A Hollywood icon! Goldie Hawn has been a major movie star for decades, known for her bubbly personality and humorous characters.
Born in November 1945, the First Wives Club actress rose to fame as a featured player on NBC’s sketch comedy series Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In between 1968 and 1970. Hawn’s persona on the show, which highlighted her chipper attitude and plenty of giggles, helped cast her in movies such as Cactus Flower, There’s a Girl in My Soup and Butterflies Are Free. In Cactus Flower, the Washington, D.C. native’s first major starring role, Hawn played Walter Matthau’s character’s suicidal fiancée. Her role in the critically acclaimed film earned Hawn her first Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.
“I forgot it was on television that night,” the Private Benjamin star quipped to Variety in March 2023 of winning the trophy. “Then I woke up to a phone call at like 4 in the morning. And it was a man’s voice and he said, ‘Hey, congratulations, you got it.’ ‘I got what?’ ‘You got the Academy Award for best supporting actress.’”
Hawn, who was filming There’s a Girl in My Soup in London at the time of the broadcast, added: “I regret [not attending]. It’s something that I look back on now and think, ‘It would have been so great to be able to have done that.’”
Fresh off her Oscar win, Hawn quickly became a Hollywood “It Girl,” starring in movies The Girl From Petrovka, The Sugarland Express, Swing Shift and Overboard. The Death Becomes Her star’s role in Private Benjamin went on to land her another Oscar nomination in 1980. (Hawn ultimately lost Best Actress in a Leading Role to Norma Rae‘s Sally Field.)
The First Wives Club star’s personal life also made headlines throughout the years. Hawn was first married to director Gus Trikonis between 1969 and 1973. After a series of romances with Ted Grossman, Bruno Wintzell and Franco Nero, Hawn eventually moved on with musician Bill Hudson. Hawn and Hudson, who got engaged in 1975, tied the knot nearly one year later after her divorce from Trikonis was finalized. The Banger Sisters star and the Hudson Brothers crooner went on to welcome two children together: son Oliver Hudson and daughter Kate Hudson. After Hawn and Bill’s marriage ultimately unraveled in 1980, he has since cut ties with both of his kids.
Bill publicly disowned the Cleaning Lady alum and the Almost Famous actress in 2015 during a scathing Daily Mail interview, claiming they should stop using his last name. Oliver and Kate, for their part, have made peace with having an estranged relationship with their biological father.
“They don’t care and are not surprised by this,” a source exclusively told Us Weekly that June of the sibling duo. “It’s been this way, and he’s been saying this stuff forever.” (Nearly two years later, Oliver confirmed that he and his father were attempting to be friendly and had exchanged a series of lighthearted text messages.)
Hawn ultimately found love again with actor Kurt Russell 17 years after they first met on the set of 1966’s The One and Only, Genuine, Original Family Band. After reuniting in 1983’s Swing Shift, the pair sparked a real-life romance. The Christmas Chronicles costars — who welcomed son Wyatt Russell in 1986 — remained committed to one another despite never feeling pressured to tie the knot. (Kurt also shares son Boston Russell, born in 1980, with ex-wife Season Hubley.)
“A lasting relationship isn’t about marriage. It’s about compatibility and communication. And you both need to want it to work,” Hawn previously told Porter magazine in 2015. “If one person does not want it to work, it isn’t going to work. Intention is the key. It’s also about not losing yourself in each other. Being together, two pillars holding up the house and the roof, and being different, not having to agree on everything, learning how to deal with not agreeing. Everything’s a choice.”
Scroll below to see Hawn’s life in photos:
