Holly Hunter Biography

Quick Facts

NAME: Holly Hunter
OCCUPATION: Film Actress, Theater Actress, Television Actress
BIRTH DATE: March 20, 1958 (Age: 55)
EDUCATION: Carnegie Mellon University
PLACE OF BIRTH: Conyers, Georgia
Full Name: Holly Paige Hunter
AKA: Holly Hunter
ZODIAC SIGN: Aries

Best Known For

Holly Hunter is an American actress best known for her Oscar acclaimed roles in Broadcast News (1987), The Firm (1993) and The Piano (1993).

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Holly Hunter

APA Style

Holly Hunter. (2013). The Biography Channel website. Retrieved 11:12, May 24, 2013, from http://www.biography.com/people/holly-hunter-9542586.

Harvard Style

Holly Hunter. [Internet]. 2013. The Biography Channel website. Available from: http://www.biography.com/people/holly-hunter-9542586 [Accessed 24 May 2013].

MLA Style

"Holly Hunter." 2013. The Biography Channel website. May 24 2013, 11:12 http://www.biography.com/people/holly-hunter-9542586.

MHRA Style

"Holly Hunter," The Biography Channel website, 2013, http://www.biography.com/people/holly-hunter-9542586 [accessed May 24, 2013].

Chicago Style

"Holly Hunter," The Biography Channel website, http://www.biography.com/people/holly-hunter-9542586 (accessed May 24, 2013).

CBE/CSE Style

Holly Hunter [Internet]. The Biography Channel website; 2013 [cited 2013 May 24] Available from: http://www.biography.com/people/holly-hunter-9542586.

Bluebook Style

Holly Hunter, http://www.biography.com/people/holly-hunter-9542586 (last visited May 24, 2013).

AMA Style

Holly Hunter. The Biography Channel website. 2013. Available at: http://www.biography.com/people/holly-hunter-9542586. Accessed May 24, 2013.

Synopsis

Holly Hunter is an American actress born on March 20, 1958, in Conyers, Georgia. She studied drama in college then moved to New York to pursue acting. Hunter debuted on Broadway in Crimes of the Heart (1982). She moved to Los Angeles and her big break came in the Coen brother’s hit film Raising Arizona (1987). For her roles in Broadcast News (1987) and The Firm (1993),

Hunter received Academy Award nominations. She won her first Oscar for The Piano (1993) and continues to act in film and television today.

Early Life

Actress Holly Hunter was born on 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.

Acting Career

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?