The Stunning Transformation Of Goldie Hawn

Goldie Hawn is an Academy Award-winning actor who continues to win the hearts of fans with her candor and inimitable sense of humor. She is also a mental health advocate and a grandmother of eight who shares her life with her partner of over 40 years, fellow actor Kurt Russell. But there was a time when Hawn didn't plan to become an actor at all, putting her focus on ballet from a very young age and hoping to someday make it to Broadway as a dancer.

Of course, life had different plans for Hawn, and she ended up becoming wildly successful nearly overnight with her adorably quirky appearances on "Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In" and then an Oscar-winning turn for her very first big film. With her star on the rise so quickly, Hawn became anxious and turned to both mental health professionals and transcendental meditation to recapture the carefree happiness she'd felt before becoming famous.

While her love life often was the focus of tabloid fodder, Hawn continued to impress audiences with her performances in iconic films such as "Death Becomes Her," "The First Wives Club," and "Private Benjamin," among many others. In 2025, Hawn is still a force of nature, and her success feels well earned. Read on to learn more about the truly stunning transformation of the legendary Goldie Hawn.

Goldie Hawn was born in Washington, D.C., on November 21, 1945. Her father was a musician, and her mother owned a dance studio, which led to Hawn getting involved with dance when she was a very young child. At age 3, she began taking ballet lessons, and through a combination of dedication and natural talent, she excelled. Hawn was just 10 years old when she performed in a production of "The Nutcracker" with Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo, a prestigious ballet company, and she went on to become a ballet teacher when she was 19.

Despite her decades-long, award-winning acting career, Hawn has never left behind her love of dance. "I consider myself more a dancer than anything else," she revealed to The Guardian in a 2020 interview. She also credits her early ballet training with helping her achieve peace through meditation as an adult, explaining, "Starting out as a dancer gave me an aspect of mindfulness that I didn't even realize that I was getting."

Although Goldie Hawn studied drama at American University, she still had dreams of becoming a dancer, so she dropped out of college after a year to pursue professional opportunities. Hawn had her sights set on Broadway, so she traveled to New York City on a wing and a prayer. "I had a little suitcase, and I had no place to stay," she told Variety. "I had to figure s*** out right away." While she didn't land on Broadway, Hawn did find work as a professional dancer. It was while performing in the chorus during a TV special that she caught the eye of an agent, which jump-started her acting career.

Hawn's first major role was on the sitcom "Good Morning World" which led to her getting cast in "Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In" in 1968. On the sketch show, she won fans over with her bubbly personality and lovably ditzy persona, but she suspected she was getting pigeon-holed into playing a very specific type of character. Hawn recalled that early in her career she was compared to Judy Holliday, another blonde actor with a cutesy voice. "[T]hey wanted me to do remakes of some of her films. And I said, 'I can't. They're hers,'" she told Variety.

Instead of becoming a modern iteration of Judy Holliday, Goldie Hawn set out to blaze her own trail in the entertainment industry. In 1969, she starred in the film "Cactus Flower" alongside veteran actors Ingrid Bergman and Walter Matthau, shining so brightly in the role that she won an Oscar for best supporting actress. It was her first big feature film, and she was just 24 years old.

But Hawn didn't make it to the ceremony to receive her award because she was in London at the time filming another movie. She didn't really expect she would win and didn't even tune in to watch the awards broadcast on TV because she forgot it was on. "I woke up to a phone call at like 4 in the morning. And it was a man's voice and he said, 'Hey, congratulations, you got it.' 'I got what?'" Hawn told Variety.

It wasn't until 2023 that the actor finally watched the ceremony and was shocked to learn that her award had been announced by her idol, the iconic performer Fred Astaire. "I didn't know he was the one that announced my name," she explained. "I got emotional when I finally saw it."

Goldie Hawn's meteoric rise to fame was sudden and overwhelming, so much so that it left the actor feeling unmoored and in search of something to help her feel more at ease. "I didn't know where I was going," the actor told The Guardian. "I went to the psychologist when I was 21 and I continued for about eight years to try to understand more about my mind, my psyche, how I could return back to my sense of joy," she revealed.

Hawn found herself drawn to meditation, which was all the rage at the time, and it worked to ground her emotions and recapture the joy she felt had been missing from her life. There are many types of meditation practice, and what helped Hawn the most was transcendental meditation. According to the actor, she began to feel positive sensations almost instantly when she first began her meditative practice, which involved repeating a silent mantra among other things. "[M]y experience was visceral, it was amazing," she shared. "I rediscovered something in that one sitting."

Goldie Hawn's 1970 Oscar win established her as a serious actor and allowed her to be more discerning when choosing her future roles. In 1974, Hawn starred in "The Sugarland Express," the debut film of prolific director Steven Spielberg. In the movie, Hawn played Lou Jean Poplin, a mother who resorts to extreme measures in order to prevent her child from getting placed into foster care, in a departure from the doe-eyed innocents she'd played in the past.

It was a role that Hawn loved. As she told Variety, "That film stands out as one of the great characters I've played." As much as she enjoyed playing the part, she found she had a hard time emotionally detaching from the character, which was uncommon for her. "I'm a practical person; I just shake it off — my characters don't live inside of me. But this one did," Hawn revealed.

While the film was not exactly box office gold when it was released, it stands out as the first of Spielberg's many directorial ventures and was featured at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2024. For the event, Hawn recorded a video message for the director praising him for his work and speaking about her experience working on the film with him. "It was the most beautiful time," the actor said (via The Wrap).

While Goldie Hawn rose to fame at a relatively young age, she married young as well. The actor wed dancer, director, and actor Gus Trikonis in 1969, but the union was not built to last, and the pair separated in 1973. On a flight in 1975, Hawn met Bill Hudson, of the singing group The Hudson Brothers, and the two embarked on a whirlwind romance. Hawn and Hudson were engaged on New Year's Eve that year, the same day she officially filed for divorce from Trikonis.

Hawn was over the moon for Hudson and excited to start a family with him. "What I really wanted was to get settled," she shared with People in 1976. "I've waited a long time for the right union, the right time, and the right daddy." The couple tied the knot in July of that year and welcomed their son, Oliver Hudson, just a few months later. In 1980, their daughter, the super successful actor Kate Hudson, was born, but by then the relationship had soured, and Hawn and Hudson separated mere months after Kate's birth.

Over the years, Kate and Oliver Hudson, who at times resented their mom's fame, have spoken about the evolution of their strained relationship with their father, but Hawn chose to keep mum about the relationship. During an episode of "Who's Talking to Chris Wallace," Hawn opened up about divorce in general, saying, "It's always ugly. ... [H]ow many divorces are fun? How many divorces actually don't cost money?"

In 1981, Goldie Hawn starred in the beloved film "Private Benjamin" and also served as its executive producer. According to Hawn, working with the movie's other producers was a smooth process. As she explained during an interview with Bobbie Wygant, "We never disagreed, it was a phenomenon. ... And the fact that we were dear friends before the picture and even better friends after is even more of a phenomenon," she added.

The film, about a sheltered widow who joins the military thinking it'll be something of a vacation, was a success at the box office and earned Hawn an Oscar nomination, but she was unsure if the army would take issue with some of the film's scenes. Hawn revealed that there were real-life issues within the army in which recruiting officers were "operating under false pretenses." "It was a big sort of front page in the LA Times while we were making this picture," she said. "So, I would venture to say that this was one of the reasons why the army may not have supported us."

Fans of Goldie Hawn know that she and fellow actor Kurt Russell have been happily coupled up for decades. And the pair first met many years before they even got together, on the set of the film "The One and Only, Genuine, Original Family Band" in 1966 when Hawn was 21 and Russell was just 16. "I thought he was adorable, but he was much too young," Hawn revealed to BBC Radio 4 (via Us Weekly). Luckily, the two actors reunited for the film "Swing Shift" in 1983 when age was no longer an issue.

Hawn was serving as a producer on "Swing Shift" and met with many actors, including Russell, who were up for the role of Lucky Lockhart. Hawn and Russell went out to lunch, and while Hawn was already sort of crushing on him, he did something that made her swoon. "[W]hen he left ... it was so romantic, he turned around and said across the room, 'It's okay if I don't get this part, but I sure would like to see you again,'" Hawn shared on an episode of "Conan O'Brien Needs a Friend."

Hawn went on to say that Russell truly won her over when he came to her house and she watched him watching her young, sleeping children with so much sweetness. "It wasn't just because he was sexy and handsome ... it was because he matched my devotion to children to be No. 1," she explained.

Throughout the '80s and '90s, Goldie Hawn was a bona fide movie star, turning out amazing performances in beloved films like "Overboard," "Death Becomes Her," and "The First Wives Club." It was in "Overboard" that she got the chance to work with her partner Kurt Russell again, with each of the actors in starring roles. While the couple were deeply in love during the filming of the 1987 hit, that wasn't the part that made working alongside one another so appealing. "The best part of the movie was working with Kurt — not because I loved him, and not because he's endlessly talented," Hawn shared with "Good Morning America."

The couple had recently welcomed their first child together, son Wyatt Russell, but aside from their bustling family life, the two actors shared a strong work ethic that drew them even closer together. "We're workers ... and we're on time and we literally work together ... like a nice symphony," Hawn gushed about her partner and co-star. "Overboard" was a comedic film, and humor was another thing Hawn and Russell had in common. "We're very, very aligned in our sense of humor," she said, proving that the couple who laughs together, stays together.

Goldie Hawn is not just an extremely talented actor and producer, she is also a very caring individual who has used her platform to help others. In 2003, Hawn launched MindUp, an organization aimed to assist children dealing with mental health challenges. It was after 9/11 that Hawn was moved to do something, seeing the effects the tragedy had on the children in her life. "I was crying into the American flag — that I was knitting, by the way — [and] trying to figure out what I could do," she shared with CNN.

But Hawn was not just a spectator to others' pain; she dealt with anxiety and depression herself when she was young and finding fame for the first time. "I became anxious and I had little panic attacks, and then I realized that every time I'd go into a restaurant or a place, I'd get dizzy, and I would want to go home," the actor revealed on the "Making Space With Hoda Kotb" podcast. Hawn eventually sought help from a psychologist to cope with her anxiety, which motivated her as an adult to speak candidly about mental health.

In 2023, Hawn was named a USA Today Women of the Year honoree for her 20 years of work with the MindUp organization, which according to its website, helps "[b]y teaching learners of all ages how to regulate emotions, calm the nervous system, and choose kindness and gratitude daily."

Motherhood has been a huge part of Goldie Hawn's life since her first child was born in 1976, and over the years, Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell's family has grown bigger and bigger, with her children having children of their own.

Her son Oliver Hudson has three kids, Bodhi Hawn, Wilder Brooks, and Rio Laura, as does her daughter, Kate Hudson, who is mom to Ryder, Bingham, and Rani Rose. Hawn's youngest son, Wyatt Russell, now has two sons of his own, Buddy Prine and Boone Joseph, making Hawn the grandmother of eight.

It's a role that Hawn adores, as she told Hoda Kotb, "Being a go-go grandmother, I love it." But despite being the matriarch of such a large brood, Hawn is still the charming, quirky blonde the world fell in love with back in the 1960s. "I don't think I've changed at all," the actor said about being a grandmother.

In March 2025, Goldie Hawn made an appearance at the Oscars to present the awards for best animated feature and best animated short with "The Amazing Spider-Man" star Andrew Garfield. Hawn was attempting to read the teleprompter when she playfully asked Garfield for an assist. "Sweetheart, can you read that? I can't read that," she said. "I'm completely blind. I mean, I am! Cataracts" (via E! News). The moment got people talking and worrying about Hawn's health. But the actor was just trying to be funny, exaggerating her condition for laughs, and didn't mean to cause alarm. "Goldie is embarrassed that the focus of her Oscar night was her vision issues, it is not something she wanted everyone talking about," a source told Daily Mail.

But Hawn's eyesight was not the only part of her Oscars appearance that got the attention of the audience. During their time onstage together, Garfield shared a heartfelt message with Hawn, telling her that his late mother had been such a fan, and thanking her for bringing his mother so much joy during her life. Garfield's words moved Hawn to tears, and it was a very sweet moment for both actors.

Hawn's son Oliver Hudson sure thought so, and posted about it on Instagram, writing, "I cried, I laughed, I swelled with pride and then became concerned that my mom was now gonna love Andrew Garfield more than me.." Hudson then added that his mom had yet to answer any of his texts, to which Hawn later replied, "I'm sorry I didn't answer your texts honey, I was talking to Andrew!!!"