Linda Hunt

Linda Hunt is an American actor known for playing Billy Kwan in The Year of Living Dangerously and Henrietta Lange in NCIS: Los Angeles. Her performance as Kwan earned her the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.

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The Year of Living Dangerously: A 1982 film set amid political upheaval in Indonesia, starring Mel Gibson, Sigourney Weaver, and Linda Hunt. Hunt won an Academy Award for playing Billy Kwan in this film.
Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress: An annual Academy Award recognizing an outstanding performance in a supporting role in a film. Hunt won the award for The Year of Living Dangerously, a rare honor for a debuting film actor.
Peter Weir: An Australian film director known for Picnic at Hanging Rock, Gallipoli, and The Year of Living Dangerously. Weir directed the film that won Hunt her Academy Award.
Pat Morita: An American actor known for playing Arnold in Happy Days and Mr. Miyagi in The Karate Kid. Morita’s career also included prominent Asian-character roles in American film and television.
Billy Kwan: A fictional Australian-Chinese photographer in The Year of Living Dangerously, played by Linda Hunt. Hunt’s portrayal of this character brought her the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.
Asian Australians: Australians of Asian ancestry, including people with family origins across East, Southeast, and South Asia. Billy Kwan’s identity connects Hunt’s celebrated performance to debates about representation and casting.
Robert Altman: An American film director known for ensemble films including MASH and Nashville. Altman directed Popeye, one of Hunt’s earliest feature-film appearances.
Mako Iwamatsu: A Japanese-born American actor known for roles in The Sand Pebbles, Shogun, and Avatar: The Last Airbender. Mako’s screen career offers a contrasting path through roles often shaped by Asian representation.
NCIS: Los Angeles: An American police procedural television series about a covert team in the Naval Criminal Investigative Service. Hunt played Henrietta Lange, the operations manager, throughout much of the series.
Cross-gender acting: The performance of a character whose gender differs from that of the actor portraying them. Hunt played Billy Kwan, a male character, in a role that attracted scrutiny over casting.