Short Biography

Holly P. Hunter (born March 20, 1958) is an Oscar-winning American actress, best-known for films such as Raising Arizona, Broadcast News and The Piano. She`s also well known for starring in the cable television series Saving Grace.

Biography

Early life and career

Hunter was born in Conyers, Georgia, the daughter of Opal Marguerite (née Catledge), a housewife, and Charles Edwin Hunter, a farmer and sporting-goods manufacturer`s representative. Hunter earned a degree in drama from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, after which she moved to New York City and roomed with fellow actress Frances McDormand. Hunter in 2008 described living in The Bronx "at the end of the D [subway] train, just off 205th Street, on Bainbridge Avenue and Hull Avenue. It was very Irish, and then you could go just a few blocks away and hit major Italian". A chance encounter with playwright Beth Henley, when the two were trapped alone in an elevator, led to Hunter`s being cast in Henley`s plays Crimes of the Heart (succeeding Mary Beth Hurt on Broadway), and Off-Broadway`s The Miss Firecracker Contest. "It was like the beginning of 1982. It was on 49th Street between Broadway and Eighth on the south side of the street", Hunter recalled in an interview. "[We were trapped] 10 minutes; not long. We actually had a nice conversation. It was just the two of us".

When she moved to Los Angeles, California, in 1982, Hunter shared a house with a group of people that included McDormand and director Sam Raimi, as well as future collaborators Joel and Ethan Coen.


Stage and film

Hunter made her screen debut in the 1981 horror movie The Burning. After moving to Los Angeles, California in 1982, Hunter appeared in TV-movies before being cast in a supporting role in 1984`s Swing Shift. The year, she had her first collaboration with the writing-directing-producing team of brothers Ethan Coen and Joel Coen, in Blood Simple, making an uncredited appearance as a voice on an answering-machine recording. More film and television work followed until 1987, when thanks to a starring role in the Coens` Raising Arizona and her Academy Award-nominated turn in Broadcast News, Hunter became a critically acclaimed star. She went on to the screen adaptation of Henley`s Miss Firecracker; Steven Spielberg`s Always, a romantic drama with Richard Dreyfuss; and the made-for-TV docudrama about the titular Supreme Court abortion case, Roe vs. Wade (1989)

Following her second collaboration with Dreyfuss, in Once Around (1991), Hunter garnered critical appreciation for her work in three 1993 films, two of which resulted in her being nominated for two Academy Awards the same year: Hunter`s performance in The Firm won her a nomination as Best Supporting Actress, while her portrayal of a mute Scottish woman entangled in a treacherous affair with Harvey Keitel in Jane Campion`s The Piano won her the Best Actress award. Hunter went on to appear in such poorly received films as the comedy-drama Home for the Holidays (1995) and the thriller Copycat (1995) Her work in David Cronenberg`s Crash (1996) did win her strong notices, but it was swallowed by the controversies surrounding the film, and her appearance as a sardonic angel in A Life Less Ordinary (1997) suffered a similar fate. The following year, she played a recently divorced New Yorker in Richard LaGravenese`s Living Out Loud; starring alongside Danny DeVito, Queen Latifah, and Martin Donovan, Hunte

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