Linda Hunt

The Man Who Lived Inside Her

Linda Hunt stands four feet, six inches tall. But that figure is the least relevant part of her career. In 1984 she became the first person to win an Oscar for playing a character of the opposite sex.

She played Billy Kwan in The Year of Living Dangerously. Director Peter Weir could not find the ideal actor for the role and decided to try a woman with piercing eyes. She cut her hair and dyed her eyebrows to play that Eurasian photographer in 1960s Indonesia.

The casting was an absolute gamble for the production.

But critics embraced her work. Her performance was neither a caricature nor a makeup trick. Hunt gave the character a humanity that jumped off the screen. That Academy Award changed the rules of the game for actresses who did not fit traditional standards of beauty.

The Authority of Four Feet, Six Inches

Before getting into film, she trained at the Goodman School of Drama in Chicago. Her parents wanted her to study directing because they feared her physique would doom her to unemployment as an actress. But she had other plans. In 1980 she made her big-screen debut in Popeye under the direction of Robert Altman.

And her voice became as famous as her face.

Because Linda Hunt has a deep, commanding voice that the industry knew how to put to use. She narrated the video game series God of War and voiced the Willow Tree in Disney's Pocahontas in 1995. Her ability to convey wisdom and calm made her indispensable in the world of voice acting.

In 2009, she accepted the role that would bring her financial stability and late worldwide fame. She played Hetty Lange in NCIS: Los Angeles. What started as a supporting character became the central pillar of the storyline for more than a decade. Her salary eventually exceeded 80,000 dollars per episode during the seasons with the highest ratings.

A Forced Retreat from the Spotlight

Hunt's personal life has always been private. She lives in a craftsman-style house in Hollywood with her wife, Karen Kline. They married in 2008 after decades together. But her work pace came to a drastic halt in 2018 due to a car accident.

A collision with two parked cars left her with injuries that kept her out of the spotlight for months. The writers of her series had to come up with international storylines to explain her absence from the set. She only returned for occasional moments and necessary farewells.

In May 2023, the final episode of the series aired after fourteen years on air.

The production closed its offices at Paramount Studios after 323 episodes were filmed.