Holly Hunter Biography

Holly Hunter (born March 20, 1958) is an American actress. Hunter starred in The Piano for which she won the BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role and Academy Award for Best Actress, among other awards. She has also been nominated for Oscars for her roles in Broadcast News, The Firm, and Thirteen. Hunter has also won two Emmy Awards with seven nominations and has won a Golden Globe Award with another six nominations. She has earned 25 awards and 61 nominations in total.

Early life and career

Holly 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. Hunter earned a degree in drama from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, and for a while performed in the theatre scene there, playing ingenue roles at City Theatre, then named the City Players. She eventually 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". 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".

Stage and film

Hunter made her screen debut in the 1981 horror movie The Burning. After moving to Los Angeles in 1982, Hunter appeared in TV movies before being cast in a supporting role in 1984's Swing Shift. That 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 1989 docudrama about the Supreme Court case Roe v. Wade.

Following her second collaboration with Dreyfuss, in Once Around, Hunter garnered critical attention for her work in two 1993 films, resulting 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 an adulterous affair with Harvey Keitel in Jane Campion's The Piano won her the Best Actress award.

Hunter went on to appear in films such as the comedy-drama Home for the Holidays and the thriller Copycat. She also appreared in David Cronenberg's Crash and as a sardonic angel in A Life Less Ordinary. 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 rounded out the 1990s with a minor role in the independent drama Jesus' Son and as a housekeeper torn between a grieving widower and his son in Kiefer Sutherland's drama Woman Wanted.

Following a supporting role in the Coens' O Brother, Where Art Thou?, 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, 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 in the redemption drama Levity. Also in 2003, Hunter had the role of a mother named Melanie Freeland, whose daughter is troubled and going through the perils of being a teenager in the film Thirteen. The film was critically acclaimed along with Hunter and her co-stars and earned her an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress 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, a.k.a. the superheroine Elastigirl. In 2005, Hunter starred alongside 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, two Screen Actors Guild Award nominations, and an Emmy Award nomination. On May 30, 2008, Hunter received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. In 2009, she was awarded the Women in Film [[Women_in_Film_Crystal_+_Lucy_Awards#THE_LUCY_AWARD|Lucy Award]].

Personal life

Hunter is deaf in her left ear, which sometimes leads to complications at work. Some scenes have to be altered from the script for her to use her healthy right ear.

Holly Hunter was married to Schindler's List and Saving Private Ryan cinematographer Janusz Kami"?ski from 1995 until 2001.

Hunter has been in a relationship with British actor Gordon MacDonald since 2001. The couple met in San Jose Repertory Theatre's production of playwright Marina Carr's By the Bog of Cats, in which she played a woman abandoned by her lover of 14 years, played by MacDonald. In January 2006, Hunter's publicist announced that Hunter had given birth to the couple's twin boysClaude and Press.

In a 2009 interview, Hunter said to TV Guide that she does not discuss her children with the media.

Filmography

Year	Film	Role	Notes
1981	The Burning	Sophie
1984	Swing Shift	Jeannie
1984	Blood Simple	Helene Trend	Voice role, uncredited
1987	Raising Arizona	Edwina 'Ed' McDunnough
1987	End of the Line	Charlotte
1987	'	Candy Marshall
1987	Broadcast News	Jane Craig	Boston Society of Film Critics Award for Best Actress Silver Bear for Best Actress " Berlin Film Festival Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award for Best Actress National Board of Review Award for Best Actress National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Actress (3rd place) New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actress Nominated"?Academy Award for Best Actress Nominated"?Golden Globe Award for Best Actress " Motion Picture Musical or Comedy
1989	Miss Firecracker	Carnelle Scott
1989	Animal Behavior	Coral Grable
1989	Always	Dorinda Durston
1991	Once Around	Renata Bella
1993	'	Ada McGrath	Academy Award for Best Actress Australian Film Institute Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role Boston Society of Film Critics Award for Best Actress Cannes Film Festival Best Actress Award Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Best Actress Dallas-Fort Worth Film Critics Association Award for Best Actress Golden Globe Award for Best Actress " Motion Picture Drama London Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actress Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award for Best Actress National Board of Review Award for Best Actress National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Actress New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actress Southeastern Film Critics Association Award for Best Actress Nominated"?David di Donatello Award for Best Foreign Actress
1993	'	Tammy Hemphill	Nominated"?Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress Nominated"?BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role
1995	Copycat	M.J. Monahan	Special Mention Award at the Festival du Film Policier de Cognac
1995	Home for the Holidays	Claudia Larson
1996	Crash	Helen Remington
1997	'	O'Reilly
1998	Living Out Loud	Judith Moore	Nominated"?American Comedy Award for Funniest Actress in a Motion Picture (Leading Role) Nominated"?Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Best Actress Nominated"?Satellite Award for Best Actress " Motion Picture Musical or Comedy
1999	Jesus' Son	Mira
2000	Woman Wanted	Emma Riley
2000	Timecode	Renee Fishbine, Executive
2000	O Brother, Where Art Thou?	Penny	Nominated"?Satellite Award for Best Supporting Actress " Motion Picture
2000	Things You Can Tell Just by Looking at Her	Rebecca Waynon
2001	Festival in Cannes	Herself	Uncredited
2002	Moonlight Mile	Mona Camp
2003	Levity	Adele Easley
2003	Thirteen	Melanie Freeland	Bronze Leopard Award for Best Actress Las Vegas Film Critics Society Award for Best Supporting Actress Southeastern Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting Actress (2nd place) Nominated"?Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress Nominated"?BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role Nominated"?Broadcast Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting Actress Nominated"?Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting Actress Nominated"?Dallas-Fort Worth Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting Actress Nominated"?Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress " Motion Picture Nominated"?London Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actress Nominated"?Online Film Critics Society Award for Best Supporting Actress Nominated"?Phoenix Film Critics Society Award for Best Supporting Actress Nominated"?Prism Award for Best Performance in a Theatrical Feature Film Nominated"?Satellite Award for Best Supporting Actress " Motion Picture Nominated"?Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role Nominated"?Washington D.C. Area Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting Actress
2004	Little Black Book	Barb Campbell-Dunn
2004	'	Helen Parr/Elastigirl	Voice role Nominated"?MTV Movie Award for Best On-Screen Team
2005	Nine Lives	Sonia	Bronze Leopard Award for Best Actress Nominated"?Gotham Award for Best Cast
2005	'	Margaret Barnell
2012	Won't Back Down	Evelyn Riske
2012	Jackie	Jackie
2013	Untitled Terrence Malick Project

Television

Year	Film	Role	Notes
1989	Roe vs. Wade	Ellen Russell/Jane Doe	Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress " Miniseries or a Movie Nominated "? Golden Globe Award for Best Actress " Miniseries or Television Film
1993	The Positively True Adventures of the Alleged Texas Cheerleader-Murdering Mom	Wanda Holloway	CableACE Award for Best Actress in a Movie or Miniseries Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress " Miniseries or a Movie Nominated "? Golden Globe Award for Best Actress " Miniseries or Television Film
2000	Harlan County War	Ruby Kincaid	Nominated "? Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress " Miniseries or a Movie Nominated "? Golden Globe Award for Best Actress " Miniseries or Television Film Nominated "? Satellite Award for Best Actress " Miniseries or Television Film
	Things You Can Tell Just by Looking at Her	Rebecca Weyman	Segment " "Fantasies About Rebecca" Nominated "? Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress " Miniseries or a Movie
2002	When Billie Beat Bobby	Billie Jean King	Nominated "? Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress " Miniseries or a Movie
2007 " 2010	Saving Grace (TV series)	Grace Hanadarko	Gracie Allen Award for Outstanding Actress "? Drama Series (2007) Nominated "? Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress " Drama Series (2008, 2009) Nominated "? Golden Globe Award for Best Actress " Television Series Drama (2007) Nominated "? Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Drama Series (2007"2009) Nominated "? Saturn Award for Best Actress on Television (2008) Nominated "? People's Choice Award for Favorite TV Drama Diva (2009) Nominated "? Prism Award for Best Performance in a Drama Series Episode (2008) Nominated "? Satellite Award for Best Actress " Television Series Drama (2008)
2013	Top of the Lake (Miniseries)	GJ