November 21: Goldie

Goldie Hawn, whose arc in show business paralleled the arc of feminist empowerment in the 1970s, was born in Washington, DC on this date in 1945. Hawn played a giggling “dumb blonde” bikini girl on Rowan and Martin’s Laugh-In (1968-’73). By 1980, she was producer and star of Private Benjamin, a comedy (82 out of 100 in the American Film Institute’s “100 Funniest Movies” poll) about a “Jewish American Princess” who becomes a tough soldier and walks out on controlling, sexist men; the performance got her nominated for a Best Actress Academy Award. In 1984, she starred in Swing Shift, a film about “Rosie the Riveter” women and issues of sexual fidelity and self-awareness that arose among them during wartime. Hawn’s father was a direct descendant of Edward Rutledge, the youngest signatory of the Declaration of Independence, while her mother was Jewish and gave Hawn a Jewish upbringing. Today, Hawn identifies as a Jewish Buddhist, and her Hawn Foundation teaches Buddhist mindfulness training to school children kindergarten through seventh-grade. For an interview with her about children, education, and self-awareness, click here. “We have to embrace obstacles to reach the next stage of joy.” —Goldie Hawn