Jimmy Hunt, a former child actor best known for roles in the original Cheaper by the Dozen, Invaders From Mars and Pitfall, has died aged 85.
Hunt’s daughter, Alisa, told The Hollywood Reporter that he had died in hospital after experiencing a heart attack six weeks prior.
From 1945 to 1953, Hunt appeared in 35 films, including roles as the freckle-faced youngster in Sorry, Wrong Number, before retiring from acting aged 14.
He was best known for playing William Gilbreth, one of the 12 children of an efficiency expert Clifton Webband and psychologist Myrna Loy, in the 1950 film Cheaper by the Dozen. He returned to the 1952 sequel, Belles on the Toes, to play another son named Fred.
One of his most memorable roles was his performance as David MacLean in the 1953 sci-fi classic Invaders From Mars. In the film, David spies a flying saucer from his bedroom before he’s sucked underground, where he encounters a Martian and his green humanoid accomplices aboard the saucer.
Hunt came out of retirement to play a police chief in Tobe Hooper’s 1986 remake of Invaders From Mars. In the film, when his adult character approaches a hill where the flying saucer may have landed, he says: “I haven’t been here for 40 years.”
The actor was born in 1939 and was scouted aged six at his school in Los Angeles. He made his acting debut as the child version of Van Johnson’s Navy pilot in the 1947 film High Barbaree.
After deciding to leave acting aged 14, he later went to college and served for three years in the US army. He went on to work as a sales manager for an industrial tool and supply company.
He is survived by his wife, Roswitha, his children Randy, Ron and Alisa, his sister Bonnie and nine grandchildren and six great-grandchildren.
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