Goldie Hawn Biography

Summary

"Goldie Jean Hawn" (born November 21 1945) is an Academy Award-winning American actress, director and producer. She is known for starring in a series of successful film comedies during the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s. Her daughter is Kate Hudson, who is also an Oscar-nominated actress. Her son, Oliver Hudson, is a television and film actor as well.

Early life

Hawn was born in Washington, DC, to Edward Rutledge Hawn (a band musician who played at major events in Washington) and Laura Steinhoff (a jewelery shop/ dance school owner); she has a sister, Patricia, and had a brother, Edward, who died before she was born. She was raised in Takoma Park, Maryland. Her father, a descendant of Edward Rutledge (a signer of the Declaration of Independence), was a Presbyterian of part German and part Dutch descent. Her mother was Jewish-American, the daughter of Max Steinhoff and Fanny Weiss, immigrants from Hungary; Hawn was raised in the Jewish religion, although she attended church and the family did celebrate Christmas.

Hawn began taking ballet and tap dance lessons at the age of three, and

danced in the chorus of the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo production of "The Nutcracker" in 1955. She made her stage debut in 1961, playing Juliet in a Virginia Stage Company production of "Romeo and Juliet". By 1964, she ran and instructed a ballet school, having dropped out of American University, where she was majoring in drama.

In 1964, Hawn, who graduated from Montgomery Blair High School(Class of 1963), made her professional dancing debut in a production of "Can-Can" at the Texas Pavilion of the New York World's Fair. She began working as a professional dancer a year later, and appeared as a go-go dancer in New York City.

Career

1960s

Hawn began her acting career as a cast member of the short-lived situation comedy "Good Morning, World" during the 1967-1968 television season, her role being that of the girlfriend of a radio disc jockey, with a stereotypical 'dumb blonde' personality. Her next role which brought her to international attention was as one of the regular cast members on the 1960s sketch comedy show, "Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In". On the show, she would often break out into high-pitched giggles in the middle of a joke, and deliver a polished performance a moment after. Noted equally for her chipper attitude as for her bikini and painted body, Hawn personified something of a 1960s 'It' girl. This persona was parlayed into three popular film appearances in the late 1960s and early 1970s: "Butterflies are Free", "There's a Girl in My Soup" and "Cactus Flower". Hawn won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her work in "Cactus Flower" (1969), which was her first film role and which co-starred Walter Matthau and Ingrid Bergman.

1970s-1990s

Hawn remained a popular figure in entertainment into the 1970s and 1980s, appearing in many films (generally comedies), and moving into film production as well. She gathered great respect as a comedy actress and was nominated for an Academy Award as a leading actress for her role in 1980s "Private Benjamin", which was one of a series of successful comedies that she had starred in, also including "Foul Play", "Best Friends", "Overboard", and "Bird on a Wire". Her career slowed down a bit until 1992, when she appeared opposite Bruce Willis and Meryl Streep in the film "Death Becomes Her". She also played an aging actress in the financially successful 1996 film, "The First Wives Club", opposite Bette Midler and Diane Keaton, with whom she covered the Lesley Gore hit 'You Don't Own Me' for the film's soundtrack. In 1992 she costarred with Steve Martin in the Oscar winning comedy 'The HouseSitter.' Hawn also performed a cover version of the Beatles' song, 'A Hard Day's Night', on George Martin's 1998 album, "In My Life".

She made one foray into directing with the television film "Hope" (1997), starring Christine Lahti and Jena Malone.

2000s

In 2000 Hawn co-starred with Warren Beatty and Diane Keaton once again in "Town & Country", a critical and financial fiasco. Budgeted at an estimated US$90 million, the film opened to little notice and grossed only $7 million in its North American theatrical run. As of 2006, her last film appearance was in the 2002 film "The Banger Sisters".

In 2005, Hawn's autobiography, "A Lotus Grows in the Mud", was published. Hawn claims that the book is not a Hollywood tell-all, but rather a memoir and record of what she has learned in her life so far.

Hawn announced in an interview with AARP's magazine that her next film project would be called "Ashes to Ashes" and co-star her partner Kurt Russell. The film is about a New York widow who loses her late husband's ashes in India.

Personal life

Relationships and family

Hawn was married to Gus Trikonis from 1969 to 1976. She married Bill Hudson, of the Hudson Brothers, in 1976; the two divorced in 1980 and have two children, Oliver (born 1976) and Kate Hudson (born 1979), both of whom are now noted actors.

Hawn has been in a relationship with actor Kurt Russell since 1982, when the two reconnected on the set of "Swing Shift" (they previously met while filming 1968's "The One and Only, Genuine, Original Family Band"). The couple have a son together, Wyatt Russell, who lives in Vancouver, B.C., Canada, learning and playing hockey. Wyatt is currently a goalie with the Brampton Capitals of the Ontario Provincial Junior A Hockey League. He starts college in 2007 and will be playing for the CHA Champion University of Alabama in Huntsville Chargers. She also is stepmother to Kurt Russell's son Boston. Hawn became a grandmother on January 7, 2004, when her daughter, Kate Hudson, gave birth to son Ryder Russell Robinson. She then became a grandmother for a second time when son, Oliver Hudson and his wife, actress Erinn Bartlett, welcomed their son Wilder Brooks Hudson, on August 23, 2007.

Religion

Hawn became involved in Eastern philosophy in 1972. She was raised Jewish but is now a practicing Buddhist and has raised her children in both Buddhist and Jewish traditions. She has stated on the Larry King Show that she is a Jewish Buddhist, but neither more Jewish nor more Buddhist. Even though she might have converted to Buddhism, she has said in an interview that she never had to forsake her Jewish heritage to embrace Buddhism. In many interviews, she states that she still holds Jewish beliefs and her Jewish religion and heritage comes before Buddhism. Hawn travels to India annually, and has visited Israel, stating that she felt a strong identification with its people.