Origins & Early Life

Martita Edith Hunt (30 January 1899 – 13 June 1969) was a British theatre and film actress. She had a dominant stage presence and played a wide range of powerful characters. She is best remembered for her performance as Miss Havisham in David Lean's Great Expectations (1946). Hunt was born in Salto, Uruguay on 30 January 1899 to English parents Alfred and Marta (née Burnett) Hunt.

Pivotal Works & Achievements

Aged ten, she travelled with her parents to the United Kingdom, where she attended Queenwood Ladies' College in Eastbourne, and then trained as an actress. Hunt began her acting career in repertory theatre in Liverpool before moving to London. She first appeared there in the Stage Society's production of Ernst Toller's The Machine Wreckers at the Kingsway Theatre in May 1923. From 1923 to 1929, she appeared as the Principessa della Cercola in W. Somerset Maugham's Our Betters (Globe, 1924) and as Mrs.

Enduring Legacy & Impact

Linde in Ibsen's A Doll's House (Playhouse, 1925) in the West End, along with engagements at club theatres such as the Q Theatre and the Arts Theatre and a short 1926 Chekhov season at the small Barnes Theatre under Theodore Komisarjevsky (playing Charlotta...

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