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Bonnie Hunt
Hunt at the 2006 Tribeca Film Festival.
Born	Bonnie Lynn Hunt September 22, 1961 (1961-09-22) (age 47) Chicago, Illinois
Occupation	Actress, Comedienne, Writer, Director, Television Presenter, Television Producer
Years active	1984 — present

Bonnie Lynn Hunt (born September 22, 1961)¹ is a two-time Golden Globe- and a Emmy Award-nominated American actress, comedienne, writer, director, television producer and daytime television host of The Bonnie Hunt Show.

Biography

Early life

Hunt was born in Chicago, Illinois, the daughter of Alice, a homemaker, and Bob Hunt, an electrician.² She was raised in a large Irish Catholic family,³ 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 a 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 is said to have refused to become a cast member of Saturday Night Live because the show's producers generally frowned on her preferred improvisational style. In 1992, she turned down a higher-paying role on Designing Women 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 reportedly declined the female lead in the series Mad About You, which went to Helen Hunt (no relation).

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 played a divorced detective. This pilot, Let Go (also known as Crimes and Dating), was not picked up for the fall 2006 schedule.

Hunt served as screenwriter, director and supporting actress for 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 parts for a number of her relatives.

A recognizable film actress, Hunt has starred opposite Charles Grodin in the popular children's films Beethoven and Beethoven's 2nd, with Tom Cruise in the hit Jerry Maguire, with Robin Williams in Jumanji as well as opposite Steve Martin in Cheaper by the Dozen and its sequel. 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. Hunt not only starred as the voice of Sally in Pixar's Cars but received a writing credit on the film as well.

In June 2007, Hunt taped a talk show pilot for Telepictures. The pilot was picked up by ABC for broadcast on its ABC-owned stations as well as for syndication to other broadcast and cable outlets; again her show is titled The Bonnie Hunt Show. She began her foray into the competitive daytime market in September of 2008. The pilot took place in the same studio as The Ellen DeGeneres Show and guest-starred DeGeneres. Hunt's brother was asked medical questions in a segment called "Ask Dr. Hunt." The pilot also featured Teri Horton, the author of Who is Jackson Pollock.⁴ In September 2007, ABC announced a two-year commitment for the program.⁵

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 is single again.

Hunt 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 where she is an honorary board member.⁶

Filmography

This article or section contains a list of works that does not follow the Manual of Style for lists of works (often, but not always, due to being in reverse-chronological order) and may need cleanup.

References

External links

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