Far Out
Goldie Hawn Picks Her 5 Best Movies She Made
By Tim Bradley
July 26, 2025
Not many actors can claim to have won an Oscar with their first significant film role, but Goldie Hawn is one of those select few. The comedy legend grabbed a golden statue at the first instance of her being nominated, thanks to her performance in 1969’s Cactus Flower as a 21-year-old alongside acting greats Walter Matthau and Ingrid Bergman in a film helmed by The Odd Couple director Gene Saks.
It marked the start of what would become a 56-year (and counting) career in Hollywood for Hawn, who started out as a professional dancer around New York City before making the move to California in the late 1960s. It was there she picked up a few minor TV roles before landing her break on Rowan and Martin’s Laugh-In, a network sketch show that ran for five years and featured guest performers including Tony Curtis and Sammy Davis Jr.
It was due to her work on the show that she was cast in Cactus Flower, and after winning the Academy Award, she was in high demand, acting in a string of comedy hits throughout the ‘70s and ‘80s, as well as releasing her own country album with the help of Dolly Parton.
Hawn recently spoke to The Academy to select her favorite films from her time making movies, outlining some of the best times she spent on set and choosing movies from three different decades.
First up on her list is The Sugarland Express, a film that’s notable for being Steven Spielberg’s first major movie and the first time he teamed up with legendary composer John Williams. A comedy drama, it tells the story of a husband and wife who take a police officer hostage to stop their child from being placed in foster care. Hawn plays the female lead in the movie, which didn’t fare too well at the box office but has since been seen as something of a cult classic, involving almost as many police cars as The Blues Brothers.
Next, Hawn chose Overboard, a 1987 romantic comedy in which she starred opposite her partner, Kurt Russell, with whom she has been romantically linked ever since. The film, directed by Garry Marshall, who also directed Pretty Woman, didn’t gain much traction upon its release, with the concept described as “creepy” and the source material derided as “waterlogged.”
That certainly wasn’t the case with 1980s Private Benjamin, however, probably the movie for which Hawn is most famous. A box office smash upon release, the film tells the story of a young high-society widow seeking direction after losing her husband, who decides to enlist in the army. The movie was nominated for three Academy Awards, including one for Hawn, whose performance was described at the time as “totally charming”.
Another movie that she has fond memories of making is 1996’s The First Wives Club, a comedy in which she stars alongside Bette Midler and Diane Keaton as three divorcees who decide to get back at their husbands for ditching them for younger women. A huge hit that grossed over $ 150 million at the box office, the film was something of an antidote to the uber-masculine blockbusters released alongside it that summer, such as The Rock and Independence Day. A sequel starring the original cast has been in development for almost 20 years.
Finally, Hawn went with another ‘90s movie, Woody Allen’s musical comedy Everyone Says I Love You, in which she starred as part of an ensemble cast that also included Drew Barrymore and Edward Norton. It was a sizable flop at the box office, with audiences seemingly not enthused by the premise of a collection of glamorous upper-class people singing about their problems. However, the actor has fond memories of the production nonetheless, stating, “You know what, I love that film. I loved dancing along the Seine.”
Hawn has shown true longevity over a successful career in movies, despite taking an extended ten-year break from acting at the start of the century, and has enjoyed the vast majority of it. As she says, “Sometimes you remember making a movie as just being really fun, and sometimes it doesn’t always turn out good. I think I got lucky with these five”.
Goldie Hawn’s five favourite Goldie Hawn films:
- The Sugarland Express (Steven Spielberg, 1974)
- Overboard (Garry Marshall, 1987)
- Private Benjamin (Howard Zieff, 1980)
- The First Wives Club (Robert Harling, 1996)
- Everyone Says I Love You (Woody Allen, 1996)
