- Born
- Birth nameHelen Elizabeth Hunt
- Height5′ 7″ (1.70 m)
- Helen Hunt was born in Culver City, California. Her father was director and acting coach Gordon Hunt, and Helen started acting when she was a child. Her first role was in the TV movie Pioneer Woman (1973). She made many appearances in TV movies and shows for years and was cast in the sitcom It Takes Two (1982). She also appeared in feature films such as Peggy Sue Got Married (1986) and Project X (1987).
From 1992 to 1999, Hunt starred in the sitcom Mad About You (1992), winning four Emmy Awards for Lead Actress in a Comedy Series. She also found success in movies during this time. She starred in the film Twister (1996) and then won an Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance in As Good as It Gets (1997). In 2000, she starred in Pay It Forward (2000), What Women Want (2000), and Cast Away (2000).
Hunt made her directorial debut with the film Then She Found Me (2007). She was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress after her performance in The Sessions (2012).
- IMDb mini biography by: Patrick Lin
- SpouseHank Azaria(July 17, 1999 - December 18, 2000) (divorced)
- Children
- ParentsJane Elizabeth Novis
- RelativesPeter H. Hunt(Aunt or Uncle)Barbette Tweed(Aunt or Uncle)Dorothy Novis(Grandparent)
- Hunt won four Emmys, four Golden Globes, a Blockbuster Award, two Screen Actors Guild awards, four American Comedy Awards, three Viewers for Quality Television Awards and an Oscar, along with other awards. She is only the second actress to win a Golden Globe, an Oscar, and an Emmy in the same calendar year. The first was Liza Minnelli in 1973.
- She and her Mad About You (1992) co-star, Paul Reiser, were both given $1,000,000 per episode salaries for the 1999 TV season.
- Celebrates Thanksgiving every year with Anthony Edwards.
- Witnessed the World Trade Center attacks from the roof of her brand new New York apartment and decided to leave the city right away, but could not get a flight out. She booked a private jet at considerable expense and flew herself and her staff out of Connecticut three days later, the first day they allowed private jets to fly.
- Got the lead in As Good as It Gets (1997) after Holly Hunter turned it down.
- To tell you the truth, I don't have any expensive tastes. I'm just as happy going to a beach and sitting in the sun today as I was ten years ago. I wouldn't feel comfortable if I drove there in a Bentley convertible.
- I'm not very sexy or glamorous! I have this girl next door kind of look and I have to do the best I can with that.
- On a professional level, an Oscar means that your salary suddenly increases by a few million and you get offered a lot more movies which in the past you had to beg to have a chance to read for.
- You're not in control of anything. You're not even like a painter, who can say "I'm just going to go into my studio and do my work, and if nobody wants to buy it, well, maybe they will when I'm dead". You can't even do that. You're waiting for somebody to hand you a part. You're in this wildly dependent position.
- Not having incredible success for a long time probably helped. Of course some 20-year-old beautiful girl, who goes from barely acting to being on the cover [of magazines] ... that's going to be disorienting and confusing, and people can't really be surprised if they have a skewed perspective of their importance in the world, when everyone comes together and tells them they're the most important thing in the world, then hates them for believing it. I didn't go through that. So that was lucky.
- Mad About You (1992) - $1,000,000 per episode (last season)
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