Arthur Hunnicutt - Biography

Biography

A native of Gravelly, Arkansas, Hunnicutt attended Arkansas State Teachers College but dropped out during his junior year when he ran out of money. He moved to Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts where he joined up with a theatre company before moving to New York where he quickly found himself landing roles in Broadway productions. While touring as the lead actor in Tobacco Road, he developed the country character he would later be typecast as throughout his career. Hunnicutt often found himself cast as a character much older than himself.

Hunnicutt appeared in a number of films in the early 1940s before returning to the stage. In 1949 he moved back to Hollywood and resumed his film career. He played a long string of supporting role characters – sympathetic, wise rural types, as in The Red Badge of Courage (1951), The Lusty Men (1952),The Kettles in The Ozarks (1955), The Last Command (1955) (as Davy Crockett), The Tall T (1957) and El Dorado (1966).

In 1952, he earned an Oscar nomination for Supporting Actor in the Howard Hawks western The Big Sky.

Throughout the '50s, '60s, and '70s, Hunnicutt made nearly 40 guest appearances on American television programs such as Bonanza, Gunsmoke, The Outer Limits, The Rifleman, Perry Mason, and The Twilight Zone.

In his later years, Hunnicutt served as Honorary Mayor of Northridge, California. He developed tongue cancer. He died in 1979 and is buried in the Coop Prairie Cemetery in Mansfield, Arkansas.