A Bonnie lass in Tinseltown

By Olivia Tracey

Bonnie Hunt is a character. Both the actress and the person are like Siamese twins, melting off celluloid into reality like a ghost becoming her shadow. The quintessential girl next door, a Doris Day meets Sally Field, she is a person you completely warm to because she’s so endearingly human. “Don’t I know you?” people ask her incessantly, to which she cutely replies, “Probably Playboy.”

Humor is indeed one of Bonnie Hunt’s many assets — on screen and off. At her office in MGM, Santa Monica, her wit rolls out at such lightening speed that I’m left seriously lagging behind. As she pours coffee from her flask, she points to one of Nadia’s (her director of development) numerous paintings, an oval-shaped wealth of color that, Bonnie tells me, was once a toilet seat. “Really,” says I with a mix of childlike gullibility and artistic appreciation, only to realize through Bonnie’s giggles that again I’m a beat behind. I should really have taken a few lessons in cop-on before I met this woman.

And what a woman she is. Born and raised in a blue-collar neighborhood in Northwest Chicago to Bob and Alice, her Irish father and Polish mother, Bonnie is the second youngest of seven children, earning her the title of “Number 6.” Her paternal grandfather hailed from Ballymote, Co. Sligo, so it’s not surprising to find a plethora of Irish names among her siblings, who include Patrick, Kevin, Thomas, Kathleen, Mary and Carol. Like any Irish household, they were not short on arguments, but always infused with love and humor. She recalls clearly her mother vehemently closing all the windows as soon as an argument would start so that the neighbors wouldn’t hear.

“Every Sunday morning going to church, we were like Happy Family, Take 1,” she said, laughing. Sounds familiar. She describes her mother as a born mom, full of love and warmth, a natural entertainer who gave birth to her audience. She also warmly remembers family and neighborly gatherings on the front porch, a host of colorful characters telling equally colorful tales. It was all so simple, and the perfect training ground for her future as a writer and actress.

However, while she pursued her artistic ambitions with the renowned Second City troupe in Chicago, she also worked as a nurse at Northwestern University Hospital. Mind you, she almost never completed her nurse’s training, as her beloved father died suddenly from a heart attack when she was only 18. Confused, pained and angry, she was ready to quit her nursing career. However, divine intervention kept her on track.

Forever dedicated and attentive to her patients, she would gladly listen to all their stories. Just as she was planning to leave, Mr. O’Brien, an Irish patient dying of cancer, told her how lucky he felt to have that time to prepare and say goodbye to his loved ones, unlike, he continued, a former work colleague and friend who had just died suddenly from a heart attack. He was in fact talking about Bonnie’s dad. So touched was she by the connection that she decided to stay and take care of Mr. O’Brien. He passed away three months later and Bonnie continued her nursing career for another five years.

In that time, she would listen to the patients’ stories, take their ideas for skits and use them for her writing and acting at Second City. She would then round up her creative pals, including the then-unknown Jim Belushi and Chris Barnes, to visit the hospital and perform the skits for the patients, both parties earning tremendous satisfaction from the exchange. She became the patients’ line to life. So, when she booked her first movie role as the toothpick-dropping waitress in Barry Levinson’s “Rainman,” there was no end to the excitement in the wards. Nurse Bonnie opposite Dustine Hoffman and Tom Cruise. Wow.

A fledgling at the time to the movie set and its terminology, Bonnie innocently associated the term “hit your mark” with “on your marks, get set, go.” Consequently, she would sprint like an athlete to her appointed spot, much to the amazement and amusement of cast and crew. She also remembered Dustin Hoffman calling The Shriners Hospital for Crippled Children where her mom worked to invite her and Bonnie’s three sisters to the set, flights included. But mom wears the pants, even when it comes to Dustin Hoffman, and so insisted on driving from their Chicago home to the set in Cincinnati.

Since then mom has had many an opportunity to visit many a set, thanks to Bonnie’s continued success. Credits include no less than Cameron Crowe’s smash “Jerry Maguire” as Renee Zellweger’s quick-witted sister; Marisa Tomei’s best friend in Universal’s “Beethoven” films, “Dave,” “A Bug’s Life,” “Jumanji,” Sydney Pollack’s “Random Hearts” with Harrison Ford and Kristin Scott Thomas, and, most recently, opposite Tom Hanks in “The Green Mile.”

In 1993, she established her own production company, calling it after her parents, “Bob & Alice.” Her first project was “The Building,” with David Letterman, which earned her recognition as the first woman to write, produce and star in her own TV series. Then came “Bonnie,” her critically acclaimed CBS series, which she also wrote, directed and starred in. Back on the big screen was the multi-award-winning “Return to Me,” her first screenplay co-written with creative collaborator Don Lake and shot almost entirely in the Chicago hometown. She also directed and starred in the film playing Belushi’s wife along with an all-star cast including Minnie Driver, David Duchovny, the late Carroll O’Connor, Bob Loggia and Joely Richardson. She has a first book deal with MGM, has just wrapped on the Pete Jones feature “Stolen Summer,” with Aidan Quinn and Kevin Pollak, and is currently casting her newest project, “Anniversary” which she also wrote. Next stop, a return to TV.

In the midst of all this, she even found time to get married. Thirteen years ago, wearing her mom’s wedding gown and veil, she wed investment banker John Kelly Patrick Murphy of County Cork ancestry. I’m told that his grandfather was quite a fiddler, the recordings of which they still have and treasure, while his father was never shy of doing an Irish jig, particularly on St. Patrick’s Day.

Meanwhile, Bonnie Hunt is not shy of anything. Truly blessed with the blarney, it’s not surprising that Entertainment Weekly vote her “the hands-down best [talk show] guest in America.” Whether it’s writing, acting, producing or directing, she is happiest telling good stories, treating each assignment as though it were her last and always with heartfelt gratitude. Bob and Alice can indeed preside proudly on the wall of her office, a picture of happiness on their wedding day, like guardian angels to their Bonnie lass.