Linda Hunt

Linda Hunt, born Lydia Susanna Hunt on April 2, 1945, in Morristown, New Jersey, is an American actress whose career spans stage, film, and television. She was raised in Westport, Connecticut, where her mother, Elsie Doying Hunt, taught piano at the Westport School of Music and sang with the Saugatuck Congregational Church Choir. Her father, Raymond Davy Hunt, served as vice president of Harper Fuel Oil. Hunt has one sibling, an older sister named Marcia, born in 1940. As a teenager, she was diagnosed with hypopituitary dwarfism and stands 4 feet 9 inches tall. She attended the Interlochen Arts Academy before earning her degree from the Goodman School of Drama at the Art Institute of Chicago, now part of DePaul University.

Hunt established herself as a stage actress before transitioning to film and television. Her Broadway career ran from 1975 to 1984, beginning with the 1975 revival of Ah, Wilderness! Her Broadway work culminated in End of the World in 1984, for which she received a Tony Award nomination for Best Actress in a Play. Beyond Broadway, Hunt received two ensemble Obie Awards for her Off-Broadway performances in Top Girls and A Metamorphosis in Miniature. She originated the role of Aunt Dan in Wallace Shawn's Aunt Dan and Lemon and was a member of the Long Wharf Theatre Company in Connecticut, where her roles included the Player Queen in Hamlet. She portrayed Sister Aloysius in the Pasadena Playhouse production of John Patrick Shanley's Doubt and performed the title role in Bertolt Brecht's Mother Courage and Her Children. She also appeared as Pope Joan in Caryl Churchill's Top Girls when the Royal Court Theatre's London production transferred to the Public Theater in New York.

Hunt made her film debut in Robert Altman's 1980 musical comedy Popeye, playing Mrs. Oxheart. Two years later, she co-starred as the male character Billy Kwan in Peter Weir's The Year of Living Dangerously, a role that required her to dye and cut her hair short, shave her eyebrows, and wear padding, makeup, and prosthetic elements to alter her appearance. Her performance earned her the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress in 1983, making her the first person to win an Oscar for portraying a character of the opposite sex. Subsequent film credits include the Shadout Mapes in Dune (1984), Silverado (1985), Eleni (1985), the school principal Miss Schlowski in Kindergarten Cop (1990), assassin Ilsa Grunt in If Looks Could Kill (1991), and a role in Stranger Than Fiction (2006). She also voiced Grandmother Willow in the animated film Pocahontas (1995) and reprised that role in the direct-to-video sequel Pocahontas II: Journey to a New World (1998).

On television, Hunt played the recurring role of Judge Zoey Hiller on The Practice from 1997 to 2002 and Commander Chennault on the science fiction series Space Rangers. She also appeared as Dr. Claire Bryson on Without a Trace and has narrated multiple installments of The American Experience on PBS. From 2009 to 2023, she portrayed Operations Manager Henrietta "Hetty" Lange on the CBS series NCIS: Los Angeles, a role she held as a main cast member for twelve seasons before transitioning to a special guest star position in season thirteen due to precautions related to the COVID-19 pandemic. Her co-stars on the series included Chris O'Donnell, LL Cool J, Daniela Ruah, Eric Christian Olsen, Miguel Ferrer, and Barrett Foa. In July 2018, Hunt was involved in a multi-car accident in Los Angeles that resulted in nearly a year away from the production. She won two Teen Choice Awards for her work on the series.

Hunt's voice work extends across documentaries, animation, and video games. She narrated the National Geographic documentary The Great Indian Railway in 1995 and the Discovery Channel documentary Titanic: Untold Stories in 1998, as well as a PBS Nature special, Christmas in Yellowstone, in 2006. She voiced the character of Management in the television series Carnivàle and served as narrator for the God of War video game series. Hunt also serves as on-air host for City Arts and Lectures, a radio program recorded by KQED at the Nourse Theater in San Francisco. In her personal life, Hunt has been in a relationship with psychotherapist Karen Kline since 1978; the two married in 2008. Hunt is an ambassador for the Best Friends Animal Society.