November 8, 2005. Copyright 2005, Graphic News. All rights reserved

Golden girl still wants to have fun
By Joanna Griffin

LONDON, November 8, Graphic News:  For a supposed Òditzy blondeÓ, sheÕs pretty smart. Not only has Goldie Hawn won an Oscar and produced several hit movies, she has somehow defied the years to maintain her youthful looks and appetite for fun. ItÕs hard to believe she will be 60 on November 21.

Ever since the Jewish-American actress fluffed her lines in the cult 1960s television comedy show, Rowan & MartinÕs Laugh-In, Goldie Hawn has made them laugh. While generations of men have fallen for her girlish giggles and pin-up looks, women have overlooked her apparently Òanti-feministÓ image and admired her devotion to her children and her outspoken liberal views.

Born in Washington D.C. in 1945, Goldie Jeanne was the daughter of Edward Rutledge Studlendgehawn, a Presbyterian musician and descendant of one of the signatories of the Declaration of Independence. Her mother Laura was the owner of a dance school and daughter of Hungarian Jewish immigrants. Hawn grew up in what she has called a ÒmultifaithÓ household. She began dancing at three and dreamed of becoming a ballerina.

After leaving school, the original 1960s ÒItÓ Girl worked as a go-go dancer in New York and performed with touring Broadway musicals before landing the job on Laugh-In. Hawn has said that she routinely fluffed her lines because of mild dyslexia, but her charm won her an Emmy and film roles followed. She won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for her role in Cactus Flower (1969).

Throughout her long career Hawn has reprised the quintessential dizzy blonde in films such as Shampoo (1975), ThereÕs A Girl in My Soup (1970), and Bird on the Wire (1990), but she is probably best known for Private Benjamin (1980) in which she played a hapless high society girl who joins the army after her husband dies on their wedding night. Judy BenjaminÕs transformation from spoilt princess to capable, confident woman showed another side to Hawn.

More recent movies include the box office sensation The First Wives Club and The Banger Sisters (2002) in which she starred as a middle-aged free spirit who reminds her old friend Susan Sarandon how to have fun. Hawn has also produced several movies, including Protocol (1984) and Wildcats (1986).

Hawn has been married twice and has two children from her marriage to Bill Hudson, actors Kate and Oliver. She and longtime parter Kurt Russell have a son, Wyatt, and in 2004 she became a grandmother. In her autobiography, A Lotus Grows in the Mud, published in May 2005, Hawn described how she struggled with depression and low self-esteem at the peak of her comedy career, and how she lives according to both the Jewish and Buddhist faiths.
/ENDS