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Helen Hunt extracted from Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia, distributed under the GNU Free Documentation License

Helen Hunt
at the 2007 Toronto International Film Festival
Born	Helen Elizabeth Hunt June 15, 1963 (1963-06-15) (age 46) Culver City, California, U.S.
Occupation	Actor, director, screenwriter
Years active	1973–present
Spouse(s)	Hank Azaria (1999–2000)
Domestic partner(s)	Matthew Carnahan (2001–present)

Helen Elizabeth Hunt (born June 15, 1963) is an American actress, film director, and screenwriter. She starred in the sitcom Mad About You for seven years, before being cast in the romantic comedy As Good As It Gets, for which she won the Academy Award for Best Actress. Some of her other Hollywood credits include Twister, Cast Away, What Women Want and Pay It Forward. She made her directorial debut in 2008 with Then She Found Me.

Contents 1 Early life 2 Career 3 Personal life 4 Filmography and awards 4.1 Television 4.2 Films 5 References 6 External links

Early life

Hunt was born in Culver City, California, the daughter of Jane Elizabeth (née Novis), a photographer, and Gordon Hunt, a film director and acting coach.¹² Her uncle, Peter H. Hunt, is also a director, and her maternal grandmother, Dorothy Fries (née Anderson) was a voice coach.¹³ Hunt is of Jewish (from her paternal grandmother)⁴ and Methodist background.⁵ She spent part of her childhood in New York City and later attended the University of California at Los Angeles.⁶

Career

Hunt began working in the 1970s as a child actress. Her early roles included an appearance as Murray Slaughter's daughter on The Mary Tyler Moore Show, alongside Lindsay Wagner in an episode of The Bionic Woman, and a regular role in the television series The Swiss Family Robinson. She appeared as a marijuana-smoking classmate on an episode of The Facts of Life. She also appeared as a young woman who, while on PCP, jumps out of a second-story window in a 1982 after school special called Desperate Lives (a scene which she mocked during a Saturday Night Live monologue in 1994).⁷ In the mid-1980s, she had a recurring role on St. Elsewhere as Clancy Williams, girlfriend of Dr. Jack "Boomer" Morrison. She remains best known for one of her earliest roles as Jennie in Bill: On His Own, costarring Mickey Rooney.

In the 1990s, after the lead female role in the short-lived My Life and Times, Hunt became well-known to television audiences in Mad About You, winning Emmy Awards for her performance in 1996, 1997, 1998, and 1999. Hunt has also had a successful film career, with roles in movies such as Cast Away and the 1996 blockbuster Twister.

In 1998 Hunt won an Academy Award for Best Actress for her portrayal of Carol Connelly, a waitress and single mother who finds herself falling in love with Melvin Udall, an obsessive-compulsive romance novelist played by Jack Nicholson in the movie As Good as It Gets. After winning the Academy Award she took time off from movie work to play Viola in Shakespeare's Twelfth Night at Lincoln Center in New York City.⁸

In 2000, Hunt returned to the screen in four films: Dr. T & the Women with Richard Gere, Pay It Forward with Kevin Spacey and Haley Joel Osment, What Women Want with Mel Gibson, and Cast Away with Tom Hanks. In 2003, she returned to Broadway in Yasmina Reza's Life x 3.⁸ Hunt was also a final candidate for the role of "Clarice Starling" in Hannibal, after Jodie Foster decided not to reprise her Oscar winning role from The Silence of the Lambs. However, Hunt lost the role to Julianne Moore at the last minute. In 2006, Hunt appeared in a small role in the film Bobby.

Hunt is a director, having helmed several episodes of Mad About You, including the series finale. Her big-screen directorial debut came with the film Then She Found Me, in which she also starred.¹

She currently owns a production company with Connie Tavel, Hunt/Tavel Productions under Sony Pictures Entertainment.¹

Personal life

Hunt dated actor Hank Azaria for five years, then was married to him from 1999 until 2000.¹ She briefly dated fellow actor Kevin Spacey in 2000.⁹ She has been in a relationship with Matthew Carnahan since 2001 and they have a daughter, Makena Lei Gordon Carnahan, born in 2004.¹¹⁰

Filmography and awards

Helen Hunt has been recognized extensively in her career. In 1998 she joined Liza Minnelli and Helen Mirren as the three actresses to win a Golden Globe Award, an Academy Award and an Emmy Award in the same year. Hunt was nominated for an Emmy Award for lead actress in a comedy seven years in a row, from 1993 through 1999, winning in the last four years.¹¹

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1974	Amy Prentiss	Jill Prentiss
1975	The Swiss Family Robinson	Helga
1982	It Takes Two	Lisa Quinn
1977	The Fitzpatricks	Kerry Gerardi
1978	The Bionic Woman	Princess Aura
1984-1986	St. Elsewhere	Clancy Williams
1991	My Life and Times	Rebecca Miller
1992-1999	Mad About You	Jamie Stemple Buchman	Emmy Award - 7 nominations (1993-1999), 4 wins (1996-1999) Golden Globe - 6 nominations (1993 - 1998), 3 wins (1994, 1995, 1997); Screen Actors Guild Award - 1995
2005	Empire Falls	Janine Roby

Films

Year	Film	Role	Notes
1973	Pioneer Woman	Sarah Sargeant	Made for TV
1975	Death Scream	Teila Rodriguez	Made for TV
	All Together Now	Susan Lindsay	Made for TV
1976	Having Babies	Sharon McNamara	Made for TV
1977	The Spell	Kristina Matchett	Made for TV
	Rollercoaster	Tracy Calder
1979	Transplant	Janice Hurley	Made for TV
1981	Child Bride of Short Creek	Naomi	Made for TV
	CBS Afternoon Playhouse	Phoebe	I Think I'm Having a Baby
	The Best Little Girl in the World		Made for TV
	Angel Dusted	Lizzie Eaton	Made for TV
	The Miracle of Kathy Miller	Kathy Miller	Made for TV
1982	Desperate Lives	Sandy Cameron	Made for TV
1983	Bill: On His Own	Jenny Wells	Made for TV
	Quarterback Princess	Tami Maida	Made for TV
	Choices of the Heart	Cathy	Made for TV
1984	Sweet Revenge	Debbie Markham	Made for TV
1985	Trancers	Leena
	Waiting to Act	Tracy
	Girls Just Want to Have Fun	Lynne Stone
1986	The Nativity	Mary	voice
	Peggy Sue Got Married	Beth Bodell
1987	Project X	Teri
1988	Shooter	Tracey	Made for TV
	Miles from Home	Jennifer
	Stealing Home	Hope Wyatt (adult and pregnant)
	The Frog Prince	Princess Henrietta
1989	Incident at Dark River	Jesse McCandless	Made for TV
	Next of Kin	Jessie Gates
1991	Murder in New Hampshire: The Pamela Wojas Smart Story	Pamela Smart	Made for TV
	Trancers II	Lena Deth
	Into the Badlands	Blossom	Made for TV
1992	The Waterdance	Anna
	Only You	Clare Enfield
	Mr. Saturday Night	Annie Wells
	Bob Roberts	Rose Pondell
	Trancers III	Lena
1993	Sexual Healing	Rene
	In the Company of Darkness	Gina Pulasky	Made for TV
1995	Kiss of Death	Bev Kilmartin
1996	Twister	Dr. Jo Harding (Adult)
1997	As Good as It Gets	Carol Connelly	Academy Award for Best Actress; Golden Globe; Screen Actors Guild Award
1998	Twelfth Night		Made for TV
2000	Dr. T & the Women	Bree
	What Women Want	Darcy McGuire
	Pay It Forward	Arlene McKinney
	Cast Away	Kelly Frears
2001	One Night at McCool's	Truck driver	scenes deleted
	The Curse of the Jade Scorpion	Betty Ann Fitzgerald
2005	A Good Woman	Mrs. Erlynne
2006	Bobby	Samantha Stevens
2007	Then She Found Me	April Epner	Also co-screenwriter, producer & director
2009	Every Day	Jeannie	(post-production)

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Helen Hunt

• Helen Hunt at the Internet Movie Database
• Helen Hunt at the Internet Broadway Database
• Helen Hunt at the Internet off-Broadway Database
• Helen Hunt at Allmovie
• Helen Hunt at Yahoo! Movies

v • d • e Academy Award for Best Actress Katharine Hepburn (1981) · Meryl Streep (1982) · Shirley MacLaine (1983) · Sally Field (1984) · Geraldine Page (1985) · Marlee Matlin (1986) · Cher (1987) · Jodie Foster (1988) · Jessica Tandy (1989) · Kathy Bates (1990) · Jodie Foster (1991) · Emma Thompson (1992) · Holly Hunter (1993) · Jessica Lange (1994) · Susan Sarandon (1995) · Frances McDormand (1996) · Helen Hunt (1997) · Gwyneth Paltrow (1998) · Hilary Swank (1999) · Julia Roberts (2000) Complete list · (1928–1940) · (1941–1960) · (1961–1980) · (1981–2000) · (2001-present)

v • d • e Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy Bernadette Peters (1981) · Julie Andrews (1982) · Julie Walters (1983) · Kathleen Turner (1984) · Kathleen Turner (1985) · Sissy Spacek (1986) · Cher (1987) · Melanie Griffith (1988) · Jessica Tandy (1989) · Julia Roberts (1990) · Bette Midler (1991) · Miranda Richardson (1992) · Angela Bassett (1993) · Jamie Lee Curtis (1994) · Nicole Kidman (1995) · Madonna (1996) · Helen Hunt (1997) · Gwyneth Paltrow (1998) · Janet McTeer (1999) · Renée Zellweger (2000) Complete List · (1950–1960) · (1961–1980) · (1981–2000) · (2001–present)

v • d • e Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role Jodie Foster (1994) · Susan Sarandon (1995) · Frances McDormand (1996) · Helen Hunt (1997) · Gwyneth Paltrow (1998) · Annette Bening (1999) · Julia Roberts (2000) · Halle Berry (2001) · Renée Zellweger (2002) · Charlize Theron (2003) · Hilary Swank (2004) · Reese Witherspoon (2005) · Helen Mirren (2006) · Julie Christie (2007) · Meryl Streep (2008)

v • d • e Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress - Comedy Series Mary Tyler Moore (1976) · Beatrice Arthur (1977) · Jean Stapleton (1978) · Ruth Gordon (1979) · Cathryn Damon (1980) · Isabel Sanford (1981) · Carol Kane (1982) · Shelley Long (1983) · Jane Curtin (1984) · Jane Curtin (1985) · Betty White (1986) · Rue McClanahan (1987) · Beatrice Arthur (1988) · Candice Bergen (1989) · Candice Bergen (1990) · Kirstie Alley (1991) · Candice Bergen (1992) · Roseanne Barr (1993) · Candice Bergen (1994) · Candice Bergen (1995) · Helen Hunt (1996) · Helen Hunt (1997) · Helen Hunt (1998) · Helen Hunt (1999) · Patricia Heaton (2000) Complete list: (1950–1975) · (1976–2000) · (2001–present)

Persondata
NAME	Hunt, Helen
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Hunt, Helen Elizabeth
SHORT DESCRIPTION	Actress
DATE OF BIRTH	June 15, 1963
PLACE OF BIRTH	Culver City, California, U.S.
DATE OF DEATH
PLACE OF DEATH