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Helen Elizabeth Hunt (born June 15, 1963) is an American Emmy-, Golden Globe-, and Academy Award-winning actress, 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, What Women Want, and Pay It Forward. A pretty, effervescent blonde player, Helen Hunt is the daughter of acting coach and director Gordon Hunt. Born in Culver City, CA, she moved with her family to NYC for six years where she was exposed to theater. When her family returned to L.A., Hunt had decided she wanted to be an actress. Her first job was in the TV-movie "Pioneer Woman" (ABC, 1973), as the daughter of Joanna Pettet. Hunt landed her first spot as a series regular playing the daughter of a policewoman (Jessica Walter) on "Amy Prentiss" (NBC, 1974-75). She continued playing daughters ("Swiss Family Robinson", ABC 1975-76; "It Takes Two" ABC, 1982-83) or girls-next-door ("The Fitzpatricks", CBS 1977-78) in series TV, guest appearances ("Family") and TV-movies ("Angel Dusted", NBC 1981). Her lead performance in the CBS TV-movie "Quarterback Princess" (1983) earned her praise. One of Hunt's first adult roles was as the girlfriend of Dr. Jack Morrison (David Morse) on the acclaimed NBC drama series "St. Elsewhere". She played the title role in "Murder in New Hampshire: The Pamela Smart Story" (1991) about a school teacher arrested along with her 16-year-old lover for the murder of her husband. Hunt received some of her best notices to date (as well as several awards including two Emmys) as Jamie Buchman in the weekly comedy series "Mad About You" (NBC, 1992-99), co-starring with Paul Reiser as a couple facing the ups and downs of marriage. 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. Her uncle, Peter H. Hunt, is also a director, and her maternal grandmother, Dorothy Fries (née Anderson) was a voice coach. Hunt is of Jewish (from her paternal grandmother) and Methodist background. Hunt spent part of her childhood in New York City and later attended the University of California at Los Angeles. 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). 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 "Bill: On His Own", costarring "Mickey Rooney", On the big screen, Hunt made her debut in "Rollercoaster" (1977), played Sarah Jessica Parker's goofy friend in "Girls Just Want to Have Fun" (1985) and Kathleen Turner's teenaged daughter in Francis Ford Coppola's "Peggy Sue Got Married" (1986). She brought spunk to her role as an animal trainer in "Project X" (1987), was wasted as Patrick Swayze's wife in "Next of Kin" (1989) and delivered a delicately nuanced, richly observed portrayal of a married editor of a writer crippled in a climbing accident who becomes romantically involved with him in Neil Jimenez's "The Waterdance" (1992). 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 1992, her "Quarterback Princess" co-star Tim Robbins directed her in a cameo in his political satire "Bob Roberts" and she won praise as a smart-mouthed young agent of Buddy Young Jr (Billy Crystal) in "Mr. Saturday Night" (1992). After a turn as David Caruso's wife in Barbet Schroeder's "Kiss of Death" (1995), Hunt had her biggest screen hit with Jan De Bont's "Twister" (1996). Hunt looked great in a tank top but also brought a strong presence and believable intelligence to her role as a scientist tracking tornadoes with her estranged husband (Bill Paxton). She earned glowing reviews and netted a Best Actress Oscar for her turn as a single mother and waitress who becomes involved with Jack Nicholson's curmudgeon in "As Good As It Gets" (1997). 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 the Lincoln Center in New York City. On the strength of this performance, Hunt was cast as the leading lady in a slew of movies in 2000, playing opposite Kevin Spacey, Richard Gere, Mel Gibson and Tom Hanks. In 2000, Hunt returned to the screen in four films: Dr. T & the Women with Richard Gere, Pay It Forward with Kevin Spacey & Haley Joel Osment, What Women Want with Mel Gibson, and Cast Away with Tom Hanks. In 2001, she starred opposited Woody Allen in "Curse of the Jade Scorpion," and in 2002 was busy developing several projects under her Hunt/Tavel Productions company, these with Hunt in a leading, rather than romantic supporting role. 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. Hunt was married to actor Hank Azaria from 1999 until 2000. She has been in a relationship with Matthew Carnahan since 2001 and they have a daughter, Makena Lei Gordon Carnahan, born in 2004. 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. She is the only actress to win four consecutive Emmys and to win four Blockbuster Entertainment Awards. |
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