Births on October 17

Marsha Hunt, American actress and singer

Marsha Hunt (born Marcia Virginia Hunt; October 17, 1917) is an American retired actress, model and activist, with a career spanning nearly 80 years. She is the oldest living and one of the last surviving actors from the Golden Age of Hollywood cinema. At 104, she is also the oldest living member of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences. She was blacklisted by Hollywood film studio executives in the 1950s during McCarthyism.She appeared in many popular films including Born to the West (1937) with John Wayne, Pride and Prejudice (1940) with Greer Garson and Laurence Olivier, Kid Glove Killer (1942) with Van Heflin, Cry 'Havoc' (1943) with Margaret Sullavan and Joan Blondell, The Human Comedy (1943) with Mickey Rooney, Raw Deal (1948) with Claire Trevor, The Happy Time (1952) with Charles Boyer, and Dalton Trumbo's Johnny Got His Gun (1971).

In the midst of the blacklist era, she became active in the humanitarian cause of world hunger, and in her later years has aided homeless shelters, supported same-sex marriage, raised awareness of climate change and promoted peace in Third World countries.