From Newsgroup: alt.obituaries

From 1945-53, he appeared in 35 films, and his onscreen parents
included Dick Powell, Teresa Wright, Ronald Reagan, Patricia Neal, Leif Erickson and Claudette Colbert.

Jimmy Hunt, the freckle-faced youngster who appeared in Pitfall,
Sorry, Wrong Number, Cheaper by the Dozen, Invaders From Mars and 31
other features before he retired from acting at age 14, has died. He was 85.

Hunt suffered a heart attack six weeks ago and died Friday in a hospital
in Simi Valley, his daughter-in-law Alisa Hunt told The Hollywood Reporter.

Hunt played William Gilbreth, one of the 12 offspring of an efficiency
expert (Clifton Webb) and a psychologist (Myrna Loy), in Cheaper by the
Dozen (1950), then returned to play another son in the family, Fred, in
the sequel, Belles on the Toes (1952).

As an orphan, his character fueled the plot in The Mating of Millie
(1948), a charming romantic comedy starring Evelyn Keyes and Glenn Ford,
who taught him how to shoot marbles on the set. And in The Lone Hand
(1953), Hunt portrayed the son of a widowed farmer (Joel McCrea) and
served as the filmrCOs narrator in what he said was one of his favorite
acting experiences.

HuntrCOs onscreen parents included Jane Wyatt and Dick Powell (in 1948rCOs Pitfall), Claudette Colbert (1949rCOs Family Honeymoon), Ronald Reagan (1950rCOs Louisa), Teresa Wright (1950rCOs The Capture) and Patricia Neal (1951rCOs Week-End With Father).

He also played Margaret OrCOBrienrCOs brother in Her First Romance (1951).

His most memorable role, however, came as David MacLean in the cult
sci-fi classic Invaders From Mars (1953), directed by famed production designer William Cameron Menzies.

In the movie rCo made in about 3 1/2 weeks for less than $300,000 rCo David spies a flying saucer from his bedroom and notices his dad (Leif
Erickson) acting weird. Then herCOs sucked underground, where he
encounters a Martian and his green humanoid accomplices aboard the
saucer. But was it all a dream? Gee whiz!

In Tobe HooperrCOs 1986 remake of Invaders, Hunt came out of retirement to play a police chief. As he approaches a hill where the flying saucer may
have landed, he says, rCLI havenrCOt been here for 40 years.rCY

It was the only movie of his career for which he received residuals.
rCLEvery once and a while, the Screen Actors Guild sends me a check for
like nine dollars,rCY he said with a chuckle in 2022.

James Walter Hunt was born in Los Angeles on Dec. 4, 1939. An MGM
scout visited his second-grade class at his Culver City school, which
was located mere blocks from the studio, and that led to the 6-year-old redhead playing a kid version of Van JohnsonrCOs Navy pilot in High
Barbaree (1947).

Placed under contract, he would appear in five films released that year,
then another eight in 1948 as he attended MGMrCOs Little Red Schoolhouse, where his classmates included Roddy McDowall and Elizabeth Taylor.

rCLWe were strictly lower middle-class people,rCY Hunt said in 1986. rCLActually, thatrCOs the way we stayed. As long as [his parents] were satisfied that I was getting a good education, the acting was all right.rCY

In Cheaper by the Dozen, his character, William, weeps as he informs his siblings that their dad has died.

During the making of the movie in Seal Beach, California, his real
father rCLwas working for a company, and he went back to Kentucky to open
a plant for them back there, and he was gone for a couple of months,rCY he recalled at the 2022 Cinecon Classic Film Festival. rCLIn my mind, I saw
him coming home on a plane and the plane crashing. So I could get myself worked up.rCY

His big-screen r|-sum|- also included Sorry, Wrong Number (1948), starring Barbara Stanwyck and Burt Lancaster (Erickson played his dad in that,
too); Fuller Brush Man (1948), starring Red Skelton; RustyrCOs Birthday (1949), the last in the Columbia Pictures series about a boy and his
German shepherd; The Sainted Sisters (1948), starring Veronica Lake; Top
OrCO the Morning (1949), starring Bing Crosby; Shadow on the Wall (1950), starring Ann Sothern; and She CouldnrCOt Say No (1954), starring Robert Mitchum and Jean Simmons.

rCLI took my little lunch pail and I went to work each day, and the
director told me what he wanted me to do,rCY he said in a 2017 interview.

While filming Douglas SirkrCOs Week-End With Father, Hunt broke his arm rehearsing a potato-sack race with Van Heflin but kept working, he said.
rCLNo one made me finish the picture that way. I wanted to,rCY he recalled. rCLI considered myself a professional. In other words, I never had any
really bad times as a boy actor.rCY

After Invaders was completed, Hunt rCo who said he was paid about $4,000
for his work on the movie rCo was called back to film some new scenes for
its U.K. release, as censors there did not approve of the original ending.

It turned out that Invaders was the last straw.

rCLThe older I got, the more serious I became about getting a scene right
on the first take,rCY he said. rCLAdult actors all made jokes when they blew their lines. Kids just feel dumb when it was their fault. So acting
became harder for me all the time.rCY

At the ripe old age of 14, Hunt rCLdecided that I would rather play sports
in high school than make movies, so I retired,rCY he explained. He went to college and served for three years in the U.S. Army, intercepting and
breaking code.

Later, he served as a sales manager for an industrial tool and supply
company in the San Fernando Valley that serviced aerospace firms.

He said he was still getting mail from Invaders fans some 70 years after
it first hit theaters.

Survivors include his wife, Roswitha, whom he met in Germany while in
the Army and married in January 1963; his sons, Randy and Ron; another daughter-in-law, Christina; his sister, Bonnie; nine grandchildren; and
six great-grandchildren. His daughter, also named Roswitha, died more
than a decade ago.
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