Kim Hunter, Academy Award winning Actress who created unforgettable characters like Stella and Zira has passed away

Father Geek here once again with some sad news for filmlovers...

The vivacious little fireball of an actress Kim Hunter has died. Born in Detriot on November 12, 1922 she studied at The Actors Studio in New York along side Marlon Brando and other greats of the stage and screen from her generation. In 1947 she created the role of Stella from Tennessee Williams' A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE on the New York stage and like her co-star in that production it carried her to Hollywood and a long film and TV career. She would win both an Oscar and a Golden Globe for that film role. buuuuut...

Kim was wrongly accused of being a communist because of her strong Civil Rights stances and the fact that she was one of the co-sponsers of the 1949 World Peace Conference in New York. As a result she along with many other movie industry professionals was blacklisted and she lost many prime years of exposure on the silver screen to forced inactivity. Years later she was cleared of any wrongdoing and it has benefitted us all.

Kim went on to act in over 65 features and on over 40 major television shows. In 1968 she gave birth to a character that, with the public at any rate, would far overshadow the critically aclaimed Stella. That role was as Zira in the original PLANET OF THE APES. She would fine tune that character through 2 sequels BENEATH THE PLANET OF THE APES, and ESCAPE FROM THE PLANET OF THE APES.

However Kim did not rest on her genre laurels. She would go on to receive more acknowledgements for her skills as an actress with nominations for a Genie and an Emmy. Her acting credits crossed all genre lines. She was in STORM CENTER; THE SWIMMER; DEADLINE USA and many other first rate productions right up through recent films like MIDNIGHT IN THE GARDEN OF GOOD AND EVIL, and A PRICE ABOVE RUBIES, as a matter of fact she appeared in Films and TV on into 2002. She will be sorely missed, but atleast we have the great body of work that we can turn to whenever we want...

Just Click Right Here To See All Her Credits