{{Short description|American actor}} {{Infobox person | name = Thomas Hunter | image = T.Hunter.JPG | alt = | caption = | birth_name = Thomas O'Driscoll Hunter | birth_date = {{Birth date|1932|12|19}} | birth_place = Savannah, Georgia, U.S. | death_date = {{Death date and age|2017|12|27|1932|12|19}} | death_place = Norwalk, Connecticut, U.S. | occupation = Actor | years_active = 1966–1984 }}
'''Thomas O'Driscoll Hunter''' (December 19, 1932 – December 27, 2017) was an American actor known for work in Spaghetti Westerns and as a Hollywood screenwriter.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.thesunchronicle.com/obituaries/thomas-o-driscoll-hunter/article_5778f523-df77-5fd4-aa17-b8465ee3f0c4.html |title=Thomas O'Driscoll Hunter |date=28 December 2017 |website=The Sun Chronicle |access-date=2017-12-30}}</ref> He was also the founder of the New England Repertory Company.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.thesunchronicle.com/news/quest-of-the-hunter/article_8b0fe56b-747a-52fb-b760-b850ba84ce12.html|title=Quest of the Hunter|date=15 October 2007 }}</ref>
==Biography== Born in Savannah, Georgia, Hunter served in the United States Marine Corps<ref>Grainger, Julian ''Thomas Hunter Interview'' ''Spaghetti Cinema''</ref> and graduated from the University of Virginia. He studied acting with Sanford Meisner and Uta Hagen.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.thesunchronicle.com/tom-hunter-has-a-new-rep/article_f772c909-1373-5407-9095-eae08d3eda9a.html|title=Tom Hunter has a New Rep|date=18 May 2000 }}</ref>
He entered film in a small role in Blake Edwards' ''What Did You Do in the War, Daddy?'' (1966). After completing the film, a chance meeting with Dino De Laurentiis led him to be invited to star as the lead in ''The Hills Run Red'' leading him to a career in European - primarily Italian<ref>{{Cite web |date=2018-01-01 |title=Cinema: addio a Thomas Hunter, per un decennio star di Cinecittà |url=https://www.swissinfo.ch/ita/tutte-le-notizie-in-breve/cinema--addio-a-thomas-hunter--per-un-decennio-star-di-cinecitt%C3%A0/43792076 |access-date=2023-12-23 |website=SWI swissinfo.ch |language=it}}</ref> - 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.<ref>[https://www.amazon.com/Softly-Walks-Beast-Thomas-Hunter/dp/0380809036/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1480194240&sr=1-1&keywords=softly+walks+the+beast Softly Walks the Beast]</ref>
In 2015, Hunter published his memoir ''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.<ref>[https://www.amazon.com/Memoirs-Spaghetti-Cowboy-Oddball-Derring-Do/dp/1495146006/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1480194304&sr=1-1&keywords=memoirs+of+a+spaghetti+cowboy Memoirs of a Spaghetti Cowboy: Tales of Oddball Luck and Derring-Do]</ref>
==Filmography==
===Screenwriter=== * ''The 'Human' Factor'' (1975) * ''The Final Countdown'' (1980)
===Actor=== {| class="wikitable" ! Year ! Title ! Role ! Director ! Notes |- |1966 |''What Did You Do in the War, Daddy?'' |American GI #3 |Blake Edwards | |- |1966 |''The Hills Run Red'' |Jerry Brewster / Jim Houston |Carlo Lizzani | |- |1966 |''Death Walks in Laredo'' |Whitey Selby |{{Interlanguage link|Enzo Peri|it}} | |- |1967 | ''Love Nights in the Taiga'' |Frank Heller |Harald Philipp | |- |1968 |''Anzio'' |Pvt. Andy |Edward Dmytryk | |- |1968 |''The Magnificent Tony Carrera'' |Tony Carrera |{{Interlanguage link|José Antonio de la Loma|es}} | |- |1969 |''Battle of the Commandos'' |Capt. Kevin Burke |Umberto Lenzi | |- |1969 |''{{Interlanguage link|Revenge (1969 film)|it|3=Revenge (film 1969)|lt=Revenge}}'' |Richard Marlowe |{{Interlanguage link|Pino Tosini|it}} | |- |1971 |''The Vampire Happening'' |Internatslehrer Jens Larsen |Freddie Francis | |- |1971 |''{{Interlanguage link|Madness - Gli occhi della luna|it}}'' | |Cesare Rau | |- |1971 |''{{Interlanguage link|X312 - Flight to Hell|de|X 312 – Flug zur Hölle}}'' |Tom Nilson |Jesús Franco | |- |1971 |''Il sorriso del ragno'' | |Massimo Castellani | |- |1971 |''Carlos'' |Pedro |Hans W. Geißendörfer |TV movie |- |1971 |''Equinozio'' | |Maurizio Ponzi | |- |1973 |''Night Flight from Moscow'' | |Henri Verneuil | |- |1974 |''{{Interlanguage link|Wer stirbt schon gerne unter Palmen|de}}'' |Werner Becker |Alfred Vohrer | |- |1975 |''The 'Human' Factor'' |Taylor |Edward Dmytryk | |- |1976 |''The Cassandra Crossing'' |Captain Scott |George P. Cosmatos | |- |1976 |''Cross Shot'' |Turrini |Stelvio Massi | |- |1983 |''The Act'' |The John |Sig Shore |(final film role) |}
==Notes== {{Reflist}}
==External links== * {{IMDb name|0403065|Thomas Hunter}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hunter, Thomas}} Category:1932 births Category:2017 deaths Category:20th-century American screenwriters Category:20th-century American male actors Category:20th-century American novelists Category:21st-century American memoirists Category:American male film actors Category:American male television actors Category:United States Marines Category:Male Spaghetti Western actors Category:Male actors from Savannah, Georgia Category:Writers from Savannah, Georgia Category:Military personnel from Georgia (U.S. state)