1855-1932
Veteran silent director Jay Hunt, who is probably best remembered for his character acting in 1920's westerns, was born on this day in Philadelphia. Before Hunt became a recognizable older western star, he was a prolific film director (he also dabbled in scenario writing). It appears that his entrance into the world of film making came in 1911 as the director of the short melodrama The Life Boat produced at Vitagraph. He made just one film with another company (The Musician's Daughter--1911--for Eclair) before landing an in-house directors job at Champion (distribution by Universal). The first film that he directed there was Mrs. Alden's Awakening (1912); he stayed with the company for a year. Hunt made his acting debut in 1913 in a Fred Balshofer directed melodrama--Her Legacy--made for Kay-Bee, a company that Hunt himself had directed for. Hunt also penned his first scenario in 1913; The War Correspondent, as script based on a story by William H. Clifford. Hunt also directed the film, which starred Gayne Whitman. Hunt became a fixture in directing "second string" melodramas--what we would call "B movies"--and by 1914 had close to twenty directing credits to his name. He was also, by this time, employed by Broncho Films, where he would remain for the next couple of years. At Broncho, though he mostly stuck to melodramas, he also began to direct adventure films that increasingly had a western theme to them. The Sheriff of Bisbee (1914) was an early example. During his tenure as director (with something in the neighborhood of 80 films to his credit), he was involved in very few feature length productions, with The Promise, dating from 1917, being the most prominent amongst them (he was reportedly involved in some type of directing role in the Ince brothers 1915 large production Civilization--he is listed as an uncredited director, along with three other directors on IMDb--the film was known to been directed by a "team"--so it's possible he had some role--I have no idea how this would be confirmable over 100 years later). It appears that Hunt didn't direct (or act) at all in the year 1918, and by the end of his directing career (1919-1920), he was directing nothing by westerns. His last direction credit is for a Texas Guinan short western vehicle made for Bull's Eye (for whom had worked most of his later directing years) called The Night Raider in 1920 (not to be confused with The Night Rider--which he also directed). He then retired from directing, but continued in motion pictures as an actor. Although he had done some work as an actor in the 1910's (including in a few films in which he directed himself), he had never been primarily anything other than a glorified extra. His second career as a character actor in westerners in the 1920's landed him roles that he would be remembered for. Many fans of these "b grade" western adventure films had no inkling of Hunt's career as a director; had no clue that the largest portion of his career was spent behind the camera, not in front of it. He was popular enough to have continued into talking pictures, in fact. He first showed up as a "grizzled" character in Sunset Productions Wanted By The Law in 1924 (he is listed as an extra in Universal's huge production of The Hunchback of Notre Dame in 1923). In all, he racked up close to 20 acting credits during the 1920's; though, as stated, the vast majority of these were westerns, the last silent film in which he appeared was a comedy: The Harvester in 1927. Hunt appeared in four films in the 1930's; his last film appearance was in the 1931 western The Cheyenne Cyclone. He died the following year in Hollywood on the 18th of November at the age of 77.
Still from The Promise
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