Celebrity Online NewsOnline Celebrity Gossip and News

Holly Hunter
Hunter in 1994
Born	20 March 1958 (1958-03-20) (age 50) Conyers, Georgia, USA
Occupation	actress / producer
Years active	1981 - present
Spouse(s)	Janusz Kaminski (1995 - 2001) (divorced)
Domestic partner(s)	Gordon MacDonald (2001-present) 2 children
Awards won Academy Awards Best Actress 1993 The Piano Australian Film Institute Awards Best Actress in a Leading Role 1993 The Piano BAFTA Awards Best Actress in a Leading Role 1993 The Piano Emmy Awards Best Actress in a Mini-series or Movie 1989 Roe vs. Wade 1993 The Positively True Adventures of the Alleged Texas Cheerleader-Murdering Mom Golden Globe Awards Best Actress - Motion Picture Drama 1993 The Piano Other awards Silver Bear for Best Actress - Berlin Film Festival 1988 Broadcast News Best Actress Award - Cannes Film Festival 1993 The Piano

Holly P. Hunter (born 20 March 1958) is an Oscar-winning American actress, best-known for films such as Raising Arizona, Broadcast News and The Piano. She's also well known for starring in the cable television series Saving Grace.

Biography

Early life and career

Hunter was born in Conyers, Georgia, the daughter of Opal Marguerite (née Catledge), a housewife, and Charles Edwin Hunter, a farmer and sporting-goods manufacturer's representative.¹ Hunter earned a degree in drama from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, after which she moved to New York City and roomed with fellow actress Frances McDormand. Hunter in 2008 described living in The Bronx "at the end of the D [subway] train, just off 205th Street, on Bainbridge Avenue and Hull Avenue. It was very Irish, and then you could go just a few blocks away and hit major Italian".² A chance encounter with playwright Beth Henley, when the two were trapped alone in an elevator, led to Hunter's being cast in Henley's plays Crimes of the Heart (succeeding Mary Beth Hurt on Broadway), and Off-Broadway's The Miss Firecracker Contest. "It was like the beginning of 1982. It was on 49th Street between Broadway and Eighth [Avenue] [...] on the south side of the street", Hunter recalled in an interview. "[We were trapped] 10 minutes; not long. We actually had a nice conversation. It was just the two of us".²

When she moved to Los Angeles, California, in 1982, Hunter shared a house with a group of people that included McDormand and director Sam Raimi, as well as future collaborators Joel and Ethan Coen.^{citation needed}.

Stage and film

Hunter made her screen debut in the 1981 horror movie The Burning. After moving to Los Angeles, California in 1982, Hunter appeared in TV-movies before being cast in a supporting role in 1984's Swing Shift. The year, she had her first collaboration with the writing-directing-producing team of brothers Ethan Coen and Joel Coen, in Blood Simple, making an uncredited appearance as a voice on an answering-machine recording. More film and television work followed until 1987, when thanks to a starring role in the Coens' Raising Arizona and her Academy Award-nominated turn in Broadcast News, Hunter became a critically acclaimed star. She went on to the screen adaptation of Henley's Miss Firecracker; Steven Spielberg's Always, a romantic drama with Richard Dreyfuss; and the made-for-TV docudrama about the titular Supreme Court abortion case, Roe vs. Wade (1989)

Following her second collaboration with Dreyfuss, in Once Around (1991), Hunter garnered critical appreciation for her work in three 1993 films, two of which resulted in her being nominated for two Academy Awards the same year: Hunter's performance in The Firm won her a nomination as Best Supporting Actress, while her portrayal of a mute Scottish woman entangled in a treacherous affair with Harvey Keitel in Jane Campion's The Piano won her the Best Actress award. Hunter went on to appear in such poorly received films as the comedy-drama Home for the Holidays (1995) and the thriller Copycat (1995) Her work in David Cronenberg's Crash (1996) did win her strong notices,^{citation needed}, but it was swallowed by the controversies^{citation needed} surrounding the film, and her appearance as a sardonic angel in A Life Less Ordinary (1997) suffered a similar fate.^{citation needed} The following year, she played a recently divorced New Yorker in Richard LaGravenese's Living Out Loud; starring alongside Danny DeVito, Queen Latifah, and Martin Donovan, Hunter won positive reviews for her performance.^{citation needed} Hunter rounded out the 1990s with a minor role in the independent drama Jesus' Son and as a housekeeper torn between a grieving widower and Kiefer Sutherland's drama Woman Wanted (1999).

Following a supporting role in the Coens' O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000), Hunter took top billing in the same year's television movie Harlan County War, an account of labor struggles among Kentucky coal-mine workers. Hunter would continue her small screen streak with a role in When Billie Beat Bobby (2001), playing tennis pro Billie Jean King in the fact-based story of King's famed exhibition match with Bobby Riggs; and as narrator of Eco Challenge New Zealand before returning to film work with a minor role in the 2002 drama Moonlight Mile. The following year found Hunter drawing favorable reviews^{citation needed} for her role in the otherwise critically maligned^{citation needed} redemption drama Levity. Also in 2003, Hunter had a supporting role in the acclaimed^{citation needed} film Thirteen for which she received a Best Supporting Actress Oscar nomination.

In 2004, Hunter starred alongside Brittany Murphy in the romantic satire Little Black Book, and the same year lent her voice to the animated film The Incredibles as the voice of Helen Parr, ak.a. the superheroine Elastigirl. In 2005, Hunter starred along side Robin Williams in the black comedy-drama The Big White.

Hunter became an executive producer, and helped develop a starring vehicle for herself with the TNT cable-network drama Saving Grace, which premiered in July 2007. For her acting, she received a Golden Globe Award nomination, a Screen Actors Guild Award nomination, and an Emmy Award nomination. On May 30, 2008 Hunter received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Personal life

For many years, Hunter was in a relationship with actor Arliss Howard. She was married to Polish cinematographer Janusz Kaminski from 20 May 1995 until their divorce on 21 December 2001. Since 2001, she has been in a relationship with American actor Gordon MacDonald, with whom she co-starred in Marina Carr's By the Bog of Cats in a 2001 run at the San Jose Repertory Theater, and later in a 2004 West End production of the same play. In January 2006, Hunter's publicist announced that Hunter had given birth to the couple's twins at the age of 47;³ Entertainment Weekly later reported that the twins were boys.

Holly's cousin is Tim Salmon,^{citation needed} former right fielder and designated hitter of the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim major league baseball team.

Filmography

Awards

Main article: List of Holly Hunter awards and nominations

Emmy Award in 1989

Holly Hunter has won several major awards, including Academy, Emmy and Golden Globe Awards. In 1994, she won the Academy Award for Best Leading Actress for her portrayal as "Ada McGrath" in The Piano. She also won a Golden Globe for that same role.

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

Holly Hunter

External links

• Holly Hunter at the Internet Movie Database
• Holly Hunter at the Notable Names Database
• "What people don't know about Holly" (Interview), The Guardian, 22 November 2003