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Bonnie Hunt
Hunt at the 2006 Tribeca Film Festival
Born	Bonnie Lynne Hunt September 22, 1961 (1961-09-22) (age 48)1 Chicago, Illinois, United States
Occupation	Actress, comedienne, writer, director, presenter, producer, talk show host
Years active	1984–present
Spouse(s)	John Murphy (1988-2006)

Bonnie Lynne Hunt (born September 22, 1961)¹ is an American actress, comedienne, writer, director, television producer and daytime television host.

Contents 1 Early life 2 Career 3 Personal life 4 The Bonnie Hunt Show 5 Filmography 6 References 7 External links

Early life

Hunt, who was born in Chicago, Illinois, is the daughter of Alice, a homemaker of Polish descent,² and Bob Hunt, an electrician of Irish descent.³⁴ She was raised in a large Catholic family,⁴ and has three older brothers, Patrick, Kevin, and Tom, two older sisters, Cathy and Carol, and one younger sister, Mary. Hunt was educated in Catholic schools and attended St. Ferdinand Grammar School and Notre Dame High School for Girls in Chicago.

In 1982, Hunt worked as an oncology nurse at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago. In 1984, she co-founded An Impulsive Thing, an improvisational comedy troupe, with Holly Wortell, Andy Miller and John Gripentrog. Hunt also performed as a member of Chicago's world-famous The Second City, joining in 1986.

Career

Hunt refused to become a cast member of Saturday Night Live because the show's producers generally frowned on her preferred improvisational style⁵. In 1992, she turned down a higher-paying role on Designing Women⁵ to co-star in Davis Rules with Jonathan Winters, Randy Quaid, and Audrey Meadows.

In 1993, Hunt teamed with good friend David Letterman to produce The Building, a short-lived sitcom that was modeled after early-1950s television shows. The show was also filmed live; mistakes, accidents, and forgotten lines were often left in the aired episode. Hunt and Letterman re-teamed in 1995 with The Bonnie Hunt Show (later retitled Bonnie), which featured many of the same cast members as The Building and the same loose style. The show was praised by critics but was canceled after 11 of the 13 episodes produced were aired. In 2002, Hunt returned to television with Life with Bonnie, a show known for clean and offbeat humor. Her role on that show earned her a 2004 Emmy nomination, her first. Despite fair ratings, the show was canceled in its second season. Hunt announced on Live with Regis and Kelly that ABC had offered her another sitcom, in which she would have played a divorced detective. This pilot, Let Go (also known as Crimes and Dating), was not picked up for the fall 2006 schedule.

Hunt wrote, directed, and co-starred in the 2000 film Return to Me, a romantic comedy starring David Duchovny and Minnie Driver. It was filmed in her Chicago neighborhood and included bit parts⁶⁷⁸ for a number of her relatives.

A recognizable film actress, Hunt has starred as Alice Newton opposite Charles Grodin in the popular children's films Beethoven and Beethoven's 2nd. She played opposite Robin Williams in Jumanji as well as opposite Steve Martin in Cheaper by the Dozen and its sequel. She played the sister of Renée Zellweger in the movie Jerry Maguire and Jan Edgecomb opposite Tom Hanks in the film adaptation of the Stephen King novel The Green Mile. Also, she played the biological mother, Grace Bellamy, of Mark Austin (played by Kip Pardue) in Loggerheads, a 2005 independent film written and directed by Tim Kirkman. In addition to starring in Pixar's Cars as the voice of Sally Carrera, Hunt received a writing credit on the film as well.

Personal life

Hunt married investment banker John Murphy in 1988. However, during her June 6, 2006, appearance on The Late Show with David Letterman, she mentioned that she was single again.

Hunt's hometown is Chicago⁹ and she is a lifelong Chicago Cubs fan, having not missed an Opening Day at Wrigley Field since 1977. She is also a supporter of the Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation, of which she is an honorary board member.¹⁰

Hunt often says that her favorite show is The Amazing Race. Hunt joked with Emma Roberts that the two should go on the show if there is ever a celebrity season.^{citation needed}

The Bonnie Hunt Show

In 2007 Bonnie Hunt taped a pilot episode for Telepictures. The pilot passed and the talk show was created. The Bonnie Hunt Show premiered on Monday, September 8, 2008. Since then the show has received great praise. The set is a tribute to Dean Martin and on the wall are pictures of historic television personalities, and of her family. The show has the same concept of other talk shows such as Live with Regis and Kelly and The Rosie O'Donnell Show with the host and guests often interacting with the audience. Many of show's staffers are longtime friends of Hunt from Chicago as well as her professional career. The show has an opening monologue, guest interviews and spontaneous appearing audience participation games. Hunt's mother Alice often appears in webcasts from her home in Chicago. A characteristic of the show is Hunt's facial scolding of non-PG conversation, while enjoying the double entendre of conversation. The show has cleared in 85% of the US ahead in its launch. The Bonnie Hunt Show has now sold to 17 of the top 20 markets. The show tapes in Culver City, California. In its first year, the show was nominated for three Daytime Emmy Awards in opening theme, hairstyle, and makeup. The show won the Gracie Award for "Outstanding Talk Show" in 2009. The show returned for its second season on Tuesday, September 8, 2009.

In December of 2009, it was announced that due to struggling ratings, the show will stop production at the end of the season (May 2010). Fans of the show are currently attempting to save it through a campaign of petitions and letter writing.

Filmography

Year	Film	Role	Notes
1988	Rain Man	Sally Dibbs
1992	Beethoven	Alice Newton
1993	Dave	White House Tour Guide
	One Night in Paris	Paris Hilton
1994	Only You	Kate Corvatch
1995	Now and Then	Mrs. DeWitt
	Jumanji	Sarah Whittle/Madam Serena
1996	Getting Away with Murder	Dr. Gail Holland
	Jerry Maguire	Laurel Boyd
1998	A Bug's Life	Rosie	Voice
	Kissing a Fool	Linda Streicher
1999	Random Hearts	Wendy Judd
	The Green Mile	Jan Edgecomb
2000	Return to Me	Megan Dayton	also director/writer
2001	Monsters, Inc.	Mrs. Flint	Voice
2002	Stolen Summer	Margaret O'Malley	limited release
2003	Cheaper by the Dozen	Kate Baker
2005	Cheaper by the Dozen 2
	Loggerheads	Grace
2006	From Hair To Eternity	Martha Bakerson
	I Want Someone to Eat Cheese With	Stella Lewis
	Cars	Sally Carrera	Voice
2008	The Bonnie Hunt Show	Herself/Host	Talk show
2010	Toy Story 3	Purple Haired Doll	Voice
2011	Cars 2	Sally Carrera	Voice

References

External links

• Bonnie Hunt at the Internet Movie Database
• The Bonnie Hunt Show
• Bonnie Hunt at TV.com
• Roger Ebert review of film Return to Me