GOLDIE
HAWN -- Gentlemen do prefer blondes
 Her
sea-blue eyes, blonde mane, ever-smiling face and chirpy personality
have made her the darling of the film audiences world over,
and most prefer to see the actress in wacky, comic roles...
With her smash hit The First Wives Club (1997), Goldie Hawn
had, at 53, graduated from a bubble-headed star of such hits
as Laugh-In and Cactus Flower to a level-headed business woman.
Some traits never die, and she is stil wild and artful as ever,
with her trademark tangle of yellow hair, and baby-blue eyes.
Fearful about the “male bashing” theme of First Wives...,
which was hitting too close to home, Glodie originally tried
to defect from the film, only to be reminded that this year’s
Best Supporting Actress, Kim Basinger, was ready to step into
her shoes at a moment’s notice. That certainly galvanised
her. The role was without doubt a parody of her own image. Her
character - an over-ripe, self-absorbed actress, harbours a
demented passion for cosmetic surgery and is terrified of aging.
The performance worked since Hawn didn’t satirise the character,
she shared her fears. There was a new honesty, a vulnerability.
Finally - the second coming of Goldie. Bette Midler, her co-star
in the movie said, “Goldie was like the sun coming out.
The most amazing thing about her is you don’t see her working.
With her, it just happens.”
As a teenager, she saw herself as a skinny chicken, ill-informed
and awkward. She was flat as a pancake and wore falsies which
she considered a “hidden disgrace.” Despite her shortcomings,
in her early career days in New York, men still found her desirable
and at auditions, in elevators/subways, they were always touching
her up. Today, she values herself more for being sexy than funny.
Goldie, born in 1945, began studying ballet at age of three,
and later took up tap and jazz dancing. She grabbed the Closeup
at 22, with a contrived image as a pert, seductive ingenue on
TV’s Rowan and Marin’s Laugh-In. For three years,
she was a giggling, wriggling, 60’s style Lorelei Lee,
dancing in bikinis and body graffiti. She became a star and
got her taste of what comes with it: criticism which was sharply
polarised - more positive than negative - which she raked in
by the bushel. Her big break came in 1969 with Cactus Flower,
in which she starred with Ingrid Bergman and Walter Mathau,
where she indicated that behind her daffiness was some real
acting talent. She received an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress.
Goldie recorded a huge hit with the wacky service comdey Private
Benjamin (1980), which she produced and which opened the door
to moguldom. A real fine showcase for her. She had a mixed bag
of roles with comic outings: Wildcats (1986), Overboard (1987)
with Kurt Russell, making a great comic duo, and then adventurous
roles in: Deceived (1991), and Crisscross (1992). One thing
became apparent, moviegoers preferred the funny girl, and Goldie,
the realist, stopped rocking the boat.
During the 70’s and 80’s her films included Butterflies
Are Free (this was a winning Broadway adaptation, with strong
performances, of a blind man who falls in love with an offbeat
neighbour), Dollars, Girl From Petrovka, Foul Play, One &
Only Genuine Original Family Band, There’s A Girl In My
Soup, Best Friends, Lovers And Liars, Protocol, and Seems Like
Old Times.
She gave a memorable performance in The Sugarland Express (1972).
This was Steven Spielberg’s first feature in which Hawn
played a white-trash mother, who helps her husband to break
out of prison in order to regain their child. Most would agree
that the film remains her most persuasive dramatic performance.
Her other worthwhile performances include The Duchess And The
Dirtwater Fox (1976), and Warren Beatty’s Shampoo (in which
she was the soul of the picture with her micro-minis and wistful
eyes). During the 90’s she has starred in Bird On A Wire
and Death Becomes Her. The latter had eye-popping special effects
which highlighted the wacky black comedy about two women’s
quest for eternal youth.
She was one of Woody Allen’s leading ladies in Everyone
Says I Love You (1996), playing her age, suffering the slings
and arrows of a former husband who tells her, “Two more
years and I’m gonna look like your son.”
Actor Kurt Russell is her long-time companion, living with her,
though he is not her husband yet. Five years her junior, he
is the father of Wyatt, Goldie’s youngest son. The couple
have been together for 17 years. She met him when he auditioned
for a part in her film Swing Shift (1984). She was married twice
before to Gus Trikonis and Bill Hudson, to whom she had to fork
out whooping sums of alimony. She used to say, “It doesn’t
matter who makes the money,” but agrees that she was naive
and now there is considerable wisdom wrenched from pain. There
are also diminished expectations and, therefore, fewer disappointments.
About the longevity of her relationship with Russell, Goldie
recently said, “I give him all the freedom in the world.
I don’t believe we own anybody. I don’t think Kurt
sexually only has eyes for me. I watch him in the presence of
women he just loves. I see his whole aura change. And I don’t
get jealous of that. And I know that ultimately if he were asked
to choose between me and them, it would definitely be me.”
Whatever the compromises, there is a tranquil, affectionate
and even settled quality to this still-umarried couple’s
domestic life.
As part of a generation of rebel gals who pushed the industry
to accept women in power, Goldie hasn’t exactly been drowning
in offers these last few years, nor has she been faring badly.
She just isn’t eager to recall her career disappointments.
First Wives Club more than compensated for her popularity and
box-office rating. Goldie’s effort for 1997-98 was the
directorial debut of her first film Hope for TNT. She has the
distinction of being one of the first actresses, along with
Jane Fonda and Barbra Striesand, to parlay her stardom into
a producing deal. Hawn has been heralded as the gold standard
for women over 50 surviving Hollywood. Goldie has co-produced
Neil Simon’s The Out-of-Towners and will direct and star
in Ashes To Ashes, based on a story penned by her, which draws
parallels to her own life, and her visits to India, among other
things.
One thing’s for sure though, her large legion of male fans
the world over still assert that “quite a few gentlemen
do prefer blondes.”
Compiled By Ian Edwards |
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