Biografia

Although Hunter was initially signed by David O. Selznick, she only did loan-outs for the two years she was under contract. Her only work inside the Selznick Studio was three days of screen tests for Hitchcock on "Spellbound," sitting in for Ingrid Bergman as actors were tested for minor roles. Even though she was only shot from behind her head, she impressed Hitchcock, who had lunch with her. A year later he recommended her to Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger for "A Matter of Life and Death.".

Political activist, she signed several civil rights petitions and was a sponsor of a 1949 World Peace Conference in New York - which triggered her label of being a Communist sympathizer, for which she was blacklisted in films and TV even though she never even held pro-Communist views. Her testimony to the New York Supreme Court in 1962 against the publishers of "Red Channels" helped pave the way for clearance of many performers unjustly accused of Communist connections.

Won the Critics Circle and Donaldson awards for her 1947-1948 Broadway debut performance as Stella in "A Streetcar Named Desire".

When a TV movie "Fear on Trial," was made about the famous Faulk/Nizer case, the producers wanted Hunter to play herself. Hunter claimed it contained untrue sequences, so she not only declined to play it, she had her name removed from the script. Lois Nettleton ultimately played the role.

Did voice work for the CBS Radio Mystery Theater.

[about her "blacklisting"] For a long while, I wouldn't talk about it at all. I do now, because there's a whole new generation that doesn't remember. And the more one knows, the more one can see, and not allow history to repeat itself.

[on being known as an actress rather than a star] That's fairly accurate, I think, for a great number of us. Becoming a star wouldn't have bothered me, but what is a star? A star isn't anything. An actor acts. That's the important thing.

[about Marlon Brando] The great thing about Marlon is his incredible sense of truth--he may make some bad choices in the roles he does, but the one thing he cannot be is false. I think that's why he didn't like acting very much, because it always drew up painful things from within him about his life that he then transferred to his character. But to work with that great sense of truth was simply wonderful.

[about her Oscar-winning role in Uma Rua Chamada Pecado (1951)] It was not at all certain I would do the movie. As a matter of fact, I had to test for it twice. First, I did a film test in New York with Elia Kazan. Then I got a call telling me to come to California for another test. They weren't happy with my hair. Vivien Leigh was going to wear a blonde wig, and for some reason they wanted me to be blonde as well--as if sisters always have the same hair color. So I bleached my hair and got the part. Later Kazan said to me, "There was no way I was going to direct the film with anybody else but you playing Stella".

[on Marlon Brando] An absolutely gorgeous actor! And a beautiful human being... Also: he dearest, most thoughtful, considerate human being I've ever met. Wild sense of humor; practical joker, no end. An extraordinary human being, no question!