[2] She appeared in many 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).

[6]Hunt's family moved to New York City when she was young, and she began performing in school plays and church functions.

[6] Hunt's parents wanted her to pursue a college degree, but Hunt, unable to "locate a single college or university in the land where you could major in drama before your third year", found work modeling for the John Powers Agency and began taking stage acting classes at the Theodora Irvine Studio.

[9] Although initially reluctant to pursue a film career, in June 1935, at age 17, Hunt signed a seven-year contract with Paramount Pictures.

[6] Between 1935 and 1938, she made 12 pictures at Paramount, including starring roles in Easy to Take (1936), Gentle Julia (1936), The Accusing Finger (1936), Murder Goes to College (1937), and two on "loan-out" to RKO and 20th Century Fox.

[6] In 1937, she starred opposite John Wayne, a couple of years before his breakthrough in Hollywood, in the Western film Born to the West.

[6] She also headed to New York City for work in summer stock theatre shortly before winning a supporting role in MGM's These Glamour Girls (1939) opposite Lana Turner and Lew Ayres.

[22] On October 26 that same year, aged 30, Hunt took part in Hollywood Fights Back, a star-studded radio program co-written by her husband protesting the activities of HCUA.

[23][24][25] In 2020, Hunt recalled: We made our speeches and did a radio programme called Hollywood Fights Back and came home thinking we'd been patriots and had defended our profession.

[2]The next day, Hunt flew with a group of about 30 actors, directors, writers, and filmmakers (including John Huston, Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall, and Danny Kaye) to Washington to protest the actions of HCUA.

[2][6][24] The publication claimed that her leanings were made evident by her supposedly subversive actions, including asking the Supreme Court to review the convictions of John Howard Lawson and Dalton Trumbo, recording a message in support of a rally organized by the Stop Censorship Committee in 1948, signing a statement in 1946 issued by the Hollywood Independent Citizens Committee of the Arts, Sciences and Professions (HICCASP), and speaking at a rally organized by the Progressive Citizens of America in 1946.

So to play safe, they put me on their secret blacklist...I think by 1950 it was clear that the whole of show business was under political siege.

[6] Following her semi-retirement in 1960, Hunt appeared in small roles in five films and numerous television shows, including an episode of the medical drama Breaking Point.

[31] In 1971, she appeared in the film Johnny Got His Gun, written by fellow blacklist member Dalton Trumbo, playing the mother of the title character, portrayed by Timothy Bottoms.

On February 8, 1988, she appeared in Star Trek: The Next Generation in the episode "Too Short a Season"[33] as Anne Jameson, wife of an admiral who took an age-reversing drug.

[37] In 2008, Hunt appeared in a short film noir, The Grand Inquisitor,[37] as Hazel Reedy, the could-be widow of one of America's most infamous unapprehended serial killers.

[3] When she was 99 in April 2017, Hunt made a public appearance at the 2017 Los Angeles Jewish Film Festival to honor the achievements of actor and activist Ed Asner.

[1][3] In 1960, she produced an hour-long telecast about refugee problems that featured stars such as Paul Newman, Jean Simmons, and Bing Crosby.

[3] She raised funds for the creation of Rose Cottage, a daycare shelter for homeless children;[3] and served for many years on the advisory board of directors for the San Fernando Valley Community Mental Health Center, a large non-profit, where she advocated for adults and children affected by homelessness and mental illness.

[3] Hunt still identified as a political liberal and was very concerned with such issues as global pollution, worldwide poverty,[3] peace in Third World nations, and population growth.