Kim hunter
A nice story found in the
rec.arts.tv.mst3k.misc newsgroup soon after Kim's death
was announced.
Posted by
Ian W. Hill
Subject: Re: R.I.P.: Dr. Zira (Kim Hunter dies at 79)
Date: 2002-09-14 05:28:08 PST
Terribly sad. I was lucky enough to meet her once, briefly (just to shake
hands) at a screening of Michael Powell's PEEPING TOM where the director was
present.
As I was waiting to shake hands with Powell, the guy in front of me, for some
reason, began enthusing about how beautiful Kim Hunter was in A MATTER OF LIFE
AND DEATH, and proclaiming that he had fallen in love with her.
Michael Powell said, "Well, that's very nice, why don't you tell her, she's
standing right behind you." And everyone turned to look at Hunter, who was
smiling charmingly and somehow both shyly and slyly. That was 13 years ago so
she would have been 66. Still beautiful. And seemed to like greeting fans who
had fallen for her earlier screen self (in my case it was THE SEVENTH VICTIM).
I'm horrified in retrospect that I didn't remember at the time that she was
also Stella and Dr. Zira.
Michael Powell discovered her when he went to Hollywood to cast MATTER OF LIFE
AND DEATH and asked his old friend Hitchcock for recommendations. Hitchcock
had been forced by David Selznick to shoot a screen test of a starlet to try to
sell her to Powell for the film. Hitchcock said to Powell that the starlet was
only talented in terms of "chest development," but that the contract player who
had been feeding the starlet lines from behind the camera might be good.
Powell: "Is she from Los Angeles?"
Hitchcock: "No, she is a lady."
And she was.
Pumaman
Brooklyn, NYC
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