Submitted by
Terry Hanstock
Kim Hunter
Obituaries from various US newspapers
(mainly based quite closely on the
Associated Press release)
The Advocate (Baton Rouge, LA.)
September 12, 2002, Thursday METRO EDITION
"Streetcar," "Apes" star Hunter dies
Oscar-winning actress Kim Hunter, who played everything from Marlon Brando's
betrayed wife to an ape-woman psychologist in a career spanning more than 50
years, died Wednesday in Manhattan. She was 79.
Hunter's death was discovered in the morning by a visiting nurse, according
to Lionel Larner, her longtime agent. "She had been in failing health in the
last months," Larner said.
Hunter was best known for two roles that could not have been more different.
In her Broadway debut in 1947, she played Stella Kowalski opposite Brando's
brutish Stanley in Tennessee Williams' "A Streetcar Named Desire"; Hunter won an
Oscar for best supporting actress when she repeated the role in the film version
of "Streetcar" in 1951.
But she may be best known to modern film audiences for the role she created
in 1968, under a faceful of latex makeup that took four hours to apply: That of
the compassionate and rational simian Dr. Zira, in "Planet of the Apes." Hunter
repeated her role in two more films, "Beneath the Planet of the Apes" (1970) and
"Escape from the Planet of the Apes" (1971).
"It was pretty claustrophobic and painful to a certain extent," Hunter said
years later. "The only thing of me that came through were my eyeballs."
Still, Hunter liked the role, liked the series (the first "Planet,"
especially) and above all, liked acting.
Calgary Herald
September 12, 2002 Thursday Final Edition
Streetcar star Kim Hunter dies
Kim Hunter, the versatile actress who won a supporting Oscar in 1951 as the
long-suffering Stella in A Streetcar Named Desire and appeared in three Planet
of the Apes movies, died Wednesday. She was 79.
Hunter died in her Greenwich Village apartment from an apparent heart attack,
said her daughter, Kathryn Emmett.
A shy, modest person, Hunter enjoyed a long and busy career in theatre and
television, less so in films, partly because she was blacklisted during the
red-hunting 1950s and didn't fit the sexpot pattern for female Hollywood stars.
A Streetcar Named Desire provided the highlight of her career. The play was
cast with Marlon Brando as Stanley Kowalski, Karl Malden as Mitch and Jessica
Tandy as the tragic Blanche DuBois. Director Elia Kazan admitted in his
autobiography, A Life, that he had trouble casting Stella "because I enjoy
looking at girls."
He added of Hunter: "The minute I saw her I was attracted to her, which is
the best possible reaction when casting young women."
Brando, Malden and Hunter played their roles in the somewhat sanitized film
version (Hollywood still adhered to a strict moral self-censorship). Because
Warner Bros. needed a movie star for marquee value, Vivien Leigh, who had
appeared as Blanche in London, repeated the role in the film.
Leigh, Malden and Hunter won Academy Awards; despite his unforgettable
performance, Brando did not. Humphrey Bogart was awarded a long overdue Oscar
for The African Queen.
Hunter told the New Orleans Times-Picayune in 1999 that after she left
Streetcar, she tried to avoid seeing the play with other casts.
"It's simply that I have no objectivity about it," she said. "It was so much
a part of my life, it would be unfair to the productions and performers."
Oscar's legendary golden touch didn't seem to apply to Hunter. Her subsequent
films were few and they lacked the lustre of Streetcar.
Her screen career entered a lull in the late '50s, after Hunter, a liberal
Democrat, was listed as a communist sympathizer by Red Channels, a red-hunting
pamphlet that influenced hiring by studios and TV networks.
Her return to film was Lilith (1964), which starred Warren Beatty, Jean
Seberg and Peter Fonda. Four years later came Planet of the Apes.
Hunter was cast as Dr. Zira, a chimpanzee psychiatrist in the science fiction
classic about a group of astronauts from a ruined Earth who discover a future
world ruled by apes, with humans as slaves. The actress spent hours as the
makeup and monkey suit were applied and later removed.
"It was pretty claustrophobic and painful to a certain extent," she told a
reporter in 1998. "The only thing of me that came through was my eyeballs."
She was intrigued enough with the character and the plots that she appeared
in two sequels, Beneath the Planet of the Apes (1970) and Escape From the Planet
of the Apes (1971).
Hunter was born Janet Cole in Detroit on Nov. 12, 1922; her mother had been a
concert pianist. She recalled later that she was a lonely child who "picked
friends out of books and played 'let's pretend' games, acting out their
characters before a mirror."
Hunter was married to William Baldwin in 1944; they had a daughter, Kathryn,
and divorced in 1946. In 1951, she married actor and producer Robert Emmett,
with whom she sometimes co-starred in plays. Their son was named Sean Robert.
Los Angeles Times
September 12, 2002 Thursday Home Edition
Kim Hunter, 79; Won Oscar for 'Streetcar'
ROBERT W. WELKOS, TIMES STAFF WRITER
Kim Hunter, the versatile stage and film actress who won 1951's Academy Award
for best supporting actress as Stella Kowalski, Blanche Dubois' long-suffering
sister in "A Streetcar Named Desire," died Wednesday in New York. She was 79.
Her death, in Greenwich Village, was caused by an apparent heart attack,
according to her daughter, Kathryn Emmett.
Hunter created the stage role of Stella in Tennessee Williams' towering
Broadway play and later rode the character to fame in Elia Kazan's
Oscar-nominated film, each time playing opposite an electrifying young actor
named Marlon Brando, whose shouted mating call "Stella!" has become an enduring
part of cinematic history.
"I had read 'A Streetcar Named Desire' before I read for the part of Stella,"
Hunter would recall in a 1999 interview. "I knew it was a good play, but I don't
think I knew how special it was, what a milestone it would be. I don't think my
mind worked that way."
"Doing 'Streetcar' was a joy, needless to say," she said in an earlier
interview. "Plays like that don't come along every other year. From the struggle
to get everything right in rehearsals through the challenge of sustaining a long
Broadway run, it was never easy. But I wouldn't have given up any of it."
Hunter originated her role on Broadway along with Brando, who played Stanley
Kowalski, and Karl Malden, who played Mitch. Jessica Tandy played the tragic
Blanche DuBois in the stage version, but the film role went to Vivien Leigh, who
had appeared in the play in London. Leigh, Malden and Hunter won Oscars for
their roles, but Brando was passed over for Humphrey Bogart in "The African
Queen."
Hunter's Oscar, however, did not translate into roles of equal stature. Her
subsequent films included "Deadline U.S.A.," "Anything Can Happen," "Storm
Center," "The Young Stranger," "Bermuda Affair" and "Money, Women and Guns."
In addition to "Streetcar," Hunter expressed fondness for two other film
roles: the 1946 British fantasy "Stairway to Heaven," in which she played a
young American woman working for the Royal Air Force, and as Dr. Zira, the
chimpanzee psychiatrist in the 1968 science fiction classic "Planet of the
Apes." She appeared in two sequels, "Beneath the Planet of the Apes" (1970) and
"Escape from the Planet of the Apes" (1971).
Hunter later recalled the arduous task of getting into makeup and the
chimpanzee suit each day. "It was pretty claustrophobic and painful to a certain
extent," she told a reporter in 1998. "The only thing of me that came through
was my eyeballs."
Born Janet Cole on Nov. 12, 1922, in Detroit, her father, Donald, was a
refrigeration engineer while her mother, Grace, had been trained as a concert
pianist and used to accompany choral groups in public performances. Her father
died when she was 3, and her mother married Bliss Stebbins, a retired
businessman from Miami Beach, where the family subsequently moved.
A shy child, she began to study acting with a drama coach who lived in her
neighborhood, spending hours studying voice technique, theater history and
theory, when not studying on her own. At 17, she joined a traveling stock
company, then got involved with regional theater, auditioning in California for
the acclaimed Pasadena Playhouse, where she got the ingenue part in a production
of "Arsenic and Old Lace" and a similar role in "The Women."
In 1943, an agent spotted her in Pasadena and she signed a seven-year movie
contract with David Selznick. It was Selznick who suggested she change her name
since Janet Cole was not theatrical enough and there were already other Janets
around, including Janet Gaynor and Janet Blair. Hunter was delighted because she
loathed her real name. She tossed out the name "Kim" because it was the name of
Magnolia's daughter in "Show Boat." A secretary of an RKO producer suggested
"Hunter." Selznick put the two together.
She made her film debut in a low-budget RKO horror film, "The Seventh
Victim," and followed with secondary roles in other features, eventually
returning to the New York theater.
In 1947, Irene Mayer Selznick was producing "A Streetcar Named Desire" and
recommended to her ex-husband that Hunter play Stella Kowalski.
"I had done a lot of theater--summer stock, winter stock--and ... David O.
Selznick put me under contract to do films," she recalled. "By the time of
'Streetcar,' I had done about five. I didn't have to come back and read again; I
got it. Incredible!"
In his autobiography, "A Life," Kazan noted that he cast Hunter because, "The
minute I saw her I was attracted to her, which is the best possible reaction
when casting young women."
Hunter was blacklisted by the film industry shortly after winning the 1951
Oscar. While showing no bitterness, she was concerned that future generations
not forget the toll taken on the entertainment industry by McCarthyism.
"For a long while, I wouldn't talk about it at all," she said in a 1985
interview. "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."
Her "sin," she said, was agreeing to be a sponsor of a 1949 World Peace
Conference held in New York during the time she was in "Streetcar." It so
happened that Life magazine came out with a big picture spread of all the
celebrity sponsors and that, in her words, "fanned the flames."
"I was never a Communist, nor even pro-Communist, but I was very pro-civil
rights and I signed a lot of petitions," she recalled. "Nobody ever came to me
directly and said, 'You are blacklisted,' and I don't think I ever appeared in
'Red Channels' (a Red-scare pamphlet that published the names of those suspected
of pro-Communist leanings). "There were only signals, such as the fact there
were no film offers after I won the Oscar, not even from Warner Bros., which
simply never picked up on the contract they had with me.
"At one point," she added, "I called the FBI and asked if I was posing a
problem for my country that I was unaware of. Someone called on me and said, 'We
have nothing on you. ... our problem's with your industry.' "
Hunter was married to William Baldwin in 1944; they had a daughter, Kathryn,
and divorced in 1946. In 1951, she married actor and producer Robert Emmett.
They sometimes co-starred in plays, and they had a son, Sean. Robert Emmett died
two years ago at age 78.
The Miami Herald
September 12, 2002 Thursday FL EDITION
Played Stella in 'Streetcar';
- Kim Hunter, the versatile actress who won a supporting Oscar in 1951 as the
long-suffering Stella in A Streetcar Named Desire and appeared in three Planet
of the Apes movies, died Wednesday. She was 79.Hunter enjoyed a long and busy
career in theater and television, less so in films, partly because she was
blacklisted during the red-hunting 1950s and didn't fit the sexpot pattern for
female Hollywood stars.
Her subsequent films included Deadline U.S.A., as Humphrey Bogart's estranged
wife; Anything Can Happen, as Russian immigrant Jose Ferrer's wife; Storm
Center, a minor film starring Bette Davis; also The Young Stranger, Bermuda
Affair and Money, Women and Guns.
Her screen career entered a lull in the late '50s after Hunter, a liberal
Democrat, was listed as a communist sympathizer by Red Channels, a red-hunting
pamphlet that influenced hiring.
Her return to film was Lilith (1964), which starred Warren Beatty, Jean
Seberg and Peter Fonda. Four years later came Planet of the Apes.
Hunter was cast as Dr. Zira, a chimpanzee psychiatrist.
Hunter was married to William Baldwin in 1944; they had a daughter, Kathryn
Emmett, and divorced in 1946. In 1951, she married actor and producer Robert
Emett, with whom she sometimes costarred in plays. Their son was named Sean
Robert.
The Orlando Sentinel
September 12, 2002 Thursday, FINAL
Kim Hunter: Stella to Brando, Doctor to Apes, dies at 79
Karin Lipson, National Correspondent
Oscar-winning actress Kim Hunter, who played everything from Marlon Brando's
betrayed wife to an ape-psychologist in a career spanning more than 50 years,
died Wednesday in Manhattan. She was 79.
Hunter's death was discovered in the morning by a visiting nurse, according
to Lionel Larner, her longtime agent. "She had been in failing health in the
last months," Larner said.
Hunter was best known for two roles that could not have been more different.
In her Broadway debut in 1947, she played Stella Kowalski opposite Brando's
brutish Stanley in Tennessee Williams' A Streetcar Named Desire; Hunter won an
Oscar for best supporting actress when she repeated the role in the film version
of Streetcar in 1951.
Director Elia Kazan admitted in his autobiography, A Life, that he had
trouble casting Stella "because I enjoy looking at girls."
He added of Hunter: "The minute I saw her, I was attracted to her, which is
the best possible reaction when casting young women."
Oscar's legendary golden touch didn't seem to apply to Hunter. Her subsequent
films lacked the luster of Streetcar. Her screen career entered a lull in the
late '50s after Hunter, a liberal Democrat, was listed as a communist
sympathizer by Red Channels, a red-hunting pamphlet that influenced hiring by
studios and TV networks.
Her return to film was Lilith (1964), which starred Warren Beatty, Jean
Seberg and Peter Fonda.
Four years later came the role she may be best known for.
Hunter was cast as Dr. Zira, a chimpanzee psychiatrist in the science-fiction
classic about a group of astronauts from a ruined Earth who discover a future
world ruled by apes, with humans as slaves. The actress spent hours as the
makeup and costume were applied and later removed.
"It was pretty claustrophobic and painful to a certain extent," Hunter said
years later. "The only thing of me that came through were my eyeballs."
Still, Hunter liked the role, liked the series (the first Planet, especially)
and above all, liked acting.
Hunter repeated her role in two more films, Beneath the Planet of the Apes
(1970) and Escape from the Planet of the Apes (1971).
Born Janet Cole in Detroit on Nov. 12, 1922, she grew up in Miami Beach and
made her stage debut at age 17 in the title role of Penny Wise at the Miami
Women's Club.
"I knew from my teens on that [acting] was my profession," Hunter recalled.
"I took classes in metal craft in high school so I couldn't be talked into going
to college." Her last role in a major film was in Midnight in the Garden of Good
and Evil (1997). Last year, she acted on the New York stage in a revival of The
Madwoman of Chaillot. Hunter is survived by a daughter, Kathryn Emmett, and a
son, Sean R. Emmett.
The Washington Post
September 12, 2002, Thursday, Final Edition
Kim Hunter Dies; Won Oscar as 'Stella'
Adam Bernstein, Washington Post Staff Writer
Kim Hunter, 79, an actress whose film career peaked with her Academy
Award-winning performance as Stella in "A Streetcar Named Desire" in 1951 but
who went on to a prolific career in television and theater after being
temporarily blacklisted during the Red scare, died Sept. 11 at her home in New
York after a heart attack.
It was once said of the petite, shy and glamour-less actress that she had
"nothing but talent." Ms. Hunter was usually cast in her early films as a
fresh-faced ingenue or loyal wife.
She made her movie debut as the sister of a missing woman in Val Lewton's
low-budget suspense classic, "The Seventh Victim" (1943). She then co-starred
with David Niven in Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger's much-heralded
British romantic fantasy, "A Matter of Life and Death" (1946).
In 1947, film mogul David O. Selznick, who had discovered Ms. Hunter,
recommended her to his former wife, Irene, who was producing Tennessee
Williams's "A Streetcar Named Desire" on Broadway. It proved the most
identifiable role of her life.
As Stella, she was torn between two powerful forces -- her disturbed and
genteel sister, Blanche DuBois, and her sexually powerful, brutish husband,
Stanley Kowalski.
In a cast of powerhouses that included Jessica Tandy as Blanche, Karl Malden
as Blanche's suitor Mitch and Marlon Brando as Kowalski in the part that made
his career, Ms. Hunter was thrown into sharp relief for her less-explosive
technique of displaying a torn conscience.
Look magazine gave her one of its achievement awards for "standing out in
bold normality among the frenetic characters around her."
Ms. Hunter received a best supporting actress Oscar in the film version,
which like the Broadway production was directed by Elia Kazan. Vivien Leigh
played Blanche in the film version and won the best actress Oscar.
In the early 1950s, Ms. Hunter appeared in movies such as "Deadline U.S.A."
with Humphrey Bogart, "Anything Can Happen" with Jose Ferrer and "Storm Center"
with Bette Davis.
But she largely was sidelined from cinema until the early 1960s when her
name was among the Communist sympathizers listed in the journal Red Channels,
which influenced casting decisions at that time.
Her most notable film appearance after "Streetcar" was playing ape scientist
Dr. Zira in "Planet of the Apes" (1968). She spent the entire film in heavy
makeup and quipped that the role was "the most claustrophobic experience in the
world."
She had one of the more memorable lines in the film. When Charlton Heston as
the hunted human astronaut asks Zira if he can kiss her goodbye, she says, "All
right, but you're so damned ugly."
She reprised the role in two sequels, "Beneath the Planet of the Apes" and
"Escape from the Planet of the Apes."
Ms. Hunter had greater success as an actress on Broadway with shows such as
"Darkness at Noon," "Write Me a Murder," "The Children's Hour" and "The Tender
Trap." She also acted in scores of regional productions, including the Olney
Theatre's 1964 production of "Linda Stone is Brutal."
She also wrote an autobiographical cookbook, "Loose in the Kitchen."
Janet Cole was born in Detroit and grew up in Miami Beach, Fla., after her
father's death. She once described her childhood as lonely and awash in "let's
pretend" games she acted out in front of a mirror.
She was acting in a repertory company by age 15. She captured Selznick's
attention while appearing in "Arsenic and Old Lace" at the Pasadena Community
Playhouse. A few years later, Alfred Hitchcock recommended Ms. Hunter to Powell
and Pressburger for "A Matter of Life and Death."
She soon began working in television during its earliest days, including the
Actors Studio dramatic series, directed by famed acting coach Lee Strasberg.
Her marriage to William Baldwin ended in divorce. Her second husband, Robert
Emmett, whom she married in 1951, died in 2000.
Survivors include a daughter from her first marriage and a son from her
second marriage.
Broadcast News (BN)
September 11, 2002 Wednesday
(New York-AP) -- ''A fine actress and a wonderful person.''
That's how Charlton Heston is remembering Kim Hunter, who died in her New
York apartment today at age 79, apparently of a heart attack.
Heston says ''The world has lost a unique talent.'' He and Hunter starred
together in the 1968 version of ''Planet of the Apes.'' Hunter was Dr. Zira, the
chimpanzee scientist.
Hunter enjoyed a long and busy career in theater, but made fewer films,
partly because she was blacklisted during the red-hunting 1950s.
In the highlight of her career, Hunter played the long-suffering Stella to
Marlon Brando's Stanley Kowalski in A Streetcar Named Desire.'' She won a best
supporting actress Oscar for her work.
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