Actress, 100, Discusses Documentary About Her Life On The Hollywood Blacklist

BURBANK (CBSLA)  --  A documentary about a 100-year-old actress who is a survivor of Hollywood's ugly blacklist period, says the blacklist only slowed her down -- it didn't end her career as it did to so many.

The documentary on Marsha Hunt's life, "Marsha Hunt's Sweet Adversity", is now showing in local movie theaters.

CBS2's Jo Kwon spoke to the actress who will turn 101 soon.

"I started acting at birth," she quips as she looks around a room filled with movie posters and memorabilia.

Hunt says she was born to act and did start young. She was just 17 in 1935 when she was discovered by Paramount Studios.

"First acting job was the feminine lead with two leading men," she says.

That movie was "The Virginia Judge" and she went on to do 54 films in 17 years.

"Yeah, I just never stopped working," Hunt says.

Following a trip she took in 1947, she found herself less in demand.

"I flew to Washington with a whole plane-load of stars to defend some accused show-people," Hunt says.

She was an activist and as a result of speaking out she was accused of being a communist sympathizer.

"And I didn't know beans about communism," she says.

"To be blacklisted it meant that you weren't able to work in radio, television, and film. And in Marsha's case she was unfairly blacklisted. She had nothing to do with communism," says Roger Memos.

He made the documentary to show the unfairness of the period.

"All she ever wanted to do was to act. The blacklist has been her ball-and-chain for the last 70 years," Memos says.

Hunt, an award-winning actress with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, says being blacklisted might have slowed her career but it didn't end it.

"I wanted the greatest variety of roles that I could be given, and thank God they gave them to me," she says.

After being blacklisted, she went on to star in eight more films.

Editor's Note: The documentary just wrapped at the Laemmle in Encino.  On July 31, it will open in Beverly Hills at the Ahyra Fine Arts Theater.