Martita Hunt

Martita Hunt
Martita Edith Hunt (30 January 190013 June 1969) was an Argentine-born British theatre and film actress. She had a dominant stage presence and played a wide range of powerful characters. She is best remembered for her performance as Miss Havisham in David Lean's Great Expectations.
Biography
Early life
Hunt was born in Buenos Aires on 30 January 1900 to English parents Alfred and Marta (née Burnett) Hunt. She spent the first 20 years of her life in Argentina before she travelled with her parents to the United Kingdom to attend Queenwood Ladies' College in Eastbourne and then to train as an actress.
Early theatrical career
Hunt began her acting career in repertory theatre at Liverpool 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 to 1929, she appeared as the Principessa della Cercola in W. Somerset Maugham's Our Betters (Globe, 1924) and as Mrs. Linde 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 Theodore 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, during 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 Shakespearean 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 roles with John Gielgud (Rosalind in As You Like It, Lady Macbeth in Macbeth, and Gertrude in Hamlet).
In Hunt's entry in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Donald Roy wrote:"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 the 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 García Lorca's Bodas de sangre ("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).
Early film career
Hunt also appeared in many supporting roles in several popular British 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) would be 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."
Later career
Martita Hunt acted in The Sleeping Prince in 1953 at the Phoenix Theatre. From this time on, she divided her time between British and American films as well as the stage. She won a Tony Award 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 with Guinness at the Winter Garden Theatre in May 1956.
Other films in which she appeared include: Anna Karenina (1948), The Fan (1949), Anastasia (1956), Three Men in a Boat (1956), The Admirable Crichton (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). She also appeared on TV as Lady Bastable in several adaptations of the Saki stories (1962)
Death
Martita Hunt died of bronchial asthma at her home in Hampstead, London, aged 69, on 13 June 1969. Her estate was valued at £5,390. She never married.
She was cremated at Golders Green Crematorium on 19 June and her ashes lie in the Ivor Novello Rose Bed.
Selected filmography
A Rank Outsider (1920)
Service for Ladies (1932) as Aline – Countess Ricardi's Maid (uncredited)
Love on Wheels (1932) as Piano Demonstrator
I Was a Spy (1933) as Aunt Lucille
Friday the Thirteenth (1933) as Agnes Lightfoot
Too Many Millions (1934) as Mrs. Pilcher
Mr. What's-His-Name? (1935) as Mrs. Davies
The Case of Gabriel Perry (1935) as Mrs. Read
Man of the Moment (1935) as Roulette Player
First a Girl (1935) as Seraphina
King Of The Damned (1935) as Woman on Plane (uncredited)
When Knights Were Bold (1936) as Aunt Esther
Pot Luck (1936) as Mrs. Cream
Tudor Rose (1936) as Jane's Mother
The Interrupted Honeymoon (1936) as Nora Briggs
The Beloved Vagabond (1936) as Lady with lorgnettes (uncredited)
Sabotage (1936) as Miss Chatham – The Professor's Daughter (uncredited)
The Mill on the Floss (1936) as Mrs. Glegg
Good Morning, Boys (1937) as Lady Bogshott
Farewell Again (1937) as Adela Swayle
Paradise for Two (1937) as Mme. Bernard (uncredited)
Second Best Bed (1938) as Mrs. Mather
Strange Boarders (1938) as Miss Pitter
Prison Without Bars (1938) as Mme. Appel
Everything Happens to Me (1938)
Trouble Brewing (1939) as Madame Berdi
The Nursemaid Who Disappeared (1939) as Lady Alice Ballister
A Girl Must Live (1939) as Mme. Dupont, assistant
Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1939) as British Tourist on Bicycle (uncredited)
Young Man's Fancy (1939) as Duchess of Beaumont
Old Mother Riley Joins Up (1939) as Commandant
At the Villa Rose (1940) as Helen Vaquier
The Middle Watch (1940) as Lady Elizabeth Hewett
The Good Old Days (1940) as Sara Macaulay
Tilly of Bloomsbury (1940) as Lady Marion Mainwaring
Freedom Radio (1941) as Frau Lehmann the Concierge
Quiet Wedding (1941) as Mme. Mirelle
East of Piccadilly (1941) as Ma
The Seventh Survivor (1942) as Mrs. Lindley
They Flew Alone (1942) as Miss Bland
Lady from Lisbon (1942) as Susan Wellington-Smythe
Sabotage at Sea (1942) as Daphne Faber
Talk about Jacqueline (1942) as Colonel's Wife (uncredited)
The Importance of Being Earnest (1943) as Lady Bracknell
The Man in Grey (1943) as Miss Patchett
Welcome, Mr. Washington (1944) as Miss Finch
The Wicked Lady (1945) as Cousin Agatha
Great Expectations (1946) as Miss Havisham
The Ghosts of Berkeley Square (1947) as Lady Mary
The Little Ballerina (1947) as Miss Crichton
Anna Karenina (1948) as Princess Betty Tversky
So Evil My Love (1948) as Mrs. Courtney
My Sister and I (1948) as Mrs. Camelot
The Fan (1949) as Duchess of Berwick
The Story of Robin Hood and His Merrie Men (1952) as Queen Eleanor
Treasure Hunt (1952) as Aunt Anna Rose
Meet Me Tonight (1952) as Mabel Grace: Red Peppers
It Started in Paradise (1952) as Mme. Alice
Folly to Be Wise (1953) as Lady Dodd
Melba (1955) as Mme. Marchesi
King's Rhapsody (1955) as Queen Mother
The March Hare (1956) as Lady Anne
Anastasia (1956) as Baroness Elena von Livenbaum
Three Men in a Boat (1956) as Mrs. Willis
The Admirable Crichton (1957) as Lady Brocklehurst
Les Espions (1957) as Connie Harper
Dangerous Exile (1957) as Lady Lydia Fell
Bonjour tristesse (1958) as Philippe's Mother
Me and the Colonel (1958) as Mother Superior
La prima notte (1959) as Lisa Bradwell
Bottoms Up (1960) as Lady Gore-Willoughby
The Brides of Dracula (1960) as Baroness Meinster
Song Without End (1960) as Grand Duchess
Mr. Topaze (1961) as Baroness
The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm (1962) as Anna Richter (Story Teller)
Becket (1964) as Empress Matilda
The Unsinkable Molly Brown (1964) as Grand Duchess Elise Lupavinova
Bunny Lake Is Missing (1965) as Ada Ford
The Best House in London (1969) as Headmistress (final film role)
References
Sources
Who Was Who in the Theatre, 1912–1976, 2 (1978), pp. 1241–2
W. Rigdon, The Biographical Encyclopedia (1966), p. 556
D. Quinlan, The Illustrated Directory of Film Character Actors (1985), p. 152
S. D'Amico, ed., Enciclopedia dello spettacolo, 11 vols. (Rome, 1954–68)
P. Hartnoll, ed., The Concise Oxford Companion to the Theatre (1972), p. 259
The Times (14 June 1969), pp. 1, 10
J. Willis, ed., Theatre World, 26 (1970), pp. 268–9
F. Gaye, ed., Who's Who in the Theatre, 14th edn (1967), pp. 769–70
E. M. Truitt, Who Was Who on Screen, 3rd edn (1983), 360
The Guardian (14 June 1969), p. 5
R. May, A Companion to the Theatre (1973), p. 110
J.-L. Passek, ed., Dictionnaire du cinéma (1991), p. 334
External links
Donald Roy profile of Martita Hunt, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
Martita Hunt Collection is held by the Victoria and Albert Museum Theatre and Performance DepartmentReference Number(s): THM/132/3Dates of Creation c. 1910s – 1960sPhysical Description: 11 folders.
1900 births
1969 deaths
Argentine people of English descent
Donaldson Award winners
English film actresses
English stage actresses
English television actresses
Actors from Hampstead
English Shakespearean actresses
Tony Award winners
Deaths from asthma
People educated at Queenwood Ladies' College
Actresses from Buenos Aires
20th-century English actresses
British expatriates in Argentina
British expatriates in the United States