Martita Hunt

Martita Hunt (1899–1969) was an English stage and film actress known for playing Miss Havisham in David Lean’s Great Expectations and for roles in The Wicked Lady and Anastasia.

Connect

Great Expectations (1946 film): David Lean’s 1946 adaptation of Charles Dickens’s novel, featuring Martita Hunt as Miss Havisham. Hunt’s Miss Havisham became her defining screen performance.
David Lean: English film director whose major works include Brief Encounter, Great Expectations, and Lawrence of Arabia. He directed Hunt’s most famous film performance as Miss Havisham.
British theatre: Theatre made and performed in Britain, spanning commercial stages, subsidized institutions, and touring companies. Hunt built her reputation principally through British stage performance.
Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play: A Tony Award category honoring a featured performance by an actress in a play. Hunt won the award in 1949 for The Madwoman of Chaillot.
The Wicked Lady (1945 film): A British historical melodrama starring Margaret Lockwood as a seventeenth-century aristocrat who turns to highway robbery. Hunt appeared as Lady Henrietta Kingsclere in this popular period film.
Charles Dickens: English novelist whose works include Great Expectations, Oliver Twist, and David Copperfield. His creation Miss Havisham became Hunt’s signature screen role.
British cinema: Film production and filmmaking culture in the United Kingdom. Hunt’s prominent screen roles emerged within postwar British cinema.
The Madwoman of Chaillot: Jean Giraudoux’s satirical play about an eccentric woman resisting a plan to exploit Paris. Hunt’s Broadway performance in its 1948 production earned her a Tony Award.
Anastasia (1956 film): Anatole Litvak’s drama about a woman claimed to be the surviving Grand Duchess Anastasia of Russia. Hunt played Baroness Elena von Livenbaum in the film.
Margaret Lockwood: English actress who became a major British film star in the 1930s and 1940s. She starred opposite Hunt in The Wicked Lady.