Linda Hunt

Lydia Susanna Hunt (born April 2, 1945), better known by her stage name Linda Hunt, is an American actress. After making her film debut playing Mrs. Oxheart in Popeye (1980), Hunt's breakthrough came playing the male character Billy Kwan in The Year of Living Dangerously (1982), for which she won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, becoming the first person to win an Oscar portraying a character of the opposite sex.
She has had great success in films such as The Bostonians (1984), Dune (1984), Silverado (1985), Eleni (1985), Waiting for the Moon (1987), She-Devil (1989), Kindergarten Cop (1990), If Looks Could Kill (1991), Rain Without Thunder (1992), Twenty Bucks (1993), Younger and Younger (1993), Prêt-à-Porter (1994), Pocahontas (1995), The Relic (1997), Pocahontas II: Journey to a New World (1998), Dragonfly (2002), Yours Mine and Ours (2005), and Stranger than Fiction (2006).
Hunt has also had a successful television career. She played Rose in the television movie Basements (1987) and narrated in the television movie The New Chimpanzees. She guest-starred on Hallmark Hall of Fame in both 1978 and 1987, Space Rangers in 1993, Carnivale in both 2003 and 2005, Without a Trace in 2008, The Unit in 2008, and Nip Tuck in 2009. From 1997 to 2002, Hunt played the recurring role of Judge Zoey Hiller on The Practice. She currently portrays Henrietta "Hetty" Lange on the CBS television series NCIS: Los Angeles, a role she has played since 2009, for which she has received two Teen Choice Awards. She is also the narrator for the Greek era of the God of War video game franchise.
== Early life ==
Hunt was born on April 2, 1945, in Morristown, New Jersey. Her father, Raymond Davy Hunt (1902–1985), was vice president of Harper Fuel Oil. Her mother, Elsie Doying Hunt (1903 - ~1994), was a piano teacher who taught at the Westport School of Music, and performed with the Saugatuck Congregational Church Choir in Westport, Connecticut, where Hunt was raised.[2] She has one sibling, an older sister named Marcia (b. 1940). [3] Hunt attended the Interlochen Arts Academy[4] and the Goodman School of Drama in Chicago, Illinois, which is now part of DePaul University.[5][6]
== Career ==
=== Film ===
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 Billy Kwan, 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. In addition, the character was Asian and had the condition of dwarfism.[7] In her screen test, Hunt wore a hairpiece, a fake moustache, and "paste-on pieces above her eyes to [appear] Asian". To accomplish the role during production, Hunt shortened "her hair and dye[d] it black[,] wore padding around her waist, shaved her eyebrows, and carried something in her shirt pocket."[8] In her 1986 interview with the Bomb magazine, Hunt remarked that Billy Kwan "is supra-personal [with] layers of sexual ambiguity[.]"[9]
Hunt also played a nurse in She-Devil (1989) and the austere school principal opposite Arnold Schwarzenegger in Kindergarten Cop in 1990. Hunt played the assassin Ilsa Grunt in If Looks Could Kill (1991) opposite Richard Grieco and Roger Rees.
=== Theatre ===
Hunt was a well-known stage actress before she entered film and television. She made her Broadway debut in a 1975 production of Ah, Wilderness.[10] She was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play for her work in the 1984 play End of the World. She also received two ensemble Obie Awards for her work Off-Broadway in Top Girls and A Metamorphosis in Miniature.[11]She created the role of Aunt Dan in Wallace Shawn's play Aunt Dan and Lemon. She was a member of the Long Wharf TheatreCompany in Connecticut. There she played the Player Queen in a production of Hamlet, among other roles. She portrayed Sister Aloysius in the Pasadena Playhouse production of John Patrick Shanley's play Doubt. She was praised for her performance as the title character in Bertolt Brecht's Mother Courage and Her Children.[12] Hunt also appeared as Pope Joan in Caryl Churchill's Top Girls when London's Royal Court Theatre's production was staged at the Public Theater in New York. In an interview with writer Craig Gholson and actor Vincent Caristi, Hunt discussed her experience acting in theatre, "Acting onstage is like an explosion each night. And what comes in at you all the time as you are trying to . . . create something which is a tremendous act of organization and concentration.".[9]
=== Television ===
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. Since 2009, she has co-starred as Operations Manager Henrietta "Hetty" Lange, on the CBS show NCIS: Los Angeles with Chris O'Donnell, LL Cool J, Daniela Ruah, Eric Christian Olsen, and Barrett Foa.
=== Voice work ===
Hunt has a 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 at the Nourse Theater in San Francisco,[13] a program that presents interviews with celebrated writers, artists, and thinkers addressing contemporary ideas and values, often discussing the creative process. Hunt was chosen by Walt Disney Feature Animation to lend her enigmatic speaking and singing voice to Grandmother Willow in the animated musical film Pocahontas and its direct-to-video sequel Pocahontas II: Journey to a New World.
Her voice work also includes the character of Management in Carnivàle, and the narrator for the Greek era of the God of War series of video games, in which she also voiced the Titan Gaia in 2007's God of War II (in that game, Gaia and the narrator were the same person). She narrated the introductory film at the International Spy Museum in Washington, D.C., and has also been heard in various commercials of the late 1990s for Tylenol.[citation needed]
Hunt narrated the PBS Nature special entitled Christmas in Yellowstone.[14] She also narrated the National Geographic documentary The Great Indian Railway.
== Personal life ==
Hunt has been in a relationship with psychotherapist Karen Kline[15] since 1978. The two were married in 2008. They currently reside in a historic neighborhood in Hollywood, California, with their pet dogs, in an early 20th century American Craftsman stylehome.[16][17][18]
As a teenager, Hunt was diagnosed as having hypopituitary dwarfism. Hunt stands at 1.45 meters, or 4 feet 9 inches tall.[19]
Hunt is an ambassador for the Best Friends Animal Society.[20]
== Filmography ==
Year	Film 	Role 	Notes
1980	Popeye 	Mrs. Holly Oxheart 	
1982	The Year of Living Dangerously 	Billy Kwan 	Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress
Australian Film Institute Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role
Boston Society of Film Critics Award for Best Supporting Actress
Kansas City Film Critics Circle Award for Best Supporting Actress (tie with Mia Farrow for Zelig)
Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting Actress
National Board of Review Award for Best Supporting Actress
New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Supporting Actress
Nominated—Australian Film Institute Jury Prize (shared with Peter Weir)
Nominated—Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress – Motion Picture
Nominated—National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Supporting Actress
1984	Dune 	Shadout Mapes 	
1984	The Bostonians 	Dr. Charlotte Prance 	
1985	Eleni 	Katina 	
1985	Silverado 	Stella 	
1987	Waiting for the Moon 	Alice B. Toklas 	
1989	She-Devil 	Hooper 	
1990	Kindergarten Cop 	Miss Ingrid Schlowski 	
1990	Carmilla 	Narrator 	
1991	If Looks Could Kill 	Ilsa Grunt 	
1992	Rain Without Thunder 	Atwood Society Director	
1993	Younger and Younger 	Frances 	
1993	Twenty Bucks 	Angeline 	
1994	Prêt-à-Porter 	Regina Krumm 	National Board of Review Award for Best Acting Ensemble
1995	Pocahontas 	Grandmother Willow 	Voice
1997	The Relic 	Dr. Ann Cuthbert 	
1997	Eat Your Heart Out 	Kathryn 	
1998	Pocahontas II: Journey to a New World 	Grandmother Willow 	Voice
2002	Dragonfly 	Sister Madeline 	
2005	Auschwitz: The Nazis and the 'Final Solution'	Narrator 	Voice
2005	Yours, Mine and Ours 	Mrs. Edna Munion 	
2005	The Great Transatlantic Cable 	Narrator 	
2006	Stranger Than Fiction 	Dr. Jill Mittag-Leffler	
2007	The Singing Revolution 	Narrator 	
2018	Solo: A Star Wars Story 	Lady Proxima 	Voice
=== Video games ===
* God of War as Narrator
* God of War II as Gaia/Narrator
* God of War: Chains of Olympus as Narrator
* God of War III as Narrator
* God of War: Ghost of Sparta as Narrator
* God of War: Ascension as Narrator
=== Television credits ===
Year 	Title 	Role 	Notes
1978 	Fame 	Mona 	
1987 	Basements 	Rose Hudd 	Segment: "The Room"—director: Robert Altman
1987 	The Room Upstairs 	Mrs. Felicia Sanders 	TV movie
1993 	Space Rangers 	Commander Chenault 	
1997–2002 	The Practice 	Judge Zoey Hiller 	24 episodes
1998–2006 	The American Experience 	Narrator 	
2003 	Before We Ruled the Earth	Narrator 	
2003–2005 	Carnivàle 	Management—voice 	9 episodes
2006 	Nature 	Narrator 	Episode: "Christmas in Yellowstone"
2007 	The Unit 	Dr. Eudora Hobbs 	2 episodes
2008 	Without a Trace 	Dr. Claire Bryson 	3 episodes
2009–present	NCIS: Los Angeles 	Henrietta "Hetty" Lange	Starring Role
2011, 2012 	Teen Choice Awards 	Herself 	Teen Choice Award for Choice TV Actress Action
2014 	Scorpion 	Henrietta "Hetty" Lange	Episode: "True Colors"