Thomas O'Driscoll Hunter (December 19, 1932 – December 27, 2017) was an American actor known for work in

Spaghetti Westerns The Spaghetti Western is a broad subgenre of Western films produced in Europe. It emerged in the mid-1960s in the wake of Sergio Leone's film-making style and international box-office success. The term was used by foreign critics because most of ...

and as a Hollywood screenwriter. He was also the founder of the New England Repertory Company.

Biography

Born in

Savannah, Georgia Savannah ( ) is the oldest city in the U.S. state of Georgia and is the county seat of Chatham County. Established in 1733 on the Savannah River, the city of Savannah became the British colonial capital of the Province of Georgia and later t ...

, Hunter served in the

United States Marine Corps The United States Marine Corps (USMC), also referred to as the United States Marines, is the maritime land force service branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for conducting expeditionary and amphibious operations through combi ...

and graduated from the

University of Virginia The University of Virginia (UVA) is a public research university in Charlottesville, Virginia. Founded in 1819 by Thomas Jefferson, the university is ranked among the top academic institutions in the United States, with highly selective ad ...

. He studied acting with Sanford Meisner and

Uta Hagen Uta Thyra Hagen (12 June 1919 – 14 January 2004) was a German-American actress and theatre practitioner. She originated the role of Martha in the 1962 Broadway premiere of ''Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?'' by Edward Albee, who called her "a ...

. He entered film in a small role in

Blake Edwards Blake Edwards (born William Blake Crump; July 26, 1922 – December 15, 2010) was an American film director, producer, screenwriter and actor. Edwards began his career in the 1940s as an actor, but he soon began writing screenplays and radio s ...

' '' What Did You Do in the War, Daddy?'' (1966). After completing the film, a chance meeting with

Dino De Laurentiis Agostino "Dino" De Laurentiis (; 8 August 1919 – 10 November 2010) was an Italian-American film producer. Along with Carlo Ponti, he was one of the producers who brought Italian cinema to the international scene at the end of World War II. He ...

led him to be invited to star as the lead in '' The Hills Run Red'' leading him to a career in European cinema with guest appearances in American television series. His dissatisfaction with European cinema led him to found the New England Repertory Company. Hunter published two books. The novel ''Softly Walks the Beast'' is an end-of-the-world story that takes place in the not-too-distant future and centers on a dwindling community of smart and resourceful people on a college campus, struggling against the horrible and seemingly unstoppable after-effects of a nuclear war. "Softly Walks the Beast" was first published in 1982 and a second edition was published in 2014. In 2015, Hunter published ''Memoirs of a Spaghetti Cowboy: Tales of Oddball Luck and Derring-Do'', which chronicles his adventures starring in numerous Spaghetti Westerns and other foreign productions while living in

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

.Memoirs of a Spaghetti Cowboy: Tales of Oddball Luck and Derring-Do
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Filmography

Screenwriter

* '' The 'Human' Factor'' (1975) * '' The Final Countdown'' (1980)

Actor

Notes

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Hunter, Thomas 1932 births 2017 deaths American male film actors American male television actors United States Marines Male Spaghetti Western actors Actors from Savannah, Georgia Writers from Savannah, Georgia Military personnel from Georgia (U.S. state)