- Linda Hunt, The Year of Living Dangerously, 1982. Australian director Peter Weir first chose a fellow Aussie for the mercurial, likable, complicated and exotic dwarf character Billy Kwan – finally played by Hunt, a New York stage actress “who enters the role so fully,” praised Chicago critic Roger Ebert, “that it never occurs to us that she is not a man. This is what great acting is, a magical transformation of one person into another.” Oscar agreed. Weir had previously auditioned Bob Balaban, Joel Grey and Wallace Shawn.
Birth year: Death year: Other name: Casting Calls: 1