Andrew Garfield said it perfectly during the Oscars, while presenting the award for Best Animated Short & Feature Film with the gorgeous Goldie Hawn: “There’s a person who gave my mother during her life the most joy, the most comfort, and tonight, I feel very lucky because I get to thank that person from the bottom of my heart,” Garfield said. “That person is Goldie Hawn.”
It was an incredibly sweet moment that highlighted the impact of one of Hollywood’s darlings.
Hawn has been acting since 1964, when she took to the stage playing Juliet in a Virginia Shakespeare Festival production of Romeo and Juliet. She moved to California in 1966 to be a dancer in a show at Melodyland Theatre, a theatre across from Disneyland. The role that brought her international attention, which she landed in 1968, was as a regular cast member of the now-classic sketch comedy show "Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In". She played a stereotypical “dumb blonde” character, but it didn’t get in the way of showing off her stellar comedy chops.
She quickly became one of the 1960s “It girls,” committed to doing what she wanted, when she wanted to. It sparked a little bit of backlash, as a young reporter from a women’s magazine asked, “Don’t you feel terrible playing a dumb blonde?” Hawn responded, “I don’t understand that question because I’m already liberated. Liberation comes from the inside.”
She gained even more notoriety following the 1969 screwball comedy Cactus Flower, for which she won both the Oscar and the Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actress. She was also recognized by the Academy in 1981 when she was nominated for Best Actress for Private Benjamin, leading to a peak in her film career and a mainstay at the box office throughout the 1980s and into the 1990s.
Beyond her stellar performances in other films like Death Becomes Her, The First Wives Club, and Everyone Says I Love You, Hawn has dedicated herself to giving back. In 2003, she created the Goldie Hawn Foundation, which creates educational programs that support social and emotional development in children. In 2023, Hawn was named one of USA Today’s Women of the Year for her work in developing the program MindUP.
But that's not all she's given to the world: it just so happens that her 3 children are successful actors in their own right.
Kate Hudson, known for How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days (2003) and Almost Famous (2000), won a Golden Globe for the latter. Hudson has always spoken highly of her mother: “I’d say my first teacher, who continues to always be my teacher, is my mom.” Hudson is currently starring in the TV comedy "Running Point" on Netflix.
Hawn's son. Oliver Hudson, has had a fruitful career mainly in television, appearing in everything from "Dawson's Creek" and "Rules of Engagement" to "Nashville" and "Splitting Up Together". He shares a special, playful bond with his notoriously bubbly mother, even jokingly commenting that his mother's Oscars appearance would make her "love Andrew Garfield more than me," adding, "I’m still not sure where I stand. She hasn’t responded to my texts so…."
Wyatt Russell, son of Hawn and her long-time partner Kurt Russell, has also repeatedly spoken about his close relationship with his mother. He talks a lot about how grateful he is for her and the opportunities afforded to him: “That’s what my parents drilled into us as kids, a true appreciation for what we have.” You can see Russell on the big screen starring in Thunderbolts* as John Walker/U.S. Agent beginning May 2.
It has been a while since Hawn has been on the big screen -- her most recent appearance was as Mrs. Claus in The Christmas Chronicles movies from 2018 and 2020 -- but Goldie Hawn’s impact is ever-growing. Hawn said it best, in response to Andrew Garfield’s touching words on the Oscars stage: “I was so lucky making movies in this amazing Hollywood, and making people laugh. And maybe some didn’t, but that’s okay.”