Linda Hunt (born April 2, 1945) is an American film, stage and television actress. She is perhaps best known for her Academy Award-winning role in 1982's The Year of Living Dangerously.

Biography

Early life

Hunt was born in Morristown, New Jersey, the daughter of Elsie (née Doying), a piano teacher who taught at the Westport School of Music and accompanied the Saugatuck Congregational Church choir, and Raymond Davy Hunt, the long-time vice president of Harper Fuel Oil in Long Island. She has a sister, Marcia. She was also born with Turner syndrome, a genetic condition characterized by partial or total absence of the second sex chromosome.

Career

Hunt's film debut occurred in 1980 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 a male Chinese-Australian photographer Hunt won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress in 1983, becoming the first actor to win an Oscar for playing a character of the opposite sex.

Also a well known stage actress, Hunt has received two Obie awards and a Tony Award nomination for her theatre work. She created the role of Aunt Dan in Wallace Shawn's play Aunt Dan and Lemon. Recently, she portrayed Sister Aloysius in the Pasadena Playhouse production of John Patrick Shanley's Tony Award-winning play Doubt. Her television appearances include a recurring role as Judge Zoey Hiller on David E. Kelley's series The Practice.

Beside her acting abilities, Hunt is distinguished by her small stature (she is 4' 9" or 1.45 m), and her rich, resonant voice, which she has used effectively in numerous documentaries, cartoons, and commercials. She is the on-air host for City Arts & Lectures, a radio program recorded by KQED public radio. Hunt was chosen by Walt Disney Feature Animation to lend her enigmatic speaking and singing voice to Grandmother Willow in the film Pocahontas. Her voice work also includes the character of "Management" in the US TV series Carnivàle, and Gaia, who serves as the Narrator in the video games God of War and God of War II. She also narrates the introductory film at the International Spy Museum in Washington, DC.

Filmography

Year	Film	Role	Other notes
1980	Popeye	Mrs. Oxheart
1982	The Year of Living Dangerously	Billy Kwan	Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress; Nominated - Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress - Motion Picture
1984	Dune	Shadout Mapes
	The Bostonians	Dr. Prance
1985	Eleni	Katina
	Silverado	Stella
1987	Waiting for the Moon	Alice B. Toklas
1989	She-Devil	Hooper
1990	Kindergarten Cop	Miss Schlowski
	Carmilla	Narrator
1991	If Looks Could Kill	Ilsa Grunt
1992	Rain Without Thunder	Atwood Society Director
1993	Younger and Younger	Frances
	Twenty Bucks	Angeline
1994	Prêt-à-Porter	Regina Krumm
1995	Pocahontas	Grandmother Willow	voice
1997	The Relic	Dr. Ann Cuthbert
	Eat Your Heart Out	Kathryn
1998	Pocahontas II: Journey to a New World	Grandmother Willow	voice
2002	Dragonfly	Sister Madeline
2005	Auschwitz -- Inside the Nazi State	Narrator	voice
	Yours, Mine and Ours	Mrs. Munion
	God of War	Narrator	VG - voice
	The Great Transatlantic Cable	Narrator
2006	Stranger Than Fiction	Dr. Mittag-Leffler
2007	The Singing Revolution	Narrator
	God of War II	Narrator/Gaia	VG - voice
2008	God of War: Chains of Olympus	Narrator/Gaia	VG - voice

Selected television credits

Year	Title	Role	Other notes
1978	Fame	Mona
1993	Space Rangers	Cmdr. Chennault
1997-2002	The Practice	Judge Zoey Hiller	24 episodes
2003-2005	Carnivàle	Management - voice	9 episodes
2006	Nature	Narrator	"Christmas in Yellowstone"
2007	The Unit
2008	Without a Trace	FBI Psychiatrist

References

External links

• Linda Hunt at the Internet Movie Database
• Linda Hunt at City Arts & Lectures