A Dynasty of Hunters

If you’re a fan of classic films and don’t recognize the name Ian Hunter (1900-1975), relax, it’s okay. I didn’t! But he’s right there, right there, in prominent roles in some of the best known classics of the studio era, typically in second leads and other prominent supporting parts. (And he’s not the guy from Mott the Hoople).

If you don’t know the name, you may want to kick yourself when confronted with Hunter’s prominent roles and films. He was Theseus in A Midsummer Night’s Dream (1935), King Richard the Lion Heart in The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938), and Shirley Temple’s dad in The Little Princess (1939). He had roles of similar size and prominence in Maisie (1939), Tower of London (1939), Broadway Melody of 1940, Strange Cargo (1940), Dulcy (1940), The Long Voyage Home (1940), Ziegfeld Girl (1941), Billy the Kid (1941), and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1941). He starred in three of Alfred Hitchcock’s earliest features (The Ring, Downhill, and Easy Virtue, 1927-28), three early Michael Powell pictures (Lazybones, The Night of the Party, and The Phantom Light (all 1935), was Dr. Watson to Arthur Wontner’s Sherlock Holmes in The Sign of the Four (1932), and appeared in no fewer than nine films with Kay Francis, one of the top stars of the ’30s. His first talkie was the musical Syncopation (1929) with Barbara Bennett, Bobby Watson, and Fred Waring and His Pennsylvanians.

Hunter was born in South Africa and spent his early childhood there. His parents brought him to to their native England in his teenage years. He served in World War One, and studied drama and elocution with Elsie Fogarty, who also taught Olivier, Gielgud, and Dame Peggy Ashcroft. His career on stage and screen in London began in earnest in 1924. He also had a couple of early Broadway credits, in Basil Dean’s production of The School for Scandal (1925), and the American premiere of Ferenc Molnár’sOlympia (1928), adapted by Sidney Howard and co-starring Fay Compton, Laura Hope Crews, and Cora Witherspoon. The latter was later made into the films His Glorious Night (1929) and A Breath of Scandal (1960), neither with Hunter.

After Forever and a Day (1943), Hunter returned to Britain to help with the war effort, and chose to remain there once the war was over. This may be among the reasons his name never managed to stick in our minds, here in the States anyway. He had a certain career momentum going in Hollywood prior to the war, and it was simply interrupted. He kept busy for another 20 years, but most of his work didn’t reach audiences beyond the U.K. During that post-war period, he co-starred with Margaret Lockwood in Bedelia (1946, by Vera Caspary, the woman who wrote Laura); was in both the stage and screen versions of Edward, My Son (1948-49, co-written by Robert Morley and Noel Langley); had a recurring role in the tv version of The Adventures of Robin Hood; was in the original West End production of Noel Coward’sSouth Sea Bubble (1956); and appeared in a smaller supporting role in North West Frontier (1959). His last credit was the 1963 Italian film Kali Yug: Goddess of Vengeance.

Ian’s son Robin Hunter (1929-2004) was also an actor, known for his music hall revivals and stage musicals. With long-time partner Aline Waites, he co-wrote, produced, and appeared in 25 shows, and created the 1984 book The Illustrated Victorian Songbook. In films and television he was in such things as Universal Soldier (1970, based on the Buffy St. Marie song), Hammer’sVampire Circus (1972), some of the Carry On films, and a 1989 version of The Phantom of the Opera.

Robin Hunter was married to the actresses Maria Charles and Amanda Barrie. His daughter Kelly Hunter (b. 1963) has had an incredibly distinguished theatre in film and television, is a vet of Royal Shakespeare and the National Theatre, has her own company The Flute Theatre, and was awarded an MBE in 2019. Her footprint in films has been small, else we might know her better in the U.S. But onstage at least, she may be the biggest star of all the Hunters, taken all in all.

As for Mott the Hoople’s Ian Hunter — that’s a dude for a different day.