Goldie Hawn Has Had A Stunning Hollywood Transformation

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Goldie Hawn entered the world in 1945, and, since then, she's undergone one of Hollywood's most stunning transformations. "Getting older is a fact of life. By living mindfully you understand that there are many transitions in life. You just go through them," she once told Porter of her evolution (via People).

As a toddler, Hawn discovered an early passion for dance. And though Hawn's parents supported her, they wanted her to have practical ambitions. In a conversation for Interview with her daughter Kate Hudson, Hawn said she "believed that I could become a dance teacher," but also "wanted to be on the Broadway stage. I didn't think much beyond that, because I didn't think I could," she added. That dream wavered slightly when a less than straight-laced Hawn hit the seventh grade and fell in with the wrong crowd. "I was skipping school some of the time, smoking," she told Playboy.

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Thankfully, the future star got back on the straight and narrow and pursued dance, making regular, two-hour round trips to her favorite dance studio as a teenager. "I had a '54 Ford or something that cost me 50 bucks and had a hole in the bottom of the floor. So, I would drive to a night class on a two-lane highway in winter. I'd wrap my feet in blankets and when I would finally get there, they were blocks of ice," she recalled to Interview. "Then I'd turn around and wrap my feet again and drive back to my house." Hawn even worked as a ballet teacher for several years before moving to New York City to pursue fame. 

In the early 1960s, Goldie Hawn moved to the Big Apple and became a go-go dancer. "I made $25 a night, and I was able to make my rent, with the four girls I lived with," she told Interview, adding that she kept the job dancing on tables secret from her parents. And it was a dark time. "The number of times that I was accosted, followed, lied to, manipulated, used — you couldn't make a movie out of it, because no one would believe it," she told Playboy, recalling men who would expose themselves to her.

At age 19, she swapped coasts and moved to California after landing a theater gig as a dancer. The flight alone was a huge step for the Washington, D.C., native. "I'll never forget flying across the desert," she recalled to Interview. "I had no idea where my life was going. I believed this was a short gig and that I would come home and marry a Jewish dentist and have a beautiful little house with a picket fence and raise children and have a dancing school."

Of course, that didn't happen, as Hawn soon found TV success. In 1967, she starred on "Good Morning World" before landing a regular gig on "Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In." The show made Hawn a huge star, as America fell in love with her light-hearted nature. "[Hawn's co-star] Ruth Buzzi would always do something to screw up Goldie's cue cards," producer George Schlatter recalled to Closer. "Goldie is really a brilliant woman, but when she gets confused, she laughs, and her laugh is just golden."

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1969 was a big year for Goldie Hawn, personally and professionally. In addition to marrying her first husband Gus Trikonis, she landed her first major movie role in "Cactus Flower" alongside Ingrid Bergman and Walter Matthau. The following year, Hawn won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress in "Cactus Flower." She couldn't attend the ceremony due to work commitments, and she later admitted she didn't even watch the show.

"I was so sure that I wasn't going to win it that I went to bed that night in London forgetting that the Academy Awards were scheduled," she told Playboy. Hawn later told Variety she regretted not attending. "It's something that I look back on now and think, 'It would have been so great to be able to have done that.'" The star landed a string of other major roles in the next few years, in movies including 1970's "There's a Girl in My Soup," 1971's "$," and 1972's "Butterflies Are Free." 

It wasn't just the big screen Hawn set her sights on, though. Also in 1972, she attempted to launch a music career. Hawn released her debut (and only) album, a country project entitled "Goldie," which included a cover of Dolly Parton's "My Blue Tears." But while her glittering career grew, her relationship floundered. Hawn and Trikonis split in 1973, and things turned nasty. Trikonis asked his estranged wife for $75,000 in the divorce, and she later told People, "I was hurt. He never supported me a day in his life. I don't blame him for being unemployed — having me for a wife, it was very hard for him to build up confidence."

Goldie Hawn's divorce from Gus Trikonis wasn't finalized until 1976, the same year she became engaged to Bill Hudson and fell pregnant with their first child, Oliver Hudson. "I can't wait for this baby!" she told People. "This pregnancy is not an accident ... I've waited a long time for the right union, the right time and the right daddy." She married Bill that year and they welcomed their second child, Kate Hudson, in 1979. Sadly, the romance didn't last much longer, and the couple split in 1980.

But it didn't take Hawn too long to find her next love. She started dating her "Swing Shift" co-star Kurt Russell in 1983, after first meeting him years earlier on the set of "The One and Only, Genuine, Original Family Band." "I was 21 and he was 16 and I thought he was adorable but he was much too young," she said on radio show "Desert Island Discs" (via People). "And then years later we met up again and I liked him and I remembered that I liked him very much when I first met him." The couple's five-year age difference, close to the ideal age gap for a successful relationship, ultimately proved inconsequential in their long-lasting romance. 

Hawn's son Oliver later said the period between his mom's split with Bill Hudson and her romance with Kurt Russell wasn't the easiest on him. "I felt unprotected at times," he said on the "Sibling Revelry" podcast. "She would be working and away. She had new boyfriends that I didn't really like. She was living her life ... This is my own perception as a child who didn't have a dad and needed her to be there and she just wasn't sometimes."

Goldie Hawn's star continued to rise throughout the 1980s as she landed an array of other big roles, including a starring part in "Private Benjamin," which she also executive produced. Hawn said that, as a woman, the opportunity to produce a major movie wasn't exactly handed to her on a silver platter — not that she cared. "The Hollywood film industry at that time was still controlled by men. But none of us even thought of that as a problem or perceived any glass ceiling at the time. It was an exciting time for all of us," she wrote in her book, "A Lotus Grows in the Mud."

Her no-nonsense approach to production earned her a straight-talking reputation. "After I did 'Private Benjamin,' suddenly the reputation was that Goldie Hawn calls her own shots," she told Interview. "And directors said, 'Is she hard to work with?' Because I didn't lie down. I said what I wanted to say." The beauty put her brains to good use and went on to star in and produce 1984's "Protocol" as well as 1986's "Wildcats."

Life couldn't have been much better for Hawn in the '80s, and her fierce, on-trend outfits proved that. She was spotted in several of the decade's biggest fashion trends, as she continued to bolster her reputation as a style icon. From then-trendy Madonna-esque cone bras, to Western-inspired fringe that made a fashion comeback in summer 2023,  Hawn wore it all.

Goldie Hawn wasn't only a huge star in 1985, she was also a major sex symbol — and she was happy to embrace it. She appeared on the cover of Playboy, later saying, "I figured, if you're going to do something, go all the way with it. As I posed, I kept asking myself, 'What am I doing sitting in a champagne glass posing for the cover of Playboy?' I mean, I'm an executive! How many other producers would do this?"

In 1986, Hawn welcomed her third child (her first with Kurt Russell), Wyatt Russell. Family also became a big a part of her work life as Hawn and Russell worked together on "Overboard" in 1987. "Making 'Overboard' was the happiest experience of my working life because I never had to say goodbye to Kurt in the morning," Hawn told The Los Angeles Times. "And the kids could come with us, and so our kids could become friends with the four kids in the movie ... For six weeks we lived in Mendocino in a Victorian storybook house in the middle of the woods ... We just really fell in love all over again."

The successes kept rolling in, as the 1990s marked two of Hawn's most beloved movies. In 1992, she starred as Helen Sharp in "Death Becomes Her" alongside Meryl Streep and Bruce Willis. Four years later, another notable movie role came her way when she teamed up with Bette Midler and Diane Keaton for the trio comedy "The First Wives Club."

Not content with being a hugely successful actor and movie producer (and why should she have been?) Goldie Hawn was ready to flex her directing muscles in 1997. The multi-hyphenate made her directorial debut on "Hope," starring Catherine O'Hara. The move was even more impressive considering many older women felt pushed out of the movie industry at the time. "It's very hard to be a woman in your mid-forties in Hollywood," Nancy Meyers, co-writer of "Private Benjamin," told Vanity Fair in 1992. "It's always hard for women, but it's especially hard now. And Goldie is working. All the time."

While Hawn's life appeared uber-glamorous from the outside, things were very normal behind the scenes for the mom of three. "Taking the kids to school, then coming to work in sweatpants, schlepping scripts I want to produce, having a desk piled with stuff I haven't got to yet, dishing up lentils — that's the part nobody sees," she told The New York Times. Still, that didn't mean juggling all her responsibilities was easy. "It's fun, but you have to prioritize," she told Vanity Fair. 

Despite a busy home life, Hawn wasn't about to tone down her glam look. In 1999, the star attended a benefit dinner in a light blue, sheer, plunging dress that got people staring. After her choice of ensemble raised eyebrows, her publicist hit back to The Daily News (via Rediff), "Goldie is a drop-dead gorgeous woman who turns heads." And they weren't wrong.

Goldie Hawn turned her attention away from movies and towards helping others in 2003, creating the The Goldie Hawn Foundation. The non-profit applied "cutting edge scientific research to create educational programs that support the social and emotional development of children," namely the MindUP curriculum. Hawn became a grandmother the following year when Kate Hudson welcomed her first child, Ryder Russell Robinson. But she didn't let grandparent-hood dull her sparkle. "I don't think I've changed at all," Hawn said on "Making Space with Hoda Kotb" in 2024. The actor, director, and producer even gave herself a fitting moniker. "Being a go-go grandmother, I love it," she added.

Though Hawn may not have let her new role as a grandma change her, her beauty preferences did evolve as she aged. "When you get older you can't wear as much [makeup]," she told Fashion in 2013. Hawn still injected some fun into her looks, however. She made one of her boldest hair changes in 2014 when she added a pink streak to her signature blond mane. Kate Hudson shared a photo of herself and her mom with matching pink hair, in a power move, on Instagram, confirming they did it for Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Hawn later dialed up the glam for her son Oliver Hudson's wedding in 2006, proving she was no frumpy mother of the groom in a flowy, champagne gown.

Goldie Hawn defied convention by looking as young as ever a year after celebrating her milestone 70th birthday, giving the stunning as ever Susan Sarandon a run for her money. "I try to stay positive and be very, very active. I walk every day and I run," Hawn told People in 2017, confirming she worked out and drank green juices. "I don't put a lot of food in my stomach and I don't mix my foods too much," she added.

But while Hawn was still very much in the spotlight, she'd dialled back on work. The talented actor hadn't taken on a big movie role since 2002's "The Banger Sisters" and explained to Kate Hudson for Interview that it was an intentional part of her transformation as she turned her attention to self-development. "I believe that life is about doing. It's about changing. It's about transitioning. I can't imagine, as a human being, not being able to grow," she said, joining the ranks of celebrities aging with confidence.

"When I turned 50, I asked some of my girlfriends, all actresses of the same age, 'What are we going to do now?' I wanted to dig deep and say, 'Who am I now? What do I have to offer? What do I have to learn?'" Despite her personal reflections, the Oscar winner was willing to get back in front of the camera for the right project. In 2017, she appeared alongside Amy Schumer in the mother/daughter comedy "Snatched."

In 2020, Goldie Hawn was on-screen again with her partner Kurt Russell. The longtime couple appeared in the Netflix holiday movie "The Christmas Chronicles: Part 2," in which she played the Mrs. Claus to her partner's Santa Claus. "I was having a great time," she said on "The Ellen DeGeneres Show." "You've got to understand, I think he's one of the great actors that we have. For me to work with Kurt was really awesome," she gushed.

Four years later, Hawn opened up to E! News about the spicy reason their relationship still worked after so many years. "You have to have good sex. Because sex is something that connects you and creates more belonging. People who have healthy sexual relationships usually last a lot longer," she candidly shared, joining Jane Fonda in breaking the stigma around intimacy as you age. "But it's not just because of the act, it's because of the warmth and the intimacy that it creates," she added.

Hawn once again cemented herself as a beauty icon in 2020. The superstar appeared alongside daughter Kate Hudson and her then-baby granddaughter Rani Rose on the cover of People's iconic "Most Beautiful" issue. To celebrate its 30th anniversary, Hawn also appeared on a cover solo, confirming once and for all age is nothing but a number.

Things came full-circle for Goldie Hawn in 2025 when she created an educational short film for The Goldie Hawn Foundation with some very special actors: her grandchildren. "I wrote and produced it, and three of my grandkids, Wilder, Bodhi, and Rio, did the voices," she told People. "It was a memorable joy that I will have for the rest of my life, and the children will never forget it," she added. The project aimed to educate teachers and young people about the different parts of the brain.

2025 also marked Hawn's 80th birthday, and she'd clearly learned the secret to a happy and successful transformation. Speaking on "Making Space with Hoda Kotb," the life-long star explained her inspiring life mantra. "My spirit was my lifeforce. That wasn't anything I was going to give up. My happiness would be nothing that I would give up. For no man, no thing, no nothing," she said. "And if somebody stole that from me, they're out. Because that's a gift." And those are truly words to live by.