Holly Hunter was born on 20 March 1958, in Conyers, Georgia USA, and is a producer and actress, probably best known for her Academy Award winning performance in the film “The Piano”, which won her numerous awards. She’s also been nominated for other performances, but all of her efforts have helped put her net worth to where it is today.
How rich is Holly Hunter? As of late-2016, sources inform us of a net worth that is at $14 million, mostly earned through a successful career in acting now spanning more than 35 years. She’s also had a successful television career – during her time in “Saving Grace”, she reportedly earned $145,000 per episode. As she continues her career it is expected that her wealth will increase.
Holly Hunter Net Worth $14 million
Holly attended Carnegie Mellon University, and while studying also became involved in theatre work. She would graduate with a degree in drama, while her popularity increased, thanks to being a part of City Theatre. She then moved to New York City, where she would have a chance encounter with playwright Beth Henly, who would cast her in several plays; these included “Crimes of the Heart” and “The Miss Firecracker Contest”. Her net worth was established.
In 1981, Hunter would make her film debut in the movie “The Burning”. The following year, she moved to Los Angeles, and would be cast in several television movies before getting a supporting role in “Swing Shift”. She then worked with the Coen brothers in “Blood Simple” to which she lent her voice. In 1987, she worked with the brothers again in “Raising Arizona” and “Broadcast News”, for which she earned an Academy Award nomination and which would elevate her to stardom. Her net worth also started to significantly increase as she got more opportunities, including starring in Steven Spielberg’s “Always” alongside Richard Dreyfuss.
In 1993, Holly would gain two Academy Award nominations for two separate films – “The Firm” for which she got a Best Supporting Actress nomination, and “The Piano” which would win her the Best Actress award. The success of the two films would help Hunter’s continued rise in net worth. Her career went on with “Home for the Holidays” and “Copycat”, then appearing in “Living Out Loud” and the independent drama “Jesus’ Son”. She continued collaborating with the Coens in “O Brother, Where Art Thou?” She was also involved in many independent films from the late 1990s up to the early 2000s; in 2003 she was cast in the drama “Levity”, and would then have a part in the film “Thirteen”, which gained a lot of critical acclaim, and which led to her nomination for a Best Supporting Actress Academy Award.
In 2004, Hunter was cast in “Little Black Book”, and would then lend her voice to the animated film “The Incredibles”. She also starred in “The Big White” alongside Robin Williams. In 2007, she would try her hand at being an executive producer, developing the drama “Saving Grace” in which she also starred; she received Golden Globe, Emmy and two Screen Actors Guild nominations for her performance. One of her latest projects is the film “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice” in which she plays Senator Finch.
For her personal life, it is known that Holly is deaf in her left ear due to complications from mumps when she was a child. In 1995, she married cinematographer Janusz Kaminski and their marriage lasted until 2001. Since then, she’s been in a relationship with actor Gordon MacDonald; they have two children. Holly identifies as an agnostic theist.
Academy Award for Best Actress, BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role, AACTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role, Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Drama, Cannes Best Actress Award
Nominations
Academy Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role, Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series, Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Drama Series, Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy, Screen Ac...
Movies
“Crimes of the Heart”, “The Miss Firecracker Contest” (1989), “The Piano“ (1993), “Little Black Book”, “The Incredibles”, “The Big White” (2005), “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice” (2016)
TV Shows
“Saving Grace” (2007-2010), ”Top of the Lake” (2013)
I think it's really odd, too, that the public is so privy to how much money the actors make and what movies cost. It seems to me to be beside the point. When I go to a movie I really don't want to think about the money. I want to see the story.
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Mothers and daughters can stay very connected during teenage years. In the middle of your life, you can become very alone. Even though you're connected deeply to other family members, lovers, husbands, friends.
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I really admire people who are extraordinarily tolerant and patient.
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I've never directed, but it must be humbling.
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I get cold really quickly, but I don't care. I like weather. I never understand why people move someplace so that they can avoid weather.
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Well, I think that an Academy Award has a certain kind of business shelf life. People have different speculations but definitely for a couple of years, your price is raised and there are more plentiful offers. Which only makes sense - it is a business. And the Academy Awards is a business, it enhances everything when you win one. But I think the most significant thing for me was, one, it was presented to me by Al Pacino, which I just loved. And two, that it was given to me for a role and an experience that I felt was a profound influence in my life. I know this because I was nominated for The Firm (1993) that same year and I don't feel the same way about The Firm (1993) that I do about The Piano (1993). So if I'd won for The Firm (1993) it would have been a whole different deal for me. I never actually saw The Firm (1993), so for me it would have been like... maces]
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Actors are beggars and gypsies, that's just the way it is. And in many ways, I take what I can get. But I do search high and low for stuff that interests me.
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I'm just always looking for the best stuff. And also, there are things I want to do that I can't get - they want someone else. Often, in the movie business, they need somebody who will garner box office because they need to pay for the movie. So the people who are in movies that make a lot of money are the people who most often get cast in studio pictures. In my career, I've never been a box office name. Granted, a couple of my movies have made a lot of money but I'd do other movies which make very little money or they're not seen that much.
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[on how her career as an actress began] : ....Joel and Ethan (Joel Coen & Ethan Coen) had just finished the script of Raising Arizona (1987), and they asked me to read it and said that they'd written this part for me and would I be interested in doing it? So that was the beginning of my feature film career.
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I was trying to get as much experience as I could. But very early on, I was always extremely particular. From the beginning, I was never desperate. I did other things for money; you know, the normal, boring stuff - I temped, I did waitressing. But I actually quit a play early on in my career - it was one of the first things that I ever got cast in, but I quit because there was something about it that I didn't like. I didn't think the director was the right guy to be directing it. So I've never felt that every situation was great for me and therefore I would have to stay. To me, being creative is a very fragile thing, the environment in which one can create is a very particular one, and somehow I've always felt the need to be very protective of that.
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Actors do movies because you want to make a connection, you want an audience to recognise themselves in what it is that you're depicting. The portrait, you want it to be a reflection of some aspect of humanity that people understand, that they see in their own lives. And so, when a movie makes a connection like that, there's simply nothing better. And in some ways, an Academy Award does validate that actual hook-up.
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It just seems that abortion rights never ceases to be a hot topic. It's a shame. It feels to me an anachronism. I mean, why are we still talking about this? Why is this not just a woman's right, period? I find it boring and very frustrating that it remains such a high profile subject.
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I often get asked to direct and I've never taken anyone up on it. It would be very interesting and I would learn so much. But it's a very confrontational job - I mean, directors are forced to confront themselves, and I don't think there's really a way to prepare for the pressure of directing. And I have seen quite a few good people crash and burn at the job. Nervous breakdowns, crying, screaming fits - people buckle, so it's always scared me. But it's intriguing.
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I always feel that I am the advocate for my character. More than anyone else on the set, including the director. I'm there to protect my character, in a way.
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[on the importance of rehearsal for Thirteen (2003)] : I mean, some movies I walk in, "Hi, nice to meet you", we get in bed and we do a love scene. And that does happen. That happened with me with Billy Crudup on Jesus' Son (1999). Actors talk about that a lot, but it's not uncommon. And we could not have done Thirteen (2003) that way. It would not have worked.
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Acting, for me, is the last vestige of doing something that I would like to feel really naive about. - Interview, November 1995.
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Fact
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She was awarded the 1988 Drama Logue Award for Outstanding Performance for "A Lie of the Mind" at the Mark Taper Forum Theatre in Los Angeles, California.
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Was the 107th actress to receive an Academy Award; she won the Best Actress Oscar for The Piano (1993) at The 66th Annual Academy Awards (1994) on March 21, 1994.
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Starring in the lead role in Irish play "In the Bog of Cats" in London's West End. [March 2005]
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Gave birth to twin sons (her 1st and 2nd children) at age 47, Press MacDonald and Claude McDonald on January 17, 2006. Children's father is her boyfriend, Gordon MacDonald.
Was in consideration for the part of Carolyn Burnham in American Beauty (1999) but Annette Bening, who went on to receive a Best Actress Oscar nomination for her performance, was cast instead.
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Was in consideration for the part of Mia Wallace in Pulp Fiction (1994) but Uma Thurman, who went on to receive a Best Supporting Actress Oscar nomination for her performance, was cast instead.
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She won the role in Broadcast News (1987) just two days before shooting began, over several then-better-known actresses.
Her performance as Jane Craig in Broadcast News (1987) is ranked #66 on Premiere Magazine's 100 Greatest Performances of All Time (2006).
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Spent a summer interning at Cortland Repertory Theatre (Cortland, New York) in 1976.
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Graduated from Carnegie Mellon University with a degree in drama (1980).
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Member of jury at the Cannes Film Festival in 1999.
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In 1993, she won the Oscar for Best Actress for The Piano (1993), in which she utilised her real-life piano skills. Eleven years later, Jamie Foxx won Best Actor for Ray (2004), in which he also played the piano. Both of them had been nominated for a supporting performance in those respective years, and both were nominated for a role they played opposite Tom Cruise. Hunter appeared in The Firm (1993) and Jamie Foxx appeared in Collateral (2004).
While living in the North Bronx, she turned down the lead role in Blood Simple. (1984), but introduced the Coen Brothers to her roommate Frances McDormand, who got the role and ended up marrying one of the brothers. Hunter's voice can be heard on an answering machine message in the film.
Second cousin of Anaheim Angels' outfielder Tim Salmon.
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An accomplished pianist, she actually performed all of the piano music for her Oscar performance in The Piano (1993). Film makers selected pieces for her that matched her talent.
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Hunter's uncle was the first commander of the Thunderbirds, the world-famous U.S. Air Force Demonstration Squadron of fighter pilots.
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In 10th grade she placed 8th nationally in a poultry-judging contest. (Interview, 11/95)
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She had one line in her film debut, The Burning (1981), among a few ad libs. Regarding missing canoes she says to Todd -- "What happens if we don't find them?"
$14 Million
