Jimmy Hunt: Former children’s star is dead

Jimmy Hunt is dead. The former children’s actor died on July 18, 2025 in a hospital in Simi Valley, California. This was why Jimmy Hunt suffered a heart attack six weeks before his death. He was 85 years old.

Jimmy Hunt was born on December 4, 1939 as James Walter Hunt in Los Angeles. His film career started when an agent from MGM attended his school class. In 1947 the red-haired and frost-sprouting boy celebrated his film debut in “Clara Schumann’s great love” alongside superstar Katharine Hepburn (1907-2003).

In the following years he shot with big names like Burt Lancaster (“You live 105 minutes”), Robert Mitchum (“Holiday Affair”) or the later US President Ronald Reagan (“Age does not protect against love”). In “in the dozen cheaper”, the original of the 2003 remake with Steve Martin (79), he embodied one of twelve children of a large family.

Jimmy Hunt’s best -known film is “Invasion of Mars” from 1953 – one of numerous films from the 1950s, which deals with the secret invasion of the earth through extraterrestrials. In the sci-fi cult film, he played, unlike usual, not only the son of the main character, but also took over the main role: a boy who observes the landing of a UFO in his garden and soon realizes that his father has been strangely about.

In 1986 Hunt had a guest appearance as a police chief in the remake of the same name by “The Texas Chain Saw Massacre” director Tobe Hooper (1943-2017). It was his only film as an adult.

Not much is known about Hun’s life after his acting career ended in 1953 at the age of 14. He worked as a sales manager for an industrial company. In 1963 he married Roswitha T. Jager, whom he had met in Germany during his Army period. The couple got three children.