Salem State College Series

Goldie Hawn
Beyond Laughter

Presenting Sponsor

8:00 p.m.
Tuesday
November 4, 2003

For nearly three decades, Goldie Hawn has maintained enduring star power and is considered a favorite among contemporary actresses. She first gained celebrity as the giggly go-go dancer who regularly stole the '60s TV show "Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In," and soon segued into the movies, winning an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress in her first major movie, Cactus Flower (1969).

Hawn's recent films include Town and Country, with Warren Beatty, Andie MacDowell and Garry Shandling. In 1998, she re-teamed with her Housesitter co-star Steve Martin in the remake of The Out-Of-Towners. Prior to that she starred in the box-office hit, The First Wives Club, and was part of the all-star ensemble cast of Woody Allen's musical comedy Everyone Says I Love You. She made her feature film debut in The One and Only Genuine, Original Family Band, before playing opposite Walter Matthau and Ingrid Bergman in Cactus Flower. She went on to star in Butterflies Are Free and the dramatic The Sugarland Express, Steven Spielberg's feature debut.

Following a brief hiatus from films in the mid-1970's to devote time to her growing family, Hawn returned to the screen opposite Chevy Chase in the successful Foul Play. She went on to produce and star in one of her most successful films, the 1980 box office hit, Private Benjamin, garnering an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress. In addition to her Oscar, she's had eight Golden Globe nominations for her acting. But awards weren't her goals, she said: "The only real goal that I ever had was to be a good mother."

It was during filming of Jonathan Demme's Swing Shift, which co-starred Christine Lahti, that she met her partner Kurt Russell. Today, Hawn is a principal in the production company Cosmic Entertainment, which is actively producing and developing over a dozen projects for film and television.

"I know who I am, and I'm very proud of what I've accomplished," she said at the end of Marc Shapiro's 1998 bio, Pure Goldie. "Now my focus is moving on to the next stage of my life. And that is about who I want to be at sixty, who I want to be at seventy, and who I want to be at eighty. I still have a lot to do."