Linda Hunt has been in show business for decades. The Academy Award-winning actress has appeared in over 50 productions and, since 2009, starred as Hetty Lang on the now-classic TV series NCIS. Hunt appeared in a total of 280 episodes of NCIS and gradually became one of the show’s best characters. It seems that Hunt is not only a great actress, but also a very loyal woman. The 76-year-old has been married to Karen Klein for more than 10 years and have been together for more than 30 years in total. In fact, their love story is really special!
Linda Hunt was born on April 2, 1945 in Morristown, New Jersey. He was raised by his parents, Elsie and Raymond Hunt, in Connecticut. But when Linda was six months old, her parents began to worry. Since Linda’s motor skills were not developing at a normal rate, her mother and father took her to a hospital in New York to seek help.
Doctors discovered that this was not the news Linda’s parents wanted. As The Bulletin reported in 1991, an investigation found that she suffered from a form of cretinism—a condition of severe physical and mental retardation—which led Linda to be institutionalized.
But Elsie and Raymond didn’t lose hope. Determined to support their beloved Linda, they helped her develop through books and plays.
When Linda started school, her motor skills were about the same as a normal child’s. Unfortunately, he suffered from learning disabilities and short stature.
“I was totally alienated by school almost from the first day, I had a bad experience with a teacher and was made to feel stupid. I felt bad that I didn’t fit in,” Hunt said.
“Everybody either wanted to take care of me or push me around, you know? I was teased a lot, sure I was, of course,” she told CBS.
“Fourth grade, fifth grade, sixth grade, everybody was taking their spurts except me.”
A passion for acting
The harsh treatment was tough on Hunt, as it would’ve been for anyone. She, though, decided to use it as a sort of motivational technique, since she understood that she was unique.
“I was a very determined kid. This happens to kids who are different in any way,” Linda told the Daily Beast.
Although Linda struggled in school, her parents were determined to see their beloved daughter succeed in life. Then, at age 8, he saw something that changed everything. In an interview with The Bulletin, Linda explained that she always had a love for acting and theatre. His biggest inspiration came when he was eight, after his parents took him to see the musical Peter Pan on Broadway.
“I’m lucky that I’ve always known what I wanted to do,” she told the newspaper. “[Mary Martin, who played Peter] was astonishing in her belief in the world she was creating, and that was fascinating to me. She had the power to make others believe what was in her mind.”
“It was bigger than life. And that in some sense, I longed to be bigger than life because I wasn’t,” she explained to CBS.
Linda Hunt’s height – dwarfism
At that point, Linda decided that she would devote her life to acting and theater. She explained that she wanted to become a “high priestess of theater”. In high school, she got a private acting coach, and was sent to an excellent boarding school.
Linda’s parents would do whatever they had to in order to see their daughter achieve her dreams.
“I was so lucky my parents were encouraging on every level,” she said.
However, although Linda’s parents wanted her to pursue a professional acting career, they were concerned that she did not have a backup plan. So his father Raymond encouraged him to study directing, and when that didn’t work, he also forced him to take teacher training. Fortunately, he did. Linda Hunt was diagnosed with hypopituitarism when she graduated high school.
This condition prevents the body from releasing constant amounts of growth hormone. Therefore, Linda is much shorter than the average woman (she is 4 feet 4 inches tall). Of course, just like when she was a child, Linda didn’t want to let the diagnosis stop her.
After studying at Interlochen Academy of the Arts in Michigan and DePaul University Theater School in Chicago, it was time for Hunt to reach for the stars. He moved to New York, where his passion for theater grew.
Moved to New York
That said, once in the “Big Apple” she didn’t know what to do or where to begin.
“I moved into a shoebox-sized apartment in the city when I was in my early 20s with my father’s help,” Hunt recalled.
