Holly Hunter biography

Synopsis

Profile

Actress. Born March 20, 1958 in Conyers, Georgia. The youngest of seven children born to a sporting goods representative, Hunter starred in her first play in fifth grade as Helen Keller. After receiving a degree in drama from Pittsburgh's Carnegie Mellon University in 1980, the young Southerner moved to New York to pursue a career in acting.

After getting stuck in an elevator with playwright Beth Henley, the two collaborated in what would eventually become Hunter's Broadway debut in Crimes of the Heart in 1982. The fledgling actress soon moved to Los Angeles to pursue film work and was eventually cast in a supporting role in 1984's Swing Shift. The same year, she had her first collaboration with the Coen brothers in Blood Simple, which eventually led to a starring role in the Coens' hit comedy Raising Arizona. In 1987, Hunter's performance as a lonely, uptight news correspondent in Broadcast News earned the actress her first Academy Award nomination. Better roles soon followed, including leads in Miss Firecracker, Steven Spielberg's Always and the made-for-TV docudrama Roe vs. Wade.

In 1993, Hunter received another Oscar nod for her supporting performance in The Firm. But it was her portrayal of a mute Scottish woman in Jane Campion's The Piano that ultimately won her the award. Unfortunately, the win was followed by a series of uneven films throughout the 1990s, including Home for the Holidays (1995), Crash (1996) and A Life Less Ordinary (1997). However, Hunter earned positive reviews in 1998 for her portrayal of a divorced New Yorker in Living Out Loud costarring Danny DeVito and Queen Latifah and in the Coen brothers' 2000 hit O Brother, Where Art Thou?.

Hunter is currently in a relationship with actor, Gordon MacDonald. The couple has twin boys together.

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