Working with western superstar Joel McCrea in two movies was a thrilling adventure for child actor Jimmy Hunt. Plucked from grammar school in Culver City because he looked like a young Van Johnson with his curly hair and freckles, eight year old Jimmy Hunt made his acting debut as a young Johnson in HIGH BARBAREE. The natural actor learned quickly and appeared in over 40 movies; including, SORRY, WRONG NUMBER, PITFALL, CHEAPER BY THE DOZEN and several westerns.

Jimmy’s favorite memories are of the two westerns he made with Joel McCrea. The first was SADDLE TRAMP in 1950, a year he appeared in two other westerns. They were director John Sturges’ THE CAPTIVE starring Lew Ayers and Teresa Wright and ROCK ISLAND TRAIL with Forrest Tucker. The second Joel McCrea feature, THE LONE HAND (1953), took Jimmy and his mother on location to Colorado and gave him the key role of McCrea’s son and the film’s narrator.

For film fans, Jimmy’s most remembered movie is the classic sci-fi Technicolor feature directed by William Cameron Menzies, the still frightening INVADERS FROM MARS (1953).

Hunt joined Rob Word to talk about his amazing career at The Autry, Nov 8, 2022, for A WORD ON WESTERNS and shared stories of what it was like to work with so many cinema legends and to still be recognized by his fans at memorabilia and celebrity autograph shows.

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