Helen Hunt
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Helen Hunt |
Hunt in 2011
|
| Born |
Helen Elizabeth Hunt
June 15, 1963 (age 51)
Culver City, California, U.S. |
| Occupation |
Actress, director, screenwriter |
| Years active |
1973–present |
| Spouse(s) |
Hank Azaria (1999–2000) |
| Partner(s) |
Matthew Carnahan (2001–present) |
| Children |
1 |
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 1997
romantic comedy film,
As Good as It Gets for which she won the
Academy Award for Best Actress. Some of her other notable films include
Twister,
Cast Away,
What Women Want,
Pay It Forward,
Soul Surfer and
The Sessions. She made her directorial debut in 2007 with
Then She Found Me. In addition to her Oscar, Hunt has won four Emmy awards, four Golden Globe awards, and two Screen Actors Guild awards.
Early life
Hunt was born in
Culver City, California. Her mother, Jane Elizabeth (née Novis), worked as a photographer, and her father,
Gordon E. Hunt, is a film director and acting coach.
[1] Her uncle,
Peter H. Hunt, is also a director. Her
Iowa-born maternal grandmother, Dorothy (Anderson) Fries, was a voice coach.
[2]
Hunt's paternal grandmother was from a German Jewish family, while
Hunt's other grandparents were of English descent (her maternal
grandfather was born in England).
[3][4][5]
When she was three, Hunt's family moved to New York City, where her
father directed theatre (Hunt attended plays as a child several times a
week).
[6] Hunt studied ballet, and briefly attended
UCLA.
[6][7][8]
Career
Hunt began working as a child actress in the 1970s.
[6] 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, an appearance in an episode of
Ark II called Omega, and a regular role in the television series
The Swiss Family Robinson.
[6] She appeared as a
marijuana-smoking classmate on an episode of
The Facts of Life. Hunt also played a young woman who, while on
PCP, jumps out of a second-story window, in a 1982 TV movie called
Desperate Lives (a scene which she mocked during a
Saturday Night Live monologue in 1994).
[9] That same year, Hunt was cast on the
ABC sitcom
It Takes Two, which lasted a single season. In the mid-1980s, she had a recurring role on
St. Elsewhere as Clancy Williams, the girlfriend of Dr. Jack "Boomer" Morrison. She played Jennie in the television movie
Bill: On His Own, co-starring
Mickey Rooney. She also starred in the 1985 film
Girls Just Wanna Have Fun, with
Sarah Jessica Parker and
Shannen Doherty.
In the 1990s, after playing the lead female role in the short-lived
My Life and Times, Hunt starred in the series
Mad About You, winning Emmy Awards for her performances in 1996, 1997, 1998, and 1999.
[6] Hunt directed 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, with
Colin Firth and
Matthew Broderick.
[1] In 1998, Hunt won an
Academy Award for Best Actress for her portrayal of Carol Connelly in the movie
As Good as It Gets;
the character is a waitress and single mother who finds herself falling
in love with Melvin Udall, an obsessive-compulsive romance novelist
played by
Jack Nicholson.
[6] 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.
[10] In 2000, Hunt starred 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.
[6] In 2003, she returned to Broadway in
Yasmina Reza's
Life x 3.
[10] In 2006, Hunt appeared in the ensemble cast film
Bobby alongside
Demi Moore,
Anthony Hopkins,
Sharon Stone and
William H. Macy. In 2012, she starred alongside
John Hawkes and
William H. Macy in
The Sessions as sex surrogate
Cheryl Cohen-Greene. The movie and her performance were very well reviewed and earned her several award nominations, including an
Oscar nomination for
Best Supporting Actress.
She owns a production company with
Connie Tavel, Hunt/Tavel Productions under
Sony Pictures Entertainment.
[1]
Personal life
Hunt started dating actor
Hank Azaria in 1994 and they married in 1999, only to get divorced 17 months later (July 17, 1999 – December 18, 2000).
[1] She has been in a relationship with producer/writer/director
Matthew Carnahan since 2001. They have a daughter, Makena Lei Gordon Carnahan, born on May 13, 2004.
[1][11]
Accolades
Hunt has been recognized extensively in her career. In 1998 she won 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.
[12]
Filmography
Television
Film
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