Holly Hunter

    Actor, Producer, Additional Crew

    Birthdate: Mar 20, 1958

    Birthplace: Conyers, Georgia, USA

    Holly Hunter was born in Conyers, Georgia, to Opal Marguerite (Catledge), a homemaker, and Charles Edwin Hunter, a part-time sporting goods company representative and farmer with a 250 acre farm. She is the youngest of seven children. Her parents encouraged her talent at an early age, and her first acting part was as Helen Keller in a fifth-grade play. In 1976 she went to Pittsburgh to pursue a degree in drama from Carnegie Mellon University. After graduating in 1980, she went to New York City, where she met playwright Beth Henley in a stalled elevator. Hunter went on to get roles in a number of Henley's southern Gothic plays, including Crimes of the Heart and The Miss Firecracker Contest. In 1982 the actress went to Los Angeles. She landed her first starring role in the movies in the Coen brothers' Raising Arizona (1987), a part that is said to have been written with her in mind. She gained stardom in 1987 when she played the driven TV news producer Jane Craig in James L. Brooks' Broadcast News (1987). In 1993 she earned an Academy Award and worldwide acclaim with her performance as a mute bride to a New Zealand planter in The Piano (1993).

    Known For

    Broadcast News
    Broadcast News

    (1987)

    The Piano
    The Piano

    (1993)

    Thirteen
    Thirteen

    (2003)

    Holly Hunter Movies

    actor

    Collapse

    Previous (38)

    • 2022 |
      Jane Campion: The Cinema Woman
    • 2020 |
      My Darling Vivian
    • 2018 |

      Incredibles 2

      asHelen Parr
    • 2017 |
      Breakable You
    • 2017 |

      Paradise

    • 2016 |
      Strange Weather
    • 2017 |

      The Big Sick

      asBeth
    • 2017 |

      Song to Song

      asMiranda
    • 2016 |

      Jackie

    • 2016 |

      Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice

      asSenator Finch
    • 2014 |
      Manglehorn
    • 2013 |
      From the Bottom of the Lake
    • 2012 |

      Won’t Back Down

    • 2011 |
      Portraits in Dramatic Time
    • 2005 |
      The Big White
    • 2004 |

      The Incredibles

      asHelen Parr
    • 2004 |
      Little Black Book
    • 2003 |
      Rock That Uke
    • 2003 |
      Thirteen
    • 2003 |
      Levity
    • 2000 |
      Things You Can Tell Just by Looking at Her
    • 2000 |
      O Brother, Where Art Thou?
    • 1999 |
      Woman Wanted
    • 1998 |
      Living Out Loud
    • 1997 |
      A Life Less Ordinary
    • 1996 |
      Crash
    • 1996 |

      Crash

      asHelen Remington
    • 1995 |

      Home for the Holidays

    • 1995 |
      Copycat
    • 1993 |
      The Piano
    • 1993 |
      The Firm
    • 1991 |
      Once Around
    • 1989 |
      Always
    • 1989 |
      Animal Behavior
    • 1989 |
      Miss Firecracker
    • 1987 |
      Broadcast News
    • 1987 |
      Raising Arizona
    • 1984 |
      Swing Shift