Sunday, December 26, 2010

Hollywood Linda Hunt

PROFILE


Name : Linda Hunt


Birth Name : Lydia Susanna Hunter


Date of Birth : 2 April 1945


Place of Birth : Morristown, New Jersey, USA


Height : 4' 9" (1.45 m)


Occupation : Actress


Nationality : American


Years active : 1976–present



BIOGRAPHY

Linda Hunt is an American film, stage and television actress. She is perhaps best known for her Academy Award-winning role in 1983's The Year of Living Dangerously.
Hunt was born in Morristown, New Jersey and grew up in Westport, Connecticut, the daughter of Elsie (née Doying), a piano teacher who taught at the Westport School of Music and accompanied the Saugatuck Congregational Church choir, and Raymond Davy Hunt, the long-time vice president of Harper Fuel Oil on Long Island. Linda Hunt attended the prestigious Interlochen Arts Academy. She has a sister, Marcia.
Hunt's film debut in 1980 was in Robert Altman's musical comedy Popeye. Two years later she co-starred as Billy Kwan in The Year of Living Dangerously, Peter Weir's film adaptation of the novel of the same name. For her role as the male Chinese-Australian photographer, Hunt won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress in 1983, becoming the first actor to win an Oscar for playing a character of the opposite sex (also the first to win playing an Australian character).
Also a well known stage actress, Hunt has received two Obie awards and a Tony Award nomination for her theatre work. She created the role of Aunt Dan in Wallace Shawn's play Aunt Dan and Lemon. Recently, she portrayed Sister Aloysius in the Pasadena Playhouse production of John Patrick Shanley's Tony Award-winning play Doubt. Her television appearances include recurring roles as Judge Zoey Hiller on David E. Kelley's series The Practice and as Dr. Claire Bryson on Without a Trace. She has narrated several installments of The American Experience on PBS.
Beside her acting abilities, Hunt is distinguished by her small stature (she is 4' 9" / 1.45 m), and her rich, resonant voice, which she has used in numerous documentaries, cartoons, and commercials. She is the on-air host for City Arts & Lectures, a radio program recorded by KQED public radio. Hunt was chosen by Walt Disney Feature Animation to lend her enigmatic speaking and singing voice to Grandmother Willow in the film Pocahontas.
Her voice work also includes the character of "Management" in Carnivàle, and the titan Gaia, who serves as the Narrator in the God of War series of video games. She narrated the introductory film at the International Spy Museum in Washington, DC.

CAREER


Hunt's film debut in 1980 was in Robert Altman's musical comedy Popeye. Two years later, she co-starred as Billy Kwan in The Year of Living Dangerously, Peter Weir's film adaptation of the novel of the same name. For her role as the male Chinese-Australian photographer, Hunt won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress in 1983, becoming the first person to win an Oscar for playing a character of the opposite sex (also the first to win playing an Australian character). This was both cross-gender acting and yellowface.
Also a well known stage actress, Hunt has received two Obie awards and a Tony Award nomination for her theatre work. She created the role of Aunt Dan in Wallace Shawn's play Aunt Dan and Lemon. Recently, she portrayed Sister Aloysius in the Pasadena Playhouse production of John Patrick Shanley's Tony Award-winning play Doubt. She was praised for her performance as the title character in Bertoldt Brecht's Mother Courage and Her Children. Her television appearances include recurring roles as Judge Zoey Hiller on David E. Kelley's series The Practice and as Dr. Claire Bryson on Without a Trace. She has narrated several installments of The American Experience on PBS. She now plays the role of an operations manager and supervisor on the CBS fall show NCIS: Los Angeles with Chris O'Donnell, LL Cool J and Daniela Ruah.


Milestone

First began acting at age 12, in the summer program at the Silver Nutmeg Theatre in Westport, CT
1966 - 1969: Moved to New York; worked as a director at the St. Bartholomew Community Club Playhouse
1969: Returned to Westport and studied acting with Robert Lewis at Bambi Lynn's studio
1970: Began association with the Long Wharf Theatre in New Haven, CT; starred in one-woman show of about Joan of Arc
1971: Off-Broadway debut as the Player Queen in the New York Shakespeare Festival production of "Hamlet" in Central Park
1973: First major role as Norah, the maid, in Arvin Brown's Long Wharf production of "Ah, Wilderness!"; production later moved to NYC's Circle-in-the Square on Broadway; also aired on PBS' "Theater in America" (1976)
1978: Starred in "The Tennis Game" at the Music-Theatre Group of Stockbridge, MA; written specifically for her by the author George Trow
1978: First major TV appearance in the "Hallmark Hall of Fame" production of Arthur Miller's "Fame"; role was written for her by the playwright
1980: Made film debut as fighter Oxblood Oxheart's mother in Robert Altman's "Popeye"
1983: Had breakthrough screen role playing a man in Peter Weir's "The Year of Living Dangerously"; earned a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress
1983: Starred as agent Audrey Wood in Arthur Kopit's play, "End of World"; received a Tony nomination as Best Actress in a Play
1985: Had supporting role as a saloon owner in Lawrence Kasdan's revisionist Western, "Silverado"
1987: Portrayed Alice B. Toklas in Jill Godmilow's "Waiting for the Moon"
1989: Had a supporting role, opposite Roseanne, in "She Devil"
1993: First role as a series regular in CBS' "Space Rangers"
1994: Began second career as sought after voice actor, narrating the documentary, "Ecological Design: Inventing the Future"
1995: Provided the voice of Grandmother Willow in Disney's animated, "Pocahontas"
1996: Narrated the Oscar-nominated documentary, "Paul Monette: The Brink of Summer's End"
1997 - 2002: Played recurring role of Judge Zoey Hiller on the ABC legal drama, "The Practice"
1997: Narrated the Oscar-nominated documentary short, "Amazon"
2003 - 2005: Lent her voice to the mysterious Management in the HBO original series, "Carnivàle"
2005: Co-starred with Dennis Quaid and Rene Russo in the remake of "Yours, Mine and Ours"
2005: Portrayed Sister Aloysius in the Pasadena Playhouse production of John Patrick Shanley's "Doubt"
2006: Co-starred, opposite Will Ferrell, in the Marc Forster comedy, "Stranger Than Fiction"
2009: Cast as Hetty Lange on CBS' "NCIS: Los Angeles"


MOVIES LIST

Popeye (1980)

The Year of Living Dangerously (1983)

Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress

Nominated—Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress - Motion Picture

Dune (1984)

The Bostonians (1984)

Eleni (1985)

Silverado (1985)

Waiting for the Moon (1987)

She-Devil (1989)

Kindergarten Cop (1990)

Carmilla (1990)

If Looks Could Kill (1991)

Rain Without Thunder (1992)

Younger and Younger (1993)

Twenty Bucks (1993)

Pret-a-Porter (1994)

Pocahontas (1995)

The Relic (1997)

Eat Your Heart Out (1997)

Pocahontas II: Journey to a New World (1998)

Dragonfly (2002)

Auschwitz: The Nazis and the 'Final Solution' (2005)

Yours, Mine and Ours (2005)

God of War (2005)

The Great Transatlantic Cable (2005)

Stranger Than Fiction (2006)

The Singing Revolution (2007)

God of War II (2010)

God of War: Chains of Olympus (2008)

God of War III (2010)

God of War: Ghost of Sparta (2010)

TELEVISION SERIES (Selected)


Fame (1978)

Space Rangers (1993)

The Practice (1997-2002)

Carnivale (2003-2005)

Nature (2006)

The Unit (2007)

Without a Trace (2008)

NCIS: Los Angeles (2009-present)

AWARDS

Academy Awards, USA (1984)
Won Oscar in Best Actress in a Supporting Rolefor: The Year of Living Dangerously (1982).

Australian Film Institute (1983)
Won AFI Award Best Actress in a Supporting Rolefor: The Year of Living Dangerously (1982).
Nominated AFI Award Jury Awardfor: The Year of Living Dangerously (1982).

Boston Society of Film Critics Awards (1984)
Won BSFC Award Best Supporting Actressfor: The Year of Living Dangerously (1982).

Golden Globes, USA (1984)
Nominated Golden Globe Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picturefor: The Year of Living Dangerously (1982).

Kansas City Film Critics Circle Awards (1984)

Won KCFCC Award Best Supporting Actressfor: The Year of Living Dangerously (1982). Tied with Mia Farrow for Zelig (1983).

Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards (1983)
Won LAFCA Award Best Supporting Actressfor: The Year of Living Dangerously (1982).

National Board of Review, USA (1994)
Won NBR Award Best Acting by an Ensemblefor: Pret-a-Porter (1994).
Won NBR Award Best Supporting Actressfor: The Year of Living Dangerously (1982).

New York Film Critics Circle Awards (1983)
Won NYFCC Award Best Supporting Actressfor: The Year of Living Dangerously (1982).

Viewers for Quality Television Awards (1998)
Nominated Q Award Best Recurring Playerfor: "The Practice" (1997).

Western Heritage Awards (1995)
Won Bronze Wrangler Outstanding Documentaryfor: Ishi: The Last Yahi (1992).


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