Happy Birthday to Oscar-Winning Actress Linda Hunt

Lydia Susanna Hunter was born today, April 2, in 1945. She is better known by her stage name Linda Hunt, and is a film, stage, and television actress. Hunt made her film debut playing Mrs. Oxheart in Popeye (1980).

Hunt's breakthrough came playing the male character Billy Kwan in The Year of Living Dangerously (1982), for which she won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, becoming the first person to win an Oscar portraying a character of the opposite sex.

She has had great success in films such as The Bostonians (1984), Dune (1984), Silverado (1985), Eleni (1985), Waiting for the Moon (1987), She-Devil (1989), Kindergarten Cop (1990), If Looks Could Kill (1991), Rain Without Thunder (1992), Twenty Bucks (1993), Younger and Younger (1993), Prêt-à-Porter (1994), Pocahontas (1995), The Relic (1997), Pocahontas II: Journey to a New World (1998), Dragonfly (2002), Yours Mine and Ours (2005), and Stranger Than Fiction (2006).

Hunt has also had a successful television career. She played Rose in the television movie Basements (1987) and narrated in the television movie The New Chimpanzees. She guest-starred on Hallmark Hall of Fame in both 1978 and 1987, Space Rangers in 1993, Carnivale in both 2003 and 2005, Without a Trace in 2008, The Unit in 2008, and Nip/Tuck in 2009. From 1997 to 2002, Hunt played the recurring role of Judge Zoey Hiller on The Practice. She currently portrays Henrietta "Hetty" Lange on the CBS television series NCIS: Los Angeles, a role she has held since the 2009 debut, for which she has received two Teen Choice Awards. She is also the narrator in the God of War video game franchise.

Hunt was born in Morristown, New Jersey and grew up in Westport, Connecticut. Hunt attended the Interlochen Arts Academy and the Goodman School of Drama in Chicago, Illinois, which is now part of DePaul University.

Hunt has been with psychotherapist Karen Klein since 1978. The two were married in 2008. They currently reside in a historic neighborhood in Hollywood, California with their pet dogs.

As a teenager, Hunt was diagnosed as having hypopituitary dwarfism. A person of short stature, Hunt stands at just 1.45 meters, or 4 feet 9 inches tall.

Hunt is an ambassador for the Best Friends Animal Society.