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Linda Hunt is a diminutive actress best known for her role as Billy Kwan in The Year of Living Dangerously.

Synopsis

Linda Hunt made her big screen debut in 1980's Popeye and is perhaps best known for her role in the 1982 film The Year of Living Dangerously, for which she won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her performance. Distinguished by her diminutive stature (she stands at 4' 9") and wise, resonant voice, Hunt has received two Obie Awards and a Tony nomination for her theater work.

Early Life and Career

Actress Linda Hunt was born Lydia Susanna Hunter on April 2, 1945, in Morristown, New Jersey. Hunt's mother was a music teacher, and she and her sister Marcia started singing and acting at a young age. She made her big screen debut in 1980's Popeye and is perhaps best known for her role as the Eurasian dwarf Billy Kwan in the 1982 film The Year of Living Dangerously. She won the Best Supporting Actress Academy Award for her performance, the first Oscar that went to an actor playing a character of the opposite gender.

Career Highlights

Distinguished by her diminutive stature (she stands at 4' 9") and wise, resonant voice, Hunt has nurtured a notable stage career. She has received two Obie awards and a Tony nomination for her theater work. She is also the on-air host for the syndicated public radio show City Arts & Lectures and lent her voice for the part of Grandmother Willow in Disney's animated Pocahontas. In 2006, she co-starred with Will Ferrell in Stranger Than Fiction. Hunt is currently a cast member of the CBS series NCIS:Los Angeles.