the Arts Theatre
and a short 1926 Chekhov
season at the small Barnes Theatre under Victor Komisarjevsky (playing Charlotta Ivanovna, in The Cherry Orchard
and Olga in Three Sisters
).
In September 1929, she joined the Old Vic
company, then led by Harcourt Williams
, and in the following eight months played Béline in Molière's
The Imaginary Invalid, Queen Elizabeth in George Bernard Shaw's
The Dark Lady of the Sonnets
, and Lavinia in Shaw's Androcles and the Lion
. However, her time there was more noted for a succession of Shakespearian
roles (the Nurse in Romeo and Juliet
, Portia
in The Merchant of Venice
, the Queen in Richard II
, Helena in A Midsummer Night's Dream
, Portia in Julius Caesar
), including some alongside John Gielgud
(Rosalind in As You Like It
, Lady Macbeth in Macbeth
, and Queen Gertrude in Hamlet
). Donald Roy, in her Oxford Dictionary of National Biography entry, states:
She then returned to the West End (briefly returning to the Old Vic to play Emilia in their 1938 Othello
), notably playing Edith Gunter in Dodie Smith
's Autumn Crocus (Lyric
, 1931), the Countess of Rousillon in All's Well That Ends Well
(Arts, 1932), Lady Strawholme in Ivor Novello
's Fresh Fields (Criterion
, 1933), Liz Frobisher in John Van Druten's The Distaff Side (Apollo
, 1933), Barbara Dawe in Clemence Dane
's Moonlight is Silver (Queen's
, 1934), Theodora in Elmer Rice
's Not for Children
(Fortune
, 1935), Masha in Chekhov's The Seagull
(New Theatre
, 1936), the Mother in an English-language version of Garcia Lorca's Bodas de sangre entitled Marriage of Blood (Savoy
, 1939), Léonie in Jean Cocteau
's Les Parents terribles
(Gate
, 1940), Mrs Cheveley in Oscar Wilde
's An Ideal Husband
(Westminster
, 1943), and Cornelia in John Webster
's The White Devil
(Duchess
, 1947).
films such as Good Morning Boys (1937), Trouble Brewing (1939), and The Man in Grey
(1943). The Wicked Lady
(1945) was an international success, but her next film role in David Lean
's Great Expectations
(1946) became her most famous and most lauded. As Miss Havisham
, she reprised her role from the 1939 stage adaptation by Alec Guinness
which provided the inspiration and template for Lean's film. Her performance met with significant acclaim and Roger Ebert
later wrote in 1999 that she "dominate[d] the [film's] early scenes, playing Miss Havisham as a beak-nosed, shabby figure, bedecked in crumbling lace and linen, not undernourished despite her long exile." It was fitting, however, that her signature cinematic role should be so closely associated with Guinness, who also played Herbert Pocket in both the stage and film adaptations: as Guinness recounted in his 1985 memoir Blessings in Disguise, Hunt had served as an important mentor in the early years of his acting career.
in 1949 for her Broadway début as Countess Aurelia in the English-speaking première of Giraudoux's The Madwoman of Chaillot
(though she had relatively less impact on the production's 1952 tour). Her last stage role was as Angélique Boniface in Hotel Paradiso, an adaptation from Feydeau
, again alongside Guinness at the Winter Garden Theatre
in May 1956.
Some of her other films include Anna Karenina
(1948), My Sister and I (1948), The Fan
(1949), Folly to be Wise (1952), The March Hare (1956), Anastasia
(1956), Three Men in a Boat
(1956), The Admirable Crichton
(1957), The Prince and the Showgirl
(1957), The Brides of Dracula (1960), The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm
(1962), Becket (1964), The Unsinkable Molly Brown (1964) and Bunny Lake Is Missing
(1965).
, London
, aged 69, on 13 June 1969. Her estate was valued at £5,390. She never married. She was an aunt of actor Gareth Hunt
.
Early life
Hunt was born in Buenos AiresBuenos Aires
Buenos Aires is the capital and largest city of Argentina, and the second-largest metropolitan area in South America, after São Paulo. It is located on the western shore of the estuary of the Río de la Plata, on the southeastern coast of the South American continent...
, Argentina
Argentina
Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...
on 30 January 1900 to British parents Alfred and Marta Hunt (née Burnett). She spent the first ten years of her life in Argentina before she returned with her parents to England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
to attend Queenwood Ladies' College
Queenwood Ladies' College
Queenwood Ladies' College was a private school for girls, opened on a hill overlooking the sea in Eastbourne, East Sussex, England. It was opened in 1871 by a Mrs Lawrance, the mother of Miss Grace Lawrance, founder of Queenwood School for Girls, Sydney...
, in Eastbourne
Eastbourne
Eastbourne is a large town and borough in East Sussex, on the south coast of England between Brighton and Hastings. The town is situated at the eastern end of the chalk South Downs alongside the high cliff at Beachy Head...
, and then to train as an actress under Dame Genevieve Ward
Genevieve Ward
Dame Genevieve Ward DBE , born Lucy Genevieve Teresa Ward, was an American-born British soprano and actress.She was created a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1921.-Life and career:...
and Lady Benson.
Early theatrical career
Hunt began her acting career in repertory theatre at LiverpoolLiverpool
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England, along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary. It was founded as a borough in 1207 and was granted city status in 1880...
before moving to London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
. She first appeared there in the Stage Society
Stage Society
The Incorporated Stage Society, commonly known as the Stage Society, was an English theatre society with limited membership which mounted private Sunday performances of new and experimental plays, mainly at the Royal Court Theatre but also at other London West End venues...
's production of Ernst Toller
Ernst Toller
Ernst Toller was a left-wing German playwright, best known for his Expressionist plays and serving as President of the short-lived Bavarian Soviet Republic, for six days.- Biography :...
's The Machine Wreckers at the Kingsway Theatre in May 1923. From 1923-9 she appeared as the Principessa della Cercola in W. Somerset Maugham
W. Somerset Maugham
William Somerset Maugham , CH was an English playwright, novelist and short story writer. He was among the most popular writers of his era and, reputedly, the highest paid author during the 1930s.-Childhood and education:...
's Our Betters
Our Betters
Our Betters is a 1933 American satirical comedy film directed by George Cukor. The screenplay by Jane Murfin and Harry Wagstaff Gribble is based on the 1923 play of the same title by W. Somerset Maugham.-Plot:...
(Globe
Gielgud Theatre
The Gielgud Theatre is a West End theatre, located on Shaftesbury Avenue in the City of Westminster, London, at the corner of Rupert Street. The house currently has 889 seats on three levels.-History:...
, 1924) and as Mrs. Linden in Ibsen's
Henrik Ibsen
Henrik Ibsen was a major 19th-century Norwegian playwright, theatre director, and poet. He is often referred to as "the father of prose drama" and is one of the founders of Modernism in the theatre...
A Doll's House
A Doll's House
A Doll's House is a three-act play in prose by the Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen. It premièred at the Royal Theatre in Copenhagen, Denmark, on 21 December 1879, having been published earlier that month....
(Playhouse
Playhouse Theatre
The Playhouse Theatre is a West End theatre in the City of Westminster, located in Northumberland Avenue, near Trafalgar Square. The Theatre was built by F. H. Fowler and Hill with a seating capacity of 1,200. It was rebuilt in 1907 and still retains its original substage machinery...
, 1925) in the West End
West End theatre
West End theatre is a popular term for mainstream professional theatre staged in the large theatres of London's 'Theatreland', the West End. Along with New York's Broadway theatre, West End theatre is usually considered to represent the highest level of commercial theatre in the English speaking...
, along with engagements at club theatres such as the Q Theatre
Q Theatre
The Q Theatre, seating 490 in 25 rows with a central aisle, was opened in 1924 near Kew Bridge in west London by Jack and Beatie de Leon, and was one of a number of small, committed, independent theatre companies which included the Hampstead Everyman, the Arts Theatre Club and the Gate Theatre Studio...
and the Arts Theatre
Arts Theatre
The Arts Theatre is a theatre in Great Newport Street, in Westminster, Central London. It now operates as the West End's smallest commercial receiving house.-History:...
and a short 1926 Chekhov
Anton Chekhov
Anton Pavlovich Chekhov was a Russian physician, dramatist and author who is considered to be among the greatest writers of short stories in history. His career as a dramatist produced four classics and his best short stories are held in high esteem by writers and critics...
season at the small Barnes Theatre under Victor Komisarjevsky (playing Charlotta Ivanovna, in The Cherry Orchard
The Cherry Orchard
The Cherry Orchard is Russian playwright Anton Chekhov's last play. It premiered at the Moscow Art Theatre 17 January 1904 in a production directed by Constantin Stanislavski. Chekhov intended this play as a comedy and it does contain some elements of farce; however, Stanislavski insisted on...
and Olga in Three Sisters
Three Sisters (play)
Three Sisters is a play by Russian author and playwright Anton Chekhov, perhaps partially inspired by the situation of the three Brontë sisters, but most probably by the three Zimmermann sisters in Perm...
).
In September 1929, she joined the Old Vic
Old Vic
The Old Vic is a theatre located just south-east of Waterloo Station in London on the corner of The Cut and Waterloo Road. Established in 1818 as the Royal Coburg Theatre, it was taken over by Emma Cons in 1880 when it was known formally as the Royal Victoria Hall. In 1898, a niece of Cons, Lilian...
company, then led by Harcourt Williams
Harcourt Williams
Harcourt Williams was an English character actor.-Selected filmography:* Henry V * Brighton Rock * Hamlet * No Room at the Inn * The Lost People...
, and in the following eight months played Béline in Molière's
Molière
Jean-Baptiste Poquelin, known by his stage name Molière, was a French playwright and actor who is considered to be one of the greatest masters of comedy in Western literature...
The Imaginary Invalid, Queen Elizabeth in George Bernard Shaw's
George Bernard Shaw
George Bernard Shaw was an Irish playwright and a co-founder of the London School of Economics. Although his first profitable writing was music and literary criticism, in which capacity he wrote many highly articulate pieces of journalism, his main talent was for drama, and he wrote more than 60...
The Dark Lady of the Sonnets
The Dark Lady of the Sonnets
The Dark Lady of the Sonnets is a 1910 short play by George Bernard Shaw on William Shakespeare and the "Dark Lady" character in his sonnets.-External links:*...
, and Lavinia in Shaw's Androcles and the Lion
Androcles and the Lion (play)
Androcles and the Lion is a 1912 play written by George Bernard Shaw.Androcles and the Lion is Shaw's retelling of the tale of Androcles, a slave who is saved by the requited mercy of a lion. In the play, Shaw portrays Androcles to be one of the many Christians being led to the Colosseum for torture...
. However, her time there was more noted for a succession of Shakespearian
William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon"...
roles (the Nurse in Romeo and Juliet
Romeo and Juliet
Romeo and Juliet is a tragedy written early in the career of playwright William Shakespeare about two young star-crossed lovers whose deaths ultimately unite their feuding families. It was among Shakespeare's most popular archetypal stories of young, teenage lovers.Romeo and Juliet belongs to a...
, Portia
Portia (Merchant of Venice)
Portia is the heroine of William Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice. A rich, beautiful, and intelligent heiress, she is bound by the lottery set forth in her father's will, which gives potential suitors the chance to choose between three caskets composed of gold, silver and lead...
in The Merchant of Venice
The Merchant of Venice
The Merchant of Venice is a tragic comedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1596 and 1598. Though classified as a comedy in the First Folio and sharing certain aspects with Shakespeare's other romantic comedies, the play is perhaps most remembered for its dramatic...
, the Queen in Richard II
Richard II (play)
King Richard the Second is a history play by William Shakespeare believed to be written in approximately 1595. It is based on the life of King Richard II of England and is the first part of a tetralogy, referred to by some scholars as the Henriad, followed by three plays concerning Richard's...
, Helena in A Midsummer Night's Dream
A Midsummer Night's Dream
A Midsummer Night's Dream is a play that was written by William Shakespeare. It is believed to have been written between 1590 and 1596. It portrays the events surrounding the marriage of the Duke of Athens, Theseus, and the Queen of the Amazons, Hippolyta...
, Portia in Julius Caesar
Julius Caesar (play)
The Tragedy of Julius Caesar, also known simply as Julius Caesar, is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written in 1599. It portrays the 44 BC conspiracy against...
), including some alongside John Gielgud
John Gielgud
Sir Arthur John Gielgud, OM, CH was an English actor, director, and producer. A descendant of the renowned Terry acting family, he achieved early international acclaim for his youthful, emotionally expressive Hamlet which broke box office records on Broadway in 1937...
(Rosalind in As You Like It
As You Like It
As You Like It is a pastoral comedy by William Shakespeare believed to have been written in 1599 or early 1600 and first published in the folio of 1623. The play's first performance is uncertain, though a performance at Wilton House in 1603 has been suggested as a possibility...
, Lady Macbeth in Macbeth
Macbeth
The Tragedy of Macbeth is a play by William Shakespeare about a regicide and its aftermath. It is Shakespeare's shortest tragedy and is believed to have been written sometime between 1603 and 1607...
, and Queen Gertrude in Hamlet
Hamlet
The Tragical History of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, or more simply Hamlet, is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1599 and 1601...
). Donald Roy, in her Oxford Dictionary of National Biography entry, states:
"With an arresting appearance and a dominant stage presence, she proved most effective as strong, tragic characters, her Gertrude in Hamlet being accounted by some critics the finest they had seen."
She then returned to the West End (briefly returning to the Old Vic to play Emilia in their 1938 Othello
Othello
The Tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written in approximately 1603, and based on the Italian short story "Un Capitano Moro" by Cinthio, a disciple of Boccaccio, first published in 1565...
), notably playing Edith Gunter in Dodie Smith
Dodie Smith
Dorothy Gladys "Dodie" Smith was an English novelist and playwright. Smith is best known for her novel The Hundred and One Dalmatians. Her other works include I Capture the Castle and The Starlight Barking....
's Autumn Crocus (Lyric
Lyric Theatre (London)
The Lyric Theatre is a West End theatre on Shaftesbury Avenue in the City of Westminster.Designed by architect C. J. Phipps, it was built by producer Henry Leslie with profits from the Alfred Cellier and B. C. Stephenson hit, Dorothy, which he transferred from the Prince of Wales Theatre to open...
, 1931), the Countess of Rousillon in All's Well That Ends Well
All's Well That Ends Well
All's Well That Ends Well is a play by William Shakespeare. It is believed to have been written between 1604 and 1605, and was originally published in the First Folio in 1623....
(Arts, 1932), Lady Strawholme in Ivor Novello
Ivor Novello
David Ivor Davies , better known as Ivor Novello, was a Welsh composer, singer and actor who became one of the most popular British entertainers of the first half of the 20th century. Born into a musical family, his first successes were as a songwriter...
's Fresh Fields (Criterion
Criterion Theatre
The Criterion Theatre is a West End theatre situated on Piccadilly Circus in the City of Westminster, and is a Grade II* listed building. It has an official capacity of 588.-Building the theatre:...
, 1933), Liz Frobisher in John Van Druten's The Distaff Side (Apollo
Apollo Theatre
The Apollo Theatre is a Grade II listed West End theatre, on Shaftesbury Avenue in the City of Westminster. Designed by architect Lewin Sharp for owner Henry Lowenfield, and the fourth legitimate theatre to be constructed on the street, its doors opened on 21 February 1901 with the American...
, 1933), Barbara Dawe in Clemence Dane
Clemence Dane
Clemence Dane was the pseudonym of Winifred Ashton , an English novelist and playwright.-Life and career:...
's Moonlight is Silver (Queen's
Queen's Theatre
The Queen's Theatre is a West End theatre located in Shaftesbury Avenue in the City of Westminster. It opened on 8 October 1907 as a twin to the neighbouring Gielgud Theatre which opened ten months earlier. Both theatres were designed by W.G.R...
, 1934), Theodora in Elmer Rice
Elmer Rice
Elmer Rice was an American playwright. He received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama for his 1929 play, Street Scene.-Early years:...
's Not for Children
Not for Children
Not for Children is a 1934 play by Elmer Rice. It was premiered in 1935 at the Fortune Theatre in the West End of London. The work was performed for the first time on Broadway on February 13, 1951 at the Coronet Theatre; closing four days later after only seven performances. Incidental music was...
(Fortune
Fortune Theatre
The Fortune Theatre is a 432 seat West End theatre in Russell Street, near Covent Garden, in the City of Westminster, built in 1922-4 by Ernest Schaufelberg for impresario Laurence Cowen. The façade is principally bush hammered concrete, with brick piers supporting the roof...
, 1935), Masha in Chekhov's The Seagull
The Seagull
The Seagull is the first of what are generally considered to be the four major plays by the Russian dramatist Anton Chekhov. The Seagull was written in 1895 and first produced in 1896...
(New Theatre
Noël Coward Theatre
The Noël Coward Theatre, formerly known as the Albery Theatre, is a West End theatre on St. Martin's Lane in the City of Westminster. It opened on 12 March 1903 as the New Theatre and was built by Sir Charles Wyndham behind Wyndham's Theatre which was completed in 1899. The building was designed by...
, 1936), the Mother in an English-language version of Garcia Lorca's Bodas de sangre entitled Marriage of Blood (Savoy
Savoy Theatre
The Savoy Theatre is a West End theatre located in the Strand in the City of Westminster, London, England. The theatre opened on 10 October 1881 and was built by Richard D'Oyly Carte on the site of the old Savoy Palace as a showcase for the popular series of comic operas of Gilbert and Sullivan,...
, 1939), Léonie in Jean Cocteau
Jean Cocteau
Jean Maurice Eugène Clément Cocteau was a French poet, novelist, dramatist, designer, playwright, artist and filmmaker. His circle of associates, friends and lovers included Kenneth Anger, Pablo Picasso, Jean Hugo, Jean Marais, Henri Bernstein, Marlene Dietrich, Coco Chanel, Erik Satie, María...
's Les Parents terribles
Les parents terribles
Les Parents terribles is a 1938 French play written by Jean Cocteau. Despite initial problems with censorship, it was revived on the French stage several times after its original production, and in 1948 a film adaptation directed by Cocteau himself was released...
(Gate
Gate Theatre
The Gate Theatre, in Dublin, was founded in 1928 by Hilton Edwards and Micheál Mac Liammóir, initially using the Abbey Theatre's Peacock studio theatre space to stage important works by European and American dramatists...
, 1940), Mrs Cheveley in Oscar Wilde
Oscar Wilde
Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde was an Irish writer and poet. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he became one of London's most popular playwrights in the early 1890s...
's An Ideal Husband
An Ideal Husband
An Ideal Husband is an 1895 comedic stage play by Oscar Wilde which revolves around blackmail and political corruption, and touches on the themes of public and private honour...
(Westminster
Westminster Theatre
The Westminster Theatre was a London theatre, on Palace Street in Westminster. It was originally built as the Charlotte Chapel in 1766, which was altered and given a new frontage for use as a cinema from 1924 onwards. It finally became a theatre in 1931 after radical alterations...
, 1943), and Cornelia in John Webster
John Webster
John Webster was an English Jacobean dramatist best known for his tragedies The White Devil and The Duchess of Malfi, which are often regarded as masterpieces of the early 17th-century English stage. He was a contemporary of William Shakespeare.- Biography :Webster's life is obscure, and the dates...
's The White Devil
The White Devil
The White Devil is a revenge tragedy from 1612 by English playwright John Webster . A notorious failure when it premiered, Webster complained the play was acted in the dead of winter before an unreceptive audience. The play's complexity, sophistication and satire made it a poor fit with the...
(Duchess
Duchess Theatre
The Duchess Theatre is a West End theatre in the City of Westminster, London, located in Catherine Street, near Aldwych.The theatre opened on 25 November 1929 and is one of the smallest 'proscenium arched' West End theatres. It has 479 seats on two levels....
, 1947).
Early film career
Hunt also appeared in many supporting and cameo roles in several popular BritishEngland
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
films such as Good Morning Boys (1937), Trouble Brewing (1939), and The Man in Grey
The Man in Grey
The Man in Grey is a 1943 British film melodrama made by Gainsborough Pictures, and is widely considered as the first of its "Gainsborough melodramas"...
(1943). The Wicked Lady
The Wicked Lady
The Wicked Lady is a 1945 film starring Margaret Lockwood in the title role as a nobleman's wife who secretly becomes a highwayman for the excitement...
(1945) was an international success, but her next film role in David Lean
David Lean
Sir David Lean CBE was an English film director, producer, screenwriter, and editor best remembered for big-screen epics such as The Bridge on the River Kwai , Lawrence of Arabia ,...
's Great Expectations
Great Expectations (1946 film)
Great Expectations is a 1946 British film which won two Academy Awards and was nominated for three others...
(1946) became her most famous and most lauded. As Miss Havisham
Miss Havisham
Miss Havisham is a significant character in the Charles Dickens novel Great Expectations . She is a wealthy spinster, who lives in her ruined mansion with her adopted daughter, Estella, whom she has sent to France, while she herself is described as looking like "the witch of the place."Although she...
, she reprised her role from the 1939 stage adaptation by Alec Guinness
Alec Guinness
Sir Alec Guinness, CH, CBE was an English actor. He was featured in several of the Ealing Comedies, including Kind Hearts and Coronets in which he played eight different characters. He later won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his role as Colonel Nicholson in The Bridge on the River Kwai...
which provided the inspiration and template for Lean's film. Her performance met with significant acclaim and Roger Ebert
Roger Ebert
Roger Joseph Ebert is an American film critic and screenwriter. He is the first film critic to win a Pulitzer Prize for Criticism.Ebert is known for his film review column and for the television programs Sneak Previews, At the Movies with Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, and Siskel and Ebert and The...
later wrote in 1999 that she "dominate[d] the [film's] early scenes, playing Miss Havisham as a beak-nosed, shabby figure, bedecked in crumbling lace and linen, not undernourished despite her long exile." It was fitting, however, that her signature cinematic role should be so closely associated with Guinness, who also played Herbert Pocket in both the stage and film adaptations: as Guinness recounted in his 1985 memoir Blessings in Disguise, Hunt had served as an important mentor in the early years of his acting career.
Later career
From this time on she divided her time between British films, Hollywood and the stage. She won a Tony AwardTony Award
The Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Theatre, more commonly known as a Tony Award, recognizes achievement in live Broadway theatre. The awards are presented by the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League at an annual ceremony in New York City. The awards are given for Broadway...
in 1949 for her Broadway début as Countess Aurelia in the English-speaking première of Giraudoux's The Madwoman of Chaillot
The Madwoman of Chaillot
The Madwoman of Chaillot is a play, a poetic satire, by French dramatist Jean Giraudoux, written in 1943 and first performed in 1945, after his death. The play has two acts and follows the convention of the classical unities...
(though she had relatively less impact on the production's 1952 tour). Her last stage role was as Angélique Boniface in Hotel Paradiso, an adaptation from Feydeau
Georges Feydeau
Georges Feydeau was a French playwright of the era known as the Belle Époque. He is remembered for his many lively farces.-Biography:Georges Feydeau was born in Paris, the son of novelist Ernest-Aimé Feydeau and Léocadie Bogaslawa Zalewska. At the age of twenty, Feydeau wrote his first comic...
, again alongside Guinness at the Winter Garden Theatre
Winter Garden Theatre
The Winter Garden Theatre is a Broadway theatre located at 1634 Broadway in midtown Manhattan.-History:The structure was built by William Kissam Vanderbilt in 1896 to be the American Horse Exchange....
in May 1956.
Some of her other films include Anna Karenina
Anna Karenina (1948 film)
Anna Karenina [p] is a 1948 British film based on the 19th century novel, Anna Karenina, by the Russian writer Leo Tolstoy. The film was directed by Julien Duvivier, and starred Vivien Leigh in the title role...
(1948), My Sister and I (1948), The Fan
The Fan (1949 film)
The Fan is a 1949 American drama film directed by Otto Preminger. The screenplay by Dorothy Parker, Walter Reisch, and Ross Evans is based on the 1892 play Lady Windermere's Fan by Oscar Wilde...
(1949), Folly to be Wise (1952), The March Hare (1956), Anastasia
Anastasia (1956 film)
Anastasia is a 1956 American historical drama film directed by Anatole Litvak for 20th Century Fox. The film stars Ingrid Bergman, Yul Brynner, and Helen Hayes. Supporting players include Akim Tamiroff, Martita Hunt, and, in a small role, Natalie Schafer...
(1956), Three Men in a Boat
Three Men in a Boat (1956 film)
Three Men in a Boat is a 1956 British CinemaScope colour comedy film directed by Ken Annakin and starring Laurence Harvey, Jimmy Edwards, Shirley Eaton and David Thomlinson. It is based on the 1889 novel Three Men in a Boat by Jerome K. Jerome...
(1956), The Admirable Crichton
The Admirable Crichton (film)
The Admirable Crichton is a 1957 British comedy film directed by Lewis Gilbert and starring Kenneth More, Diane Cilento, Sally Ann Howes and Cecil Parker. The film was based on J. M...
(1957), The Prince and the Showgirl
The Prince and the Showgirl
The Prince and the Showgirl is a 1957 American film produced at Pinewood Studios starring Marilyn Monroe and co-starring Laurence Olivier who also served as director and producer.The film was released on 13 June 1957...
(1957), The Brides of Dracula (1960), The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm
The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm
The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm is a 1962 American film directed by Henry Levin and George Pal. The latter was the producer and also in charge of the stop motion animation. The film was one of the highest grossing films of 1962. It won one Oscar and was nominated for three additional...
(1962), Becket (1964), The Unsinkable Molly Brown (1964) and Bunny Lake Is Missing
Bunny Lake Is Missing
Bunny Lake Is Missing is a 1965 British psychological thriller film directed and produced by Otto Preminger, who filmed it in black and white widescreen format in London. It was based on the novel of the same name by Merriam Modell. The score is by Paul Glass and the opening theme is often heard as...
(1965).
Death
Martita Hunt died of bronchial asthma at her home in HampsteadHampstead
Hampstead is an area of London, England, north-west of Charing Cross. Part of the London Borough of Camden in Inner London, it is known for its intellectual, liberal, artistic, musical and literary associations and for Hampstead Heath, a large, hilly expanse of parkland...
, London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, aged 69, on 13 June 1969. Her estate was valued at £5,390. She never married. She was an aunt of actor Gareth Hunt
Gareth Hunt
Alan Leonard Hunt was an English actor, known as Gareth Hunt, best remembered for playing the footman Frederick Norton in Upstairs, Downstairs and Mike Gambit in The New Avengers.-Early life:...
.
Selected filmography
- Love on WheelsLove on WheelsLove on Wheels is a 1932 British musical comedy film directed by Victor Saville and starring Jack Hulbert, Leonora Corbett, Gordon Harker and Edmund Gwenn.-Cast:* Jack Hulbert - Fred Hopkins* Leonora Corbett - Jane Russell* Gordon Harker - Briggs...
(1932) - Friday the ThirteenthFriday the Thirteenth (1933 film)Friday the Thirteenth is a 1933 British drama film directed by Victor Saville and starring Jessie Matthews, Sonnie Hale and Muriel Aked. The film depicts the lives of several passengers in the hours before they are involved in a bus crash.-Cast:...
(1933) - I Was a SpyI Was a SpyI Was a Spy is a 1933 British thriller film directed by Victor Saville and starring Madeleine Carroll, Herbert Marshall and Conrad Veidt. A Belgian woman who nurses injured German soldiers during World War I passes intelligence to the British....
(1933) - Pot Luck (1936)
- Farewell AgainFarewell AgainFarewell Again is a 1937 British drama film directed by Tim Whelan and starring Leslie Banks, Flora Robson, Sebastian Shaw and Robert Newton. The film is a portmanteau illustrating the calls of duty on various soldiers and their families...
(1937) - Strange BoardersStrange BoardersStrange Boarders is a 1938 British comedy thriller film, directed by Herbert Mason for Gainsborough Pictures and starring Tom Walls, Renée Saint-Cyr, Googie Withers and Ronald Adam. The film is an adaptation of the 1934 espionage novel The Strange Boarders of Palace Crescent by E. Phillips...
(1938) - Trouble Brewing (1939)
- At the Villa RoseAt the Villa Rose (1940 film)At the Villa Rose is a 1940 British detective film directed by Walter Summers and based on the novel At the Villa Rose by A.E.W. Mason featuring the French detective Inspector Hanaud. The film is also known as House of Mystery...
(1940) - The Middle WatchThe Middle Watch (1940 film)The Middle Watch is a 1940 British, black-and-white, comedy film, directed by Thomas Bentley and starring Ronald Shiner as the Ship's Mechanic or Engineer, Jack Buchanan, Greta Gynt, Fred Emney and Kay Walsh. It was produced by Associated British Picture Corporation...
(1940) - Tilly of BloomsburyTilly of Bloomsbury (1940 film)Tilly of Bloomsbury is a 1940 British comedy film directed by Leslie S. Hiscot and based on the play Tilly of Bloomsbury by Ian Hay. It starred Sydney Howard, Jean Gillie, Kathleen Harrison and Henry Oscar...
(1940) - Quiet WeddingQuiet WeddingQuiet Wedding is a 1941 British comedy film directed by Anthony Asquith and starring Margaret Lockwood, Derek Farr and Marjorie Fielding. The screenplay was written by Terence Rattigan and Anatole de Grunwald based on the play Quiet Wedding by Esther McCracken which was later remade as Happy is the...
(1941) - They Flew AloneThey Flew AloneThey Flew Alone is a 1942 British, black-and-white, biopic, drama, propaganda, war film, directed by Herbert Wilcox and starring Anna Neagle, Robert Newton and Edward Chapman...
(1942) - The Man in GreyThe Man in GreyThe Man in Grey is a 1943 British film melodrama made by Gainsborough Pictures, and is widely considered as the first of its "Gainsborough melodramas"...
(1943) - The Wicked LadyThe Wicked LadyThe Wicked Lady is a 1945 film starring Margaret Lockwood in the title role as a nobleman's wife who secretly becomes a highwayman for the excitement...
(1945) - Great ExpectationsGreat Expectations (1946 film)Great Expectations is a 1946 British film which won two Academy Awards and was nominated for three others...
(1946) - The Ghosts of Berkeley SquareThe Ghosts of Berkeley SquareThe Ghosts of Berkeley Square is a 1947 British comedy film, directed by Vernon Sewell and starring Robert Morley and Felix Aylmer. The film is an adaptation of the novel No Nightingales by Caryl Brahms and S. J. Simon, inspired by the enduring reputation of the property at 50 Berkeley Square as...
(1947) - So Evil My LoveSo Evil My LoveSo Evil My Love is a 1948 British psychological thriller film, directed by Lewis Allen and starring Ray Milland, Ann Todd and Geraldine Fitzgerald. The film is a period drama set in the Victorian era, and shot in film noir style in the late-1940s sub-genre often referred to as "Gaslight noir"...
(1948) - The Little BallerinaThe Little BallerinaThe Little Ballerina is a 1948 British drama film directed by Lewis Gilbert.-Cast:* Yvonne Marsh as Joan* Marian Chapman as Sally* Kay Henderson as Pamela* Doreen Richards as Lydia* Anita Holland as Carol* Beatrice Varley as Mrs. Field* Herbert C...
(1948) - Treasure HuntTreasure Hunt (film)Treasure Hunt is a 1952 British comedy film directed by John Paddy Carstairs and starring Martita Hunt, Jimmy Edwards, Naunton Wayne and Athene Seyler.-Cast:* Martita Hunt - Aunt Anna Rose* Jimmy Edwards - Hercules Ryall / Sir Roderick Ryall...
(1952) - It Started in ParadiseIt Started in ParadiseIt Started in Paradise is a 1952 British drama film, directed by Compton Bennett and starring Jane Hylton, Martita Hunt and Muriel Pavlow. Set in the world of haute couture, the film was squarely aimed at female audiences...
(1952) - Folly to Be WiseFolly to Be WiseFolly to Be Wise is a 1953 British comedy film directed by Frank Launder and starring Alastair Sim, Elizabeth Allan, Roland Culver, Colin Gordon, Martita Hunt and Edward Chapman. It is based on the play It Depends What You Mean by James Bridie...
(1953) - King's RhapsodyKing's Rhapsody (film)King's Rhapsody is a 1955 British musical film directed by Herbert Wilcox and starring Anna Neagle, Errol Flynn and Patrice Wymore. It was based on the musical King's Rhapsody by Ivor Novello.-Cast:* Anna Neagle - Marta Karillos...
(1955) - Dangerous ExileDangerous ExileDangerous Exile is a 1957 British historical drama film directed by Brian Desmond Hurst and starring Louis Jourdan, Belinda Lee, Anne Heywood and Richard O'Sullivan. It concerns the fate of Louis XVII, who died in 1795 as a boy, yet was popularly believed to have escaped from his French...
(1957) - The Admirable CrichtonThe Admirable CrichtonThe Admirable Crichton is a comic stage play written in 1902 by J. M. Barrie. It was produced by Charles Frohman and opened at the Duke of York's Theatre in London on 4 November 1902, running for an extremely successful 828 performances. It starred H. B. Irving and Irene Vanbrugh...
(1957) - Les espionsLes EspionsLes Espions is a 1957 French film directed by Henri-Georges Clouzot and written by Clouzot with Jerôme Géronim and Egon Hostovsky. The cast includes Gérard Sety, Peter Ustinov, Curd Jürgens, O.E. Hasse, Sam Jaffe, Martita Hunt and the director's wife, Véra Clouzot...
(1957) - Bonjour tristesseBonjour tristesseBonjour Tristesse is a 1958 film directed and produced by Otto Preminger from a screenplay by Arthur Laurents based on the novel of the same title by Françoise Sagan. The film stars Deborah Kerr, David Niven, Jean Seberg, Mylène Demongeot and Geoffrey Horne, and features Juliette Gréco, Walter...
(1958) - Me and the ColonelMe and the ColonelMe and the Colonel is a 1958 film based on the play "Jacobowsky und der Oberst" by Franz Werfel. It was directed by Peter Glenville and stars Danny Kaye, Curd Jürgens and Akim Tamiroff....
(1958) - Venetian Honeymoon (1959)
- Bottoms Up!Bottoms Up!Bottoms Up! is the second album by jazz group The Three Sounds featuring performances recorded in 1958 and 1959 and released on the Blue Note label.-Reception:...
(1959) - The Brides of DraculaThe Brides of DraculaThe Brides of Dracula is a 1960 British Hammer Horror film directed by Terence Fisher. It stars Peter Cushing as Van Helsing; Yvonne Monlaur as Marianne Danielle; Andrée Melly as her roommate, Gina; Marie Devereux; David Peel as Baron Meinster, a disciple of Count Dracula; and Martita Hunt as his...
(1960) - Song Without EndSong Without EndSong Without End, subtitled The Story of Franz Liszt is a biographical film romance made by Columbia Pictures. It was directed by Charles Vidor, who died during the shooting of the picture and was replaced by George Cukor. It was produced by William Goetz from a screenplay by Oscar Millard,...
(1960) - Mr. TopazeMr. TopazeMr. Topaze was Peter Sellers' directorial debut in 1961. Starring Sellers, Nadia Gray, and Leo McKern as well as Herbert Lom who quarreled with Seller's Inspector Clouseau in the Pink Panther movies...
(1961) - The Wonderful World of the Brothers GrimmThe Wonderful World of the Brothers GrimmThe Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm is a 1962 American film directed by Henry Levin and George Pal. The latter was the producer and also in charge of the stop motion animation. The film was one of the highest grossing films of 1962. It won one Oscar and was nominated for three additional...
(1962) - Becket (1964)
- The Unsinkable Molly Brown (1964)
- Bunny Lake Is MissingBunny Lake Is MissingBunny Lake Is Missing is a 1965 British psychological thriller film directed and produced by Otto Preminger, who filmed it in black and white widescreen format in London. It was based on the novel of the same name by Merriam Modell. The score is by Paul Glass and the opening theme is often heard as...
(1965) - The Best House in LondonThe Best House in LondonThe Best House in London is a 1969 British comedy film directed by Philip Saville and starring David Hemmings, Joanna Pettet, George Sanders, Warren Mitchell, John Bird, Maurice Denham and Bill Fraser.-Cast:...
(1969)