Helen Hunt

Infobox actor


imagesize = 250px
caption = Hunt at the Elgin Theatre for the 2007 Toronto International Film Festival screening of "Then She Found Me"
birthdate = birth date and age|1963|6|15
birthplace = Culver City, California, USA
birthname = Helen Elizabeth Hunt
spouse = Hank Azaria (1999-2000)
domesticpartner = Matthew Carnahan (2001-present)
academyawards = Best Actress
1997 "As Good as It Gets"
emmyawards = Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series
1996, 1997, 1998, 1999 "Mad About You"
goldenglobeawards =
1994, 1995, 1997 "Mad About You"
Best Actress - Motion Picture Musical/Comedy
1998 "As Good as It Gets"
sagawards = Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role
1997 "As Good as It Gets"

Helen Elizabeth Hunt (born June 15, 1963) is an American Emmy-, Golden Globe-, and Academy Award-winning actress & director, widely known for her role in the television sitcom "Mad About You" and her Academy Award-winning role in "As Good As It Gets". She has starred in several Hollywood films, including "Twister, Cast Away, What Women Want", and "Pay It Forward".

Biography

Early life

Hunt was born in Culver City, California, the daughter of Jane Elizabeth (née Novis), a photographer, and Gordon Hunt, a film director and acting coach.tcmdb name|id=90846|name=Helen Hunt] [ [http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~battle/celeb/hunt.htm "Helen Hunt genealogy"] . Rootsweb.com.] Her uncle, Peter H. Hunt, is also a director, and her maternal grandmother, Dorothy Fries (née Anderson) was a voice coach. [ [http://www.filmreference.com/film/73/Helen-Hunt.html "Helen Hunt biography"] . Film Reference.com.] Hunt is of Jewish (from her paternal grandmother)cite news|last=Robinson|first=George|coauthors=|title=Then She Found Me’|pages=|publisher=The New York Jewish Week|date=2008-02-13|url=http://www.thejewishweek.com/viewArticle/c234_a4474/Special_Sections/Arts_Preview.html|accessdate=2008-04-24] and Methodist background.cite news|last=Cohn|first=Robert A.|coauthors=|title=Paul Reiser kicks off book fest|pages=|publisher=St. Louis Jewish Light|date=2007-11-07|url=http://www.stljewishlight.com/topstories/290240140354285.php|accessdate=2007-11-08] Hunt spent part of her childhood in New York City and later attended the University of California at Los Angeles. [ [http://movies.yahoo.com/movie/contributor/1800020347/bio Helen Hunt Biography - Yahoo! Movies ] ]

Career

Hunt began working in the 1970s as a child actress. 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, and a regular role in the television series "The Swiss Family Robinson". She appeared as a marijuana-smoking classmate on an episode of "The Facts of Life". She also appeared as a young woman who, while on PCP, jumps out of a second-story window in a 1982 after school special called "Desperate Lives" (a scene which she mocked during a Saturday Night Live monologue in 1994). [ [http://snltranscripts.jt.org/93/93pmono.phtml Helen Hunt's Monologue ] ] In the mid-1980s, she had a recurring role on "St. Elsewhere" as Clancy Williams, girlfriend of Dr. Jack "Boomer" Morrison. She remains best known for one of her earliest roles as Jennie in , costarring Mickey Rooney.

In the 1990s, after the lead female role in the short-lived "My Life and Times", Hunt became well-known to television audiences in "Mad About You", winning Emmy Awards for her performance in 1996, 1997, 1998, and 1999. Hunt has also had a successful film career, with roles in movies such as "Cast Away" and the 1996 blockbuster "Twister".

In 1998 Hunt won an Academy Award for Best Actress for her portrayal of Carol Connelly, a waitress and single mother who finds herself falling in love with Melvin Udall, an obsessive-compulsive romance novelist played by Jack Nicholson in the movie "As Good as It Gets". After winning the Academy Award she took several years off from movie work to play Viola in Shakespeare's "Twelfth Night" at Lincoln Center in New York City.ibdb name|id=45974|name=Helen Hunt]

In 2000, Hunt returned to the screen 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. In 2003, she returned to Broadway in Yasmina Reza's "Life x 3". Hunt was also a final candidate for the role of "Clarice Starling" in Hannibal, after Jodie Foster decided not to reprise her Oscar winning role from The Silence of the Lambs. However, Hunt lost the role to Julianne Moore at the last minute. In 2006, Hunt appeared in a small role in the film "Bobby".

Hunt is a director, having helmed 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.

She currently owns a production company with Connie Tavel, Hunt/Tavel Productions under Sony Pictures Entertainment.

Personal life

Hunt was married to actor Hank Azaria from 1999 until 2000. Then she briefly dated fellow actor Kevin Spacey in 2000 [cite news | title=Helen Hunt dating Kevin Spacey | url=http://www.cinema.com/news/item/458/helen-hunt-dating-kevin-spacey.phtml] .She has been in a relationship with Matthew Carnahan since 2001 and they have a daughter, Makena Lei Gordon Carnahan, born in 2004. [http://www.eonline.com/News/Items/0,1,14161,00.html Helen Hunt: It's a Girl!] , a May 2004 E! Online article (wayback|http://www.eonline.com/News/Items/0,1,14161,00.html)]

Filmography and awards

Hunt has been recognized extensively in her career. In 1998 she joined Liza Minnelli and Helen Mirren as the three actresses to win 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. [http://www.emmys.com Academy of Television Arts & Sciences"] . Emmys.com.] She is the only actress to have won four consecutive Emmys and four Blockbuster Entertainment Awards.Fact|date=December 2007

Television

Film

References

External links

*imdb|0000166

Persondata
NAME= Hunt, Helen
ALTERNATIVE NAMES= Hunt, Helen Elizabeth
SHORT DESCRIPTION= Actress
DATE OF BIRTH= June 15, 1963
PLACE OF BIRTH= Culver City, California
DATE OF DEATH=
PLACE OF DEATH=