Biography
One of the youngest "old codgers" in show business, Arthur Hunnicutt left college when funds ran out and joined an acting troupe in Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts. His first important New York engagement was in the Theatre Guild's production of
Love's Old Sweet Song. Hunnicutt entered films in 1942, specializing in grizzled western sidekicks even though he was only in his early 30s. When
Percy Kilbride retired from the "Ma and Pa Kettle" series in 1955, Hunnicutt, still a youngster in comparison to Kilbride's sixtysomething co-star
Marjorie Main, filled the gap in
The Kettles in the Ozarks (1955). And when director
Howard Hawks needed someone to play a Walter Brennan-type role when Brennan wasn't available for
The Big Sky (1952) and
El Dorado (1967), Hunnicutt was the man of the hour (his work in
Big Sky won him an Oscar nomination). Arthur Hunnicutt was last seen in 1975's The Moonrunners, at long playing someone closer to his own age. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide