Helen Hunt has been a part of Hollywood since she was just a girl. Though the four-time Emmy Award winner has now proven that she’s got staying power when it comes to the entertainment industry, there was once a time when Hunt had to shake off her child actress past in order to forge ahead with her career. Luckily she did, otherwise, we’d have missed out on one of the best actresses of the 90s, ‘00s, and beyond.
Helen Hunt’s Long Hollywood Journey
As a young girl in the 1970s, Helen Hunt could be seen regularly on TV. She played Murray Slaughter’s daughter on The Mary Tyler Moore Show, and was a frequent familiar face on The Swiss Family Robinson, where she enjoyed a regular role.
As she grew up, the nature of her roles began to change as well. She played a marijuana-smoking classmate on The Facts Of Life and infamously appeared in the made-for-TV movie Desperate Lives, where she played a young woman who jumped out of a window after taking PCP. Hunt would later mock that moment during an appearance on Saturday Night Live! years later.
Despite the silly moments that she’d make fun of later in her career, Hunt continued to keep her nose down and stayed hard at work. Her dedication paid off in the early 90s when she was cast in Mad About You opposite Paul Reiser. Hunt starred in the popular sitcom from 1992 until 1999, winning multiple Emmys, though that was far from her only high-profile role during that time.
Hunt also starred in Kiss Of Death alongside Nicolas Cage in 1994, and in Twister opposite Bill Paxton two years later in 1996. The role that won Hunt the Academy Award for Best Actress was for 1997’s As Good As It Gets, which co-starred Jack Nicholson.
Hunt’s Red Carpet Beginnings
Before all that acclaim, however, Hunt was still just a young Hollywood hopeful, which is very apparent in this early red carpet photo of the actress. By the time this picture was taken, Mad About You had already become a commercial success, which translated into a lot more opportunities opening up for Hunt to become the leading lady that she is today.
Hunt looks so young in this photo, though we know that she’d already accomplished so much that others would only dream about. There’s a spark about her that can’t be ignored. Thankfully that spark was carefully nurtured and allowed to grow. Hollywood just wouldn’t be the same without Helen Hunt.
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