Biography of Goldie Jeanne Hawn

Goldie Jeanne Hawn (born November 21, 1945) is an Academy Award-winning American actress. She is perhaps best known for starring in a series of successful film comedies during the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s.

Hawn was born in a Jewish neighborhood in Washington, D.C. to Edward Rutledge Hawn (a band musician who played at major events in Washington) and Laura Steinhoff (a housewife); she has a sister, Patricia, and had a brother, Edward, who died before she was born. Her father, a descendant of Edward Rutledge (a signer of the Declaration of Independence), was a Presbyterian. Her mother was Jewish, the daughter of Max Steinhoff and Fanny Weiss, immigrants from Hungary; Hawn was raised in the Jewish religion, although the family did celebrate Christmas.

Hawn began taking ballet and tap dance lessons at the age of three, and danced in the chorus of the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo production of The Nutcracker in 1955. She made her stage debut in 1961, playing Juliet in a Virginia Stage Company production of Romeo and Juliet. By 1963, she ran and instructed a ballet school, having dropped out of American University, where she was majoring in "Drama".

Goldie Hawn In 1964, Hawn, who graduated from Montgomery Blair High School, made her professional dancing debut in a production of Can-Can at the Texas Pavilion of the New York World's Fair. She began working as a professional dancer a year later, and appeared as a go-go dancer in New York City.

Hawn began her acting career as a cast member of the short-lived situation comedy Good Morning World during the 1967-1968 television season, her role being that of the girlfriend of a radio disk-jockey, with a stereotypical "dumb blonde" personality. Her next role was as one of the regular cast members on the 1960s sketch comedy show, Laugh-In. Noted equally for her chipper attitude as for her bikini and painted body, she personified a 1960s "It" girl. On the show, she would often break out into high-pitched giggles in the middle of a joke, and deliver a polished performance a moment after. Hawn won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for her work in the 1969 film, Cactus Flower, which was her first film role and co-starred Walter Matthau and Ingrid Bergman.