Kim Hunter
{{short description|American actress (1922–2002)}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=January 2025}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Kim Hunter
| image = Kim Hunter Money, Women and Guns still (cropped).jpg
| caption = Hunter in 1956
| birth_name = Janet Cole
| birth_date = {{Birth date|1922|11|12|mf=yes}}
| birth_place = Detroit, Michigan, U.S.
| death_date = {{Death date and age|2002|9|11|1922|11|12|mf=yes}}
| death_place = New York City, U.S.
| occupation = Actress
| years_active = 1943–2001
| spouse = {{plainlist|
- {{marriage|William Baldwin|1944|1946|end=div}}
- {{marriage|Robert Emmett|1951|2000|end=his death}}
}}
| children = 2
}}
Kim Hunter (born Janet Cole; November 12, 1922 – September 11, 2002) was an American theatre, film, and television actress. She achieved prominence for portraying Stella Kowalski in the original production of Tennessee Williams' A Streetcar Named Desire, which she reprised for the 1951 film adaptation, and won both an Academy Award and a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress.
Decades later, she was nominated for a Daytime Emmy Award for portraying Nola Madison on the soap opera The Edge of Night.{{cite journal| title=1980 Emmy Winners & Nominees| url=http://www.soapoperadigest.com/emmys/winners1980/| journal=Soap Opera Digest| access-date=June 28, 2013| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040818104130/http://www.soapoperadigest.com/emmys/winners1980/| archive-date=August 18, 2004}} She also portrayed the chimpanzee Zira in Planet of the Apes (1968), and its sequels Beneath the Planet of the Apes (1970) and Escape from the Planet of the Apes (1971).
Early life
Hunter was born in Detroit, Michigan, the daughter of Grace Lind, who was trained as a concert pianist, and Donald Cole, a refrigeration engineer.{{cite book| url=https://archive.org/details/playeraprofileof002609mbp/page/n319/mode/2up?q=donald+cole| title=The Player A Profile Of An Art|first1=Lillian| last1=Ross| first2=Helen| last2=Ross| date=April 8, 1961| publisher=Simon And Schuster| page=320| via=Internet Archive| access-date=October 29, 2021}} She was of English and Welsh descent.{{cite news |last=Collura |first=Joe |date=October 23, 2009 |title=Kim Hunter |url=http://www.classicimages.com/people/article_6caaaef5-251f-526c-a92f-e616a26e3a42.html |newspaper=Classic Images |access-date=December 20, 2018 |archive-date=September 24, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190924210411/https://www.classicimages.com/people/article_6caaaef5-251f-526c-a92f-e616a26e3a42.html |url-status=dead }} Hunter attended Miami Beach High School.{{cite web| url=http://www.walkoffame.com/kim-hunter| title=Kim Hunter| website=Hollywood Walk of Fame| access-date=December 20, 2018}}
Career
Hunter's first film role was in the 1943 horror The Seventh Victim, and her first starring role was playing opposite David Niven in the 1946 British fantasy film A Matter of Life and Death. In 1947, she was Stella Kowalski on stage in the original Broadway production of A Streetcar Named Desire. Recreating that role in the 1951 film version, Hunter won both the Academy and Golden Globe awards for Best Supporting Actress.{{cite web| title=Winners & Nominees: Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in any Motion Picture 1952| url=https://www.goldenglobes.com/winners-nominees/best-performance-actress-supporting-role-any-motion-picture/all-years#year-1952| website=Golden Globe Awards| access-date=December 20, 2018| archive-date=March 8, 2021| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210308013851/https://www.goldenglobes.com/winners-nominees/best-performance-actress-supporting-role-any-motion-picture/all-years#year-1952| url-status=dead}}{{cite web| url=https://www.oscars.org/oscars/ceremonies/1952| title=Oscar Ceremony 1952 (Actress In A Supporting Role)| website=Academy Awards| date=October 5, 2014| access-date=December 20, 2018}} In the interim, however, in 1948, she had already joined with Streetcar co-stars Marlon Brando, Karl Malden, and 47 others, to become one of the first members accepted by the newly created Actors Studio.{{cite news| first=Dick| last=Kleiner| url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1798&dat=19561221&id=5AUdAAAAIBAJ&sjid=zYoEAAAAIBAJ&pg=6848,5227672| title=The Actors Studio: Making Stars Out of the Unknown| newspaper=Sarasota Journal| date=December 21, 1956| page=26| quote=That first year, they interviewed around 700 actors and picked 50. In that first group were people like Marlon Brando, Montgomery Clift, Tom Ewell, John Forsythe, Julie Harris, Kim Hunter, Karl Malden, E.G. Marshall, Margaret Phillips, Maureen Stapleton, Kim Stanley, Jo Van Fleet, Eli Wallach, Ray Walston and David Wayne.}}
In 1952, Hunter became Humphrey Bogart's leading lady in Deadline USA.{{cite book |last=McCarty |first=Clifford |title=Bogey: The Films of Humphrey Bogart |year=1965 |location=New York |publisher=Citadel Press |page=165 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=i24c-Zjt7lUC&q=hunter |isbn=978-0-8065-0001-0 |url-access=subscription}}
Hunter was blacklisted from film and television in the 1950s, amid suspicions of communism in Hollywood, during the era of the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC).{{cite news |title=THEATER; Blacklist: Memories of a Word That Marks an Era |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1994/07/31/arts/theater-blacklist-memories-of-a-word-that-marks-an-era.html |newspaper=The New York Times |date=July 31, 1994 |access-date=September 21, 2015}}
In 1956, with the HUAC's influence subsiding, she co-starred in Rod Serling's Peabody Award-winning teleplay on Playhouse 90, "Requiem for a Heavyweight". The telecast won multiple Emmy Awards, including Best Single Program of the Year. She appeared opposite Mickey Rooney in the 1957 live CBS-TV broadcast of The Comedian, another drama written by Rod Serling and directed by John Frankenheimer. In 1959, she appeared in Rawhide in "Incident of the Misplaced Indians" as Amelia Spaulding. On February 4, 1968, she appeared as Ada Halle in the NBC TV Western series Bonanza in the episode "The Price of Salt".
Starting in 1968, Hunter took on the role of Zira, the sympathetic chimpanzee scientist in the science fiction film Planet of the Apes, as well as two of its sequels. She also appeared in several radio and TV soap operas, most notably as Hollywood actress Nola Madison in ABC's The Edge of Night, for which she received a Daytime Emmy Award nomination as Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series in 1980. In 1979, she appeared as First Lady Ellen Axson Wilson in the serial drama Backstairs at the White House.{{cite news |last=Baxter |first=Brian |date=September 12, 2002 |title=Obituary: Kim Hunter |url=https://www.theguardian.com/news/2002/sep/13/guardianobituaries.arts |newspaper=The Guardian |location=London |access-date=February 5, 2017}}
Hunter starred in the controversial TV movie Born Innocent (1974) playing the mother of Linda Blair's character. She also starred in several episodes of the CBS Radio Mystery Theater during the mid-1970s. In 1971, she appeared in an episode of Cannon. In the same year, she starred in a Columbo episode "Suitable for Framing". In 1974, she appeared on Raymond Burr's Ironside. In 1977, she appeared on the NBC Western series The Oregon Trail starring Rod Taylor, in the episode "The Waterhole", which also featured Lonny Chapman.
Hunter's last film role in a major motion picture was in Clint Eastwood's 1997 film, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. In it, Hunter portrayed Betty Harty, legal secretary for real-life Savannah lawyer Sonny Seiler.
Personal life
Hunter was married twice, first to William Baldwin, a Marine Corps pilot, in 1944. The couple had a daughter before divorcing two years later. She wed Robert Emmett in 1951. They had a son in 1954. Hunter and Emmett would occasionally perform together in stage plays; he died in 2000.{{cite news |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/1407005/Kim-Hunter.html |title=Kim Hunter |newspaper=The Daily Telegraph |location=London |date=September 12, 2002 |access-date=February 5, 2017}}
Hunter was a lifelong progressive Democrat.{{cite news |last=Lyman |first=Rick |date=September 12, 2002 |title=Kim Hunter, 79, an Actress Lauded as Stella in 'Streetcar' |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2002/09/12/arts/kim-hunter-79-an-actress-lauded-as-stella-in-streetcar.html |newspaper=The New York Times |access-date=May 28, 2018}}
Death
Hunter died in New York City on September 11, 2002, of a heart attack at the age of 79.{{cite web| url=http://www.legacy.com/Obituaries.asp?Page=LifeStory&PersonId=1234524| title=Kim Hunter Obituary| website=Legacy| access-date=February 5, 2017| archive-date=February 5, 2017| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170205181335/http://www.legacy.com/Obituaries.asp?Page=LifeStory&PersonId=1234524| url-status=dead}} Her ashes were given to her daughter—an attorney, civic leader, and former judge in Connecticut.{{cite web |title=Kathryn Emmett |url=https://www.franklinstreetworks.org/biography/kathryn-emmett/ |website=Franklin Street Works |date=May 31, 2017 |access-date=February 12, 2022}}.{{cite book| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FOHgDAAAQBAJ&q=Kim+Hunter+burial+cremated&pg=PA362|title=Resting Places: The Burial Sites of More Than 14,000 Famous Persons| edition=3d| first=Scott| last=Wilson| date=September 16, 2016| publisher=McFarland| isbn=978-1-4766-2599-7| via=Google Books}}
Legacy
Hunter received two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, one for motion pictures at 1615 Vine Street and a second for television at 1715 Vine Street.{{cite news |last=Welkos |first=Robert W. |date=September 12, 2002 |title=Kim Hunter - Hollywood Star Walk |url=http://projects.latimes.com/hollywood/star-walk/kim-hunter/ |newspaper=Los Angeles Times |access-date=December 20, 2018}}
Filmography
=Film=
| class="wikitable sortable" |
| Year
! Title ! Role ! class="unsortable" | Notes |
|---|
| 1943
| Mary Gibson | |
| 1943
| Doris Dumbrowski | |
| 1943
| Reconnaissance Pilot | Catherine Cummings | Uncredited / Documentary short |
| 1944
| Johnson's Girl | US release scenes shot in 1946 |
| 1944
| Mildred "Millie" Baxter | Re-release title Betrayed |
| 1945
| Frances Hotchkiss | |
| 1946
| June | |
| 1951
| Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress |
| 1952
| Nora Hutcheson | |
| 1952
| Helen Watson | |
| 1956
| Fran West | |
| 1956
| Martha Lockridge | |
| 1957
| Helen Ditmar | |
| 1958
| Mary Johnston Kingman | |
| 1964
| Lilith | Dr. Bea Brice | |
| 1968
| Dr. Zira | |
| 1968
| Betty Graham | |
| 1970
| Beneath the Planet of the Apes | Dr. Zira | |
| 1971
| Escape from the Planet of the Apes | Dr. Zira | |
| 1971
| Jennifer's Mother | Scenes deleted |
| 1976
| Dark August | Adrianna Putnam | |
| 1987
| Amanda Hollins | |
| 1990
| Mrs. Pym | Segment: "The Black Cat" |
| 1993
| The Black Cat | Mrs. Pym | Short release of segment in Due occhi diabolici |
| 1997
| Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil | Betty Harty | |
| 1998
| Rebbitzn | |
| 1999
| Abilene | Emmeline Brown | |
| 1999
| Out of the Cold | Elsa Lindepu | |
| 2000
| The Hiding Place | Muriel | |
| 2000
| Nelly Ormond | |
=Television=
| class="wikitable sortable" |
| Year
! Title ! Role ! class="unsortable" | Notes |
|---|
| 1948–1950
| | Season 1 Episode 7: "The Ropes" (1948) |
| 1949
| The Philco Television Playhouse | | Season 2 Episode 4: "The Lonely" |
| 1949
| | Season 1 Episode 3: "Rhapsody in Discord" |
| 1949
| Suspense | Emily | Season 2 Episode 13: "Man in the House" |
| 1949
| Meg March | Season 2 Episode 6: "Little Women" |
| 1952
| | Season 3 Episode 14: "Rise Up and Walk" |
| 1952
| Gaby Maple | Season 1 Episode 11: "The Petrified Forest" |
| 1953
| | Season 2 Episode 11: "A Gift from Cotton Mather" |
| 1954
| Janet Dean, Registered Nurse | Sylvia Peters | Episode: "The Putnam Case" |
| 1955
| Omnibus | Season 3 Episode 12 (Segment: "The Trial of St. Joan") |
| 1955
| Justice | | Season 2 Episode 32: "The Blues Kill Me" |
| 1955
| Appointment with Adventure | | Season 1 Episode 12: "Race the Comet" |
| 1955
| | Season 1 Episode 21: "Cross-Words" |
| 1955
| Elizabeth | Season 1 Episode 3: "A Midsummer Daydream" |
| 1955
| Lina | Season 6 Episode 11: "Suspicion" |
| 1955
| Climax! | Barbara Williams | Season 2 Episode 11: "Portrait in Celluloid" |
| 1956
| Molly | Season 3 Episode 4: "Perfect Likeness" |
| 1956
| Anita Wells | Season 1 Episode 9: "The Person and Property of Margery Hay" |
| 1956
| Mary Murphy | Season 4 Episode 22: "Try to Remember" |
| 1956–1960
| (1) Grace Carney | (1) Season 1 Episode 2: "Requiem for a Heavyweight" (1956) |
| 1956
| The United States Steel Hour | Vivan | Season 3 Episode 18: "Moment of Courage" |
| 1957
| Louise Marden | Season 1 Episode 17: "Whereabouts Unknown" |
| 1958
| Climax! | (1) Lynn Griffith | (1) Season 4 Episode 21: "So Deadly My Love" |
| 1958
| Maggie Church | Season 10 Episode 34: "Ticket to Tahiti" |
| 1958
| | Episode: "Antigone" |
| 1958
| Stephanie Heldman | Season 2 Episode 7: "The Dark File" |
| 1958
| Amanda 'Mandy' Sullivan Skowran | Season 1 Episode 8: "In an Early Winter" |
| 1959
| Rawhide | Amelia Spaulding | Season 1 Episode 16: "Incident of the Misplaced Indians" |
| 1959
| Sister Angela | Season 6 Episode 2: "The Strange Return of Army Armitage" |
| 1959
| Vanessa Sutton Charles | Season 1 Episode 11: "Haunted" |
| 1960
| The Closing Door | | Television film |
| 1960
| | Season 1 Episode 24: "The Secret of Freedom" |
| 1960
| World Wide '60 | Jill | Episode: "The Secret of Freedom" |
| 1960
| Special for Women: The Cold Woman | The Cold Woman | Television film |
| 1960
| Norma Trahern | Season 1 Episode 13: "The Closing Door" |
| 1961
| | Season 2 Episode 21: "The Sound of Murder" |
| 1961
| Mara | Television film |
| 1962
| The United States Steel Hour | | Season 10 Episode 4: "Wanted: Someone Innocent" |
| 1962
| Edna Daggett | Season 3 Episode 13: "The Face of the Enemy" |
| 1962
| Ruth Jacobs | Season 2 Episode 2: "Tomorrow, the Man" |
| 1962
| Virginia Hunter | Season 1 Episode 6: "Of Roses and Nightingales and Other Lovely Things" |
| 1963
| Jackie Gleason: American Scene Magazine | Guest / Sketches | Season 1 Episode 15 |
| 1963
| Lora Stanton | Season 1 Episode 32: "They Are as Lions" |
| 1963
| Chronicle | | Episode: "The French, They Are So French" |
| 1963
| Anita Anson | Season 1 Episode 7: "Crack in an Image" |
| 1963
| Geraldine Weston Saunders | Season 1 Episode 13: "Some Weeks Are All Mondays" |
| 1964
| Adelaide Winters | Season 2 Episode 16: "The Evil of Adelaide Winters" |
| 1965
| Eileen Rolf | Season 4 Episode 18: "The Unwritten Law" |
| 1965
| Emily Field | Season 5 Episode 24: "Something Old, Something New" |
| 1966
| Confidential for Women | | Season 1 Episode 1: "Love After Marriage" |
| 1966
| Maria Celeste | Hallmark Hall of Fame Television film |
| 1966
| Hawk | Mrs. Gilworth | Season 1 Episode 16: "Wall of Silence" |
| 1967
| Mannix | Louise Dubrio | Season 1 Episode 1: "The Name Is Mannix" |
| 1968
| Bonanza | Ada Halle | Season 9 Episode 19: "The Price of Salt" |
| 1968
| Freda Williams | Television film |
| 1968
| Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color | Freda Williams | Season 14 Episode 20: "The Young Loner: Part 1" |
| 1968
| Miss Patterson | Season 3 Episode 3: "The Honeymooners: The Boy Next Door" |
| 1968
| Gerrie Mason | Season 2 Episode 1: "The People Next Door" |
| 1969
| Season 3 Episode 24: "The Prodigal" |
| 1970
| Mannix | Angela Warren | Season 4 Episode 12: "Deja Vu" |
| 1970
| Mrs. Edith Carruthers | Television film |
| 1970
| The Teaching | Nan Golden | Television film |
| 1970
| Miriam Hewitt | Season 1 Episode 4: "The Alienation Kick" |
| 1970
| Amy Dobie | Season 2 Episode 8: "A Team of One-Legged Acrobats" |
| 1971
| The Bold Ones: The New Doctors | Elaine Miller | Season 2 Episode 6: "A Matter of Priorities" |
| 1971
| In Search of America | Cora Chandler | Television film |
| 1971
| Gunsmoke | Bea Colter | Season 17 Episode 6: "The Legend" |
| 1971
| Cannon | Liz Somers | Season 1 Episode 7: "Girl in the Electric Coffin" |
| 1971
| Columbo | Edna Matthews | Season 1 Episode 4: "Suitable for Framing" |
| 1971
| Carla Yarman | Season 3 Episode 3: "The Imposter" |
| 1972
| Cora Peddington | Season 2 Episode 16 (Segment: "The Late Mr. Peddington") |
| 1972
| Owen Marshall, Counselor at Law | Faye Danner | Season 2 Episode 2: "Lines from an Angry Book" |
| 1972
| | Episode: "The Thing with Feathers" |
| 1973
| Hannah O'Connel | Season 7 Episode 14: "Incarnate" |
| 1973
| Ruth | Season 4 Episode 21 (Segment: "Love and the Happy Family") |
| 1973
| Nora Coogan | Season 1 Episode: "Pilot" |
| 1973
| Vera Pulaski | Season 5 Episode 3: "For Services Rendered" |
| 1973
| Griff | Dr. Martha Reed | Season 1 Episode 6: "The Last Ballad" |
| 1973
| Rose Koster | Season 1 Episode 9: "Man on a Rack" |
| 1973
| Annie Kirby | Season 2 Episode 2: "The Detroit Connection" |
| 1973
| Jill | Season 1 Episode 3: "Dr. McDermitt's New Patients" |
| 1974
| Emily Webber | Season 1 Episode 26: "Wings of Death" |
| 1974
| Marion Troy | Season 6 Episode 13: "Kiss and Kill" |
| 1974
| Ironside | (1) Joanna Portman | (1) Season 7 Episode 18: "The Taste of Ashes" |
| 1974
| Unwed Father | Judy Simmons | Television film |
| 1974
| Mrs. Parker | Television film |
| 1974
| Elaine Wilby | Television film |
| 1975
| Insight | Ann Hinds | Episode 385: "The Last of the Great Male Chauvinists" |
| 1975
| Bess Reiter | Season 1 Episode 16: "Collision" |
| 1975
| Marion McKell | Season 1 Pilot Episode: "Too Many Suspects" |
| 1975
| The Wide World of Mystery | | Episode: "The Impersonation Murder Case" |
| 1976
| The Dark Side of Innocence | Kathleen Hancock | Television film |
| 1976
| Baretta | Crazy Annie | Season 3 Episode 9: "Crazy Annie" |
| 1976
| Kitty Damon | Television miniseries |
| 1977
| Liz Webster | Season 1 Episode 3: "The Waterhole" |
| 1977
| Hunter | Mrs. Lovejoy | Season 1 Episode 12: "The Lovejoy File" |
| 1978
| Samantha | Season 2 Episode 3: "Sighting 4017: The Devilish Davidson Lights Incident" |
| 1978
| Stubby Pringle's Christmas | Mrs. Harper | Television film |
| 1979
| Backstairs at the White House | Television miniseries (Season 1 Episode 1) |
| 1979
| Mrs. Brockelman | Season 5 Episode 19: "Never Send a Boy King to Do a Man's Job" |
| 1979
| Sister Superior | Television film |
| 1979–1980
| 113 episodes |
| 1980
| F.D.R.: The Last Year | Television film |
| 1981
| Skokie | Bertha Feldman | Television film |
| 1984
| Scene of the Crime | Helen Hollander | Season 1 Episode: "Pilot" |
| 1985
| Rosemary O'Reilly | Television film |
| 1985
| (1) Mary Easty | (1) Season 4 Episode 18: "Three Sovereigns for Sarah: Part I" |
| 1988
| Drop-Out Mother | Leona | Television film |
| 1989
| Mrs. Oberholtzer | Television film |
| 1990
| Beatrice Vitello | Season 7 Episode 1: "Trials and Tribulations" |
| 1993
| Faye Perth | |
| 1993
| Bloodlines: Murder in the Family | Television film |
| 1993
| Triumph Over Disaster: The Hurricane Andrew Story | Elsa Rael | Television film |
| 1994
| Millie Barton | Season 2 Episode 19: "Love Letters" |
| 1994
| L.A. Law | Natalie Schoen | Season 8 Episode 22: "Finish Line" |
| 1997
| (1) and (2) Nurse | (1) Episode dated May 5, 1997 |
| 1999
| Blue Moon | Sheila Keating | Television film |
| 2001
| The Education of Max Bickford | Adelle Aldrich | Season 1 Episode 3: "Who Is Breckenridge Long?" |
Awards and nominations
| class="wikitable sortable" |
| Year
! Association ! Category ! Nominated work ! Result |
|---|
| rowspan=2|1951
|rowspan=2|A Streetcar Named Desire | {{won}} |
| Golden Globe Award
| Best Supporting Actress – Motion Picture | {{won}} |
| 1980
| Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series | {{nom}} |
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
{{Commons category}}
- {{IMDb name|0001375}}
- {{Tcmdb name}}
- {{IBDB name}}
- {{iobdb name|8129}}
- [http://www.nypl.org/archives/4429 Kim Hunter scripts and rehearsal notes, 1957–1993], held by the Billy Rose Theatre Division, New York Public Library for the Performing Arts
- [http://archives.nypl.org/the/23288 Kim Hunter papers, Additions 1925-2000], held by the Billy Rose Theatre Division, New York Public Library for the Performing Arts
- {{The Interviews name}}
{{Navboxes
|title = Awards for Kim Hunter
|list =
{{AcademyAwardBestSupportingActress 1941-1960}}
{{GoldenGlobeBestSuppActressMotionPicture 1943-1960}}
}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hunter, Kim}}
Category:American film actresses
Category:American soap opera actresses
Category:American stage actresses
Category:American television actresses
Category:American people of English descent
Category:American people of Welsh descent
Category:Art Students League of New York alumni
Category:Best Supporting Actress Academy Award winners
Category:Best Supporting Actress Golden Globe (film) winners
Category:Donaldson Award winners
Category:Miami Beach Senior High School alumni
Category:Actresses from Detroit
Category:20th-century American actresses