News
Original ‘Invaders from Mars’ Child Actor Jimmy Hunt Has Passed Away at 85
A former child actor best known for his starring role as David MacLean in the 1953 science fiction classic Invaders from Mars, Jimmy Hunt has passed away at the age of 85 this week.
Jimmy Hunt was just six years old when he began his acting career, and while he retired from Hollywood by the time he turned fourteen, Hunt had already appeared in 35 movies.
Hunt once told the Los Angeles Times of his Hollywood origins at just six years old, “I was attending school about six blocks from MGM and they came there and picked some of us out, screen tested us, and I got the part. There were kids out there who wanted to be in movies, who would give their left arm to be in movies. I couldn’t dance or sing. What I had, I guess, was the all-American look everyone was looking for – freckles and curly hair.”
In the years prior to Invaders from Mars, Jimmy Hunt starred in films including Song of Love, The Sainted Sisters, Pitfall, Family Honeymoon, Top o’ the Morning, Rusty’s Birthday, The Capture, Shadow on the Wall, Week-End with Father, and The Lone Hand, while his post-Invaders films included She Couldn’t Say No, All American, and The Young Rounders.
His IMDb bio explains, “After his acting career ended, he became a sales manager for an industrial tool and supply company in the San Fernando Valley that serviced aerospace firms.”
Hunt made his return to the screen over 30 years after the original Invaders from Mars with an appearance in Tobe Hooper’s 1986 remake of the classic film, playing a police chief.
Jimmy Hunt is survived by longtime spouse Roswitha Theresia Jager and three children.
In the grim darkness of the far future there is only war, but it was a cheerful illustrator from England who helped to define the terrifying war-torn imagery that inspired what we now know as Grimdark (a hybrid genre combining horror with sci-fi/fantasy).
Unfortunately for fans of Warhammer 40,000, Trench Crusade and countless other sources of Grimdark thrills, veteran artist John Blanche passed away this week after struggling with health issues for the past few years.
While the artist retired back in 2023, he leaves us with an enormous legacy of iconic artwork that continues to inspire gamers and storytellers around the world to this very day.
The news is especially gloomy as it was only last year that Daniel Lowman and Napoleon Dynamite himself Jon Heder released The Grim & the Dark: The Search for John Blanche, a documentary following Heder’s exploration of the Grimdark genre culminating in a heartwarming encounter with Blanche in his own home.
Below is one of my favorite pieces by Blanche, his highly influential depiction of Warhammer 40k’s God-Emperor of Mankind on his Golden Throne.
We send our deepest condolences to John Blanche’s family, friends, and fans.
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