Goldie Jeanne Hawn (born November 21, 1945) is an Academy Award-winning American actress, director and producer. She is best known for starring in a series of successful film comedies during the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s. Her daughter is Kate Hudson, who is also a well-known, Oscar-nominated actress. Her son, Oliver Hudson, is a television and film actor as well.Hawn was married to Gus Trikonis from 1969 to 1976. She married Bill Hudson, of the Hudson Brothers, in 1976; the two divorced in 1980 and have two children, Oliver (born 1976) and Kate Hudson (born 1979), both of whom are now noted actors.
Hawn has been in a relationship with actor Kurt Russell since 1982, when the two reconnected on the set of Swing Shift (they previously met while filming 1968's The One and Only, Genuine, Original Family Band). The couple have a son together, Wyatt Russell, who lives in Vancouver, B.C., Canada, learning and playing hockey. Wyatt is currently a goalie with the Brampton Capitals of the Ontario Provincial Junior A Hockey League. He starts college in 2007 and will be playing for the CHA Champion University of Alabama in Huntsville Chargers. She also is stepmother to Kurt Russell's son Boston. Hawn became a grandmother on January 7, 2004, when her daughter, Kate Hudson, gave birth to son Ryder Russell Robinson.
Hawn became involved in Eastern philosophy in 1972. She is a practicing Buddhist and has raised her children in both Buddhist and Jewish traditions. She has stated on the Larry King Show that she is a Jewish Buddhist, but neither more Jewish nor more Buddhist. Even though she might have converted to Buddhism, she has said in an interview that she never had to forsake her Jewish heritage to embrace Buddhism. In many interviews, she states that she still holds Jewish beliefs and her Jewish religion and heritage comes before Buddhism. Hawn travels to India annually, and has visited Israel, stating that she felt a strong identification with its people.
Moreover, Hawn founded and funds the Goldie Hawn Institute, formerly called the Bright Lights Foundation. The institute teaches the Buddhist technique of mindfulness training; where fourth through seventh graders are instructed in mindful awareness techniques and positive thinking skills, then tested for changes in behavior, social and emotional competence, and moral development. One school official reports that in one classroom, the children went from having the most behavioral problems, to having zero behavioral problems.
Hawn realizes that many parents oppose brining in Buddhists methods into public schools, and recently stated in Greater Good Magazine, published by Greater Good Science Center: "There will always be people who see this as scary, or as some kind of Eastern philosophy that they don't want for their kids." Hawn adds, "Mindfulness gives kids a tool for understanding how their brain works, for having more self control."
