Holly Hunter

Holly Patricia Hunter (born March 20, 1958) is an American actress and producer. She made her film debut in Tony Maylam’s The Burning (1981), with Brian Matthews, Leah Ayres, Brian Backer, Larry Joshua, Lou David, Jason Alexander, and Fisher Stevens. Other films in the 1980s include Jonathan Demme‘s Swing Shift (1984), with Goldie Hawn, Kurt Russell, Christine Lahti, Fred Ward, and Ed Harris; Joel & Ethan Coen‘s Raising Arizona (1987), with Nicolas Cage, John Goodman, and Frances McDormand; Jay Russell’s Emd of the Line (1987, with Wilford Brimley, Levon Helm, Kevin Bacon, Mary Steenburgen, Michael Beach, Michael Beach, Bob Balaban, Barbara Barrie, Clint Howard, Bruce McGill, and Howard Morris; James L. Brooks‘s Broadcast News (1987), with William Hurt, Albert Brooks, Robert Prosky, Lois Chiles, Joan Cusack, and Jack Nicholson – for which she received her first Academy Award Nomination for Best Actress; Miss Firecracker (1989), with Steenburgen, Tim Robbins, Alfre Woodard, and Scott Glenn; Animal Behavior (1989), with Karen Allen, Armand Assante, Josh Mostel, and Richard Libertini; and Steven Spielberg‘s Always (1989), with Richard Dreyfus, Goodman, and Audrey Hepburn (in her final film).

She won several accolades, including the Academy Award for Best Actress in Jane Campion’s The Piano (1993); with Harvey Keitel, Sam Neill, and Anna Paquin). The same year she was also nominated for Best Supporting Actress in Sidney Pollack’s The Firm (1993), with Tom Cruise, Jeanne Tripplehorn, Gene Hackman, Harris, Hal Holbrook and David Strathairn. She’s part of a handful performers to be nominated for two Academy Awards in the same year, along with Fay Bainter, Teresa Wright, Barry Fitzgerald, Jessica Lange, Sigourney Weaver, Al Pacino, Emma Thompson, Julianne Moore, Jamie Foxx, and Cate Blanchett.

Other films in the 1990s include Lasse Hallström’s Once Around (1991) with Dreyfuss, Danny Aiello, Laura San Giacomo and Gena Rowlands: Copycat (1995), with Weaver, Dermot Mulroney, William McNamara, Will Patton, John Rothman, J.E. Freeman, and Harry Connick Jr.; Jodie Foster‘s Home for the Holidays (1995), with Robert Downey Jr., Anne Bancroft, Charles Durning, Dylan McDermott, Geraldine Chaplin, Steve Guttenberg, Cynthia Stevenson, Claire Danes, Austin Pendleton, and Strathairn; David Cronenberg‘s Crash (1996), with James Spader; Danny Boyle‘s A Life Less Ordinary (1997), with Ewan McGregor, Cameron Diaz, Delroy Lindo, Ian Holm, Maury Chaykin, Dan Hedaya, Ian McNeice, Tony Shalhoub, and Stanley Tucci; Richard LaGravenese’s Living Out Loud (1998), with Danny DeVito, Queen Latifah, Martin Donovan, and Elias Koteas; Jesus’ Son (1999), with Billy Crudup, Samantha Morton, Dennis Hopper, Denis Leary, Patton, John Ventimiglia, Michael Shannon, and Jack Black; and Woman Wanted (1999), with Kiefer Sutherland (who also directed), Michael Moriarty, and Shirley Douglas.

Films in the 2000s include Mike Figgis’ Timecode (2000), with Salma Hayek, Stellan Skarsgård, Jeanne Tripplehorn, Suzy Nakamura, Kyle MacLachlan, Saffron Burrows, Julian Sands, Xander Berkeley, Leslie Mann, and Mía Maestro; the Coen’s O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000), with George Clooney, John Turturro, and Tim Blake Nelson; Moonlight Mile (2002), with Jake Gyllenhaal, Dustin Hoffman, Susan Sarandon, Ellen Pompeo, and Dabney Coleman; Levity (2003), with Billy Bob Thornton, Morgan Freeman, and Kirsten Dunst; Catherine Hardwicke’s Thirteen (2003), with Evan Rachel Wood and Nikki Reed – which earned her another Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress; Little Black Book (2004), with Brittany Murphy, Ron Livingston, Julianne Nicholson, and Kathy Bates; and a voice role in The Incredibles (2004), with Craig T. Nelson, Sarah Vowell, Samuel L. Jackson, Jason Lee, and Elizabeth Peña.

Films in the mid 2000s to 2010s include Rodrigo García’s Nine Lives (2005), with Sissy Spacek, Glenn Close, Lisa Gay Hamilton, Kathy Baker, Amanda Seyfried, Amy Brenneman, Robin Wright, Aidan Quinn, K Callan, Dakota Fanning, Ian McShane, Mary Kay Place, Molly Parker, Sydney Tamiia Poitier, Elpidia Carrillo, Jason Isaacs, Miguel Sandoval, and Joe Mantegna; Mark Mylod’s The Big White (2005), with Robin Williams, Giovanni Ribisi, Woody Harrelson, Nelson, W. Earl Brown and Alison Lohman; Won’t Back Down (2012), with Maggie Gyllenhaal, Viola Davis, Oscar Isaac, Rosie Perez, Lance Reddick, and Bill Nunn; Jackie (2012), with Carice van Houten and Jelka van Houten; Paradise (2013), with Julianne Hough, Russell Brand, Octavia Spencer, Nick Offerman, Iliza Shlesinger, and Kathleen Rose Perkins; and David Gordon Green’s Manglehorn (2014), with Al Pacino, Harmony Korine, and Chris Messina.

Films in the mid to late 2010s include Batman v Superman (2016), with Ben Affleck, Henry Cavill, Amy Adams, Jesse Eisenberg, Diane Lane, Laurence Fishburne, Jeremy Irons, and Gal Gadot; Katherine Dickermann’s Strange Weather (2016), with Carrie Coon, Kim Coates, and Glenn Headly; Breakable You (2017), with Shalloub, Alfred Molina, Cristin Miloti, Omar Metwally, Caroline Aaron, and Brooke Adams; Michael Showalter’s The Big Sick (2017), with Kumail Nanjiani, Zoe Kazan, Ray Romano, Adeel Akhtar, and Anupam Kher; Terrence Malick‘s Song to Song (2017), with Ryan Gosling, Rooney Mara, Michael Fassbender, Natalie Portman, Blanchett, Val Kilmer; and voicing in Incredibles 2 (2018), reuniting with Nelson, Jackson, Vowell, Bob Odenkirk, Catherine Keener and Jonathan Banks.

She’s also won a Primetime Emmy Award for Best actress in the TV movies Roe vs. Wade (1989), with Amy Madigan and Bates; and The Positively True Adventures of the Alleged Texas Cheerleader-Murdering Mom (1993), with Beau Bridges and Swoosie Kurtz. Other TV movies on include Svengali (1983), with Peter O’Toole, Foster, and Elizabeth Ashley; An Uncommon Love (1983), with Barry Bostwick, Kathryn Harrold, and Ed Begley Jr.; With Intent to Kill (1984), with Karl Malden, Paul Reiner, Shirley Knight, and Catherine Mary Stewart; A Gathering of Old Men (1987), with Louis Gossett Jr., Richard Widmark, Joe Seneca, and Woody Strode; Crazy in Love (1992), with Rowlands, Bill Pullman, Julian Sands, Herta Ware, and McDormand; Harlan County War (2000), with Stellan Skarsgård and Ted Levine; When Billie Beat Bobby (2000), with Ron Silver, Matt Letscher, Bob Gunton, Jacqueline McKenzie, Elizabeth Berridge, and Fred Willard; Bonnie & Clyde (2013), with Emile Hirsch, Holliday Grainger, Sarah Hyland, Elizabeth Reaser, and Hurt; and The Comey Rule (2020), with Jeff Daniels, Michael Kelly, Jennifer Ehle, Scoot McNairy, Jonathan Banks, Oona Chaplin, Amy Seimetz, Steven Pasquale, and Brendan Gleeson.

She also starred in the TV series Saving Grace (2007–2010), Leon Rippy, Kenny Johnson, Laura San Giacomo, Bailey Chase, Bokeem Woodbine, Gregory Norman Cruz and Yaani King; Hear and Now (2018), with Tim Robbins, Daniel Zovatto, Jerrika Hinton, Raymond Lee, Sosie Bacon, Joe Williamson, Andy Bean, and Peter Macdissi; and Mr. Mayor (2021-2022), with Ted Danson, Bobby Moynihan, Vella Lovell, Mike Cabellon, and Kyla Kenedy.

Each review will be linked to the title below.

(*seen originally in theaters)

(**seen rereleased in theaters)

The Burning (1981) – directed by Tony Maylam
Svengali (1983) – directed by Anthony Harvey – TV movie
An Uncommon Love (1983) – directed by Steven Hilliard Stern – TV movie
Blood Simple (1984) – directed by Joel & Ethan Coen – uncredited voice
Swing Shift (1984) – directed by Jonathan Demme
With Intent to Kill (1984) – directed by Mike Robe
Raising Arizona (1987) – directed by Joel & Ethan Coen
A Gathering of Old Men (1987) – directed by Volker Schlöndorff – TV movie
End of the Line (1987) – directed by Jay Russell
Broadcast News (1987) – directed by James L. Brooks
Miss Firecracker (1989) – directed by Thomas Schlamme
Roe vs. Wade (1989) – directed by Gregory Hoblit – TV movie
Animal Behavior (1989) – directed by Jenny Bowen & Kjehl Rasmussen
Always (1989) – directed by Steven Spielberg
Once Around (1991) – directed by Lasse Hallström
Crazy in Love (1992) – directed by Martha Coolidge – TV movie
The Positively True Adventures of the Alleged Texas Cheerleader-Murdering Mom (1993) – directed by Michael Ritchie – TV movie
The Piano (1993) – directed by Jane Campion
The Firm (1993) – directed by Sydney Pollack
Copycat (1995) – directed by Jon Amiel
Home for the Holidays (1995) – directed by Jodie Foster
Crash (1996) – directed by David Cronenberg
A Life Less Ordinary (1997) – directed by Danny Boyle
Living Out Loud (1998) – directed by Richard LaGravenese
Woman Wanted (1999) – directed by Kiefer Sutherland (as Alan Smithee)
Jesus’s Son (1999) – directed by Alison Maclean
Things You Can Tell Just by Looking at Her (2000) – directed by Rodrigo García
Timecode (2000) – directed by Mike Figgis
O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000) – directed by Joel & Ethan Coen
Harlan County War (2000) – directed by Tony Bill – TV movie
When Billie Beat Bobby (2001) – directed by Jane Anderson – TV movie
Moonlight Mile (2002) – directed by Brad Silberling
Levity (2003) – directed by Ed Solomon
Thirteen (2003) – directed by Catherine Hardwicke
Little Black Book (2004)* – directed by Nick Hurran
The Incredibles (2004)* – directed by Brad Bird
Nine Lives (2005) – directed by Rodrigo García
The Big White (2005) – directed by Mark Mylod
Jackie (2012) – directed by Antoinette Beumer
Won’t Back Down (2012) – directed by Daniel Barnz
Paradise (2013) – directed by Diablo Cody
Bonnie & Clyde (2013) – directed by
Bruce Beresford – miniseries
Mondo Art (2014) –
Manglehorn (2014) – directed by David Gordon Green
Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016) – directed by Zack Snyder
Strange Weather (2016) – directed by Katherine Dieckmann
Breakable You (2017) – directed by Andrew Wagner
The Big Sick (2017)* – directed by Michael Showalter
Song to Song (2017) – directed by Terrence Malick
Incredibles 2 (2018)* directed by Brad Bird

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