NCIS: Los Angeles Star Linda Hunt Talks About Her Height

• Linda Hunt plays the sassy leader Hetty Lange on NCIS: Los Angeles.
• The actress was diagnosed with a form of dwarfism toward the end of her high school career.
• She opened up about her 4-foot-9-inch-height and how it affected her life.

There are a million reasons why NCIS: Los Angeles fans adore Linda Hunt, who plays Hetty Lange on the show. She always has her team’s back, she serves the best one-liners, and she knows how to make an entrance (see the #Densi wedding as proof). So, it saddens any loyal Linda supporter to hear that she’s had to face some trying times as a child.

Linda grew up in Westport, Connecticut, where she lived with her parents, Elsie and Raymond. The now Academy Award-winning actress has always been small in stature, and she admitted to CBS Sunday Morning that her classmates often called attention to that fact.

We’re so glad Hetty’s back!

“Everybody either wanted to take care of me or push me around, you know?” she said. “I was teased a lot, sure I was, of course. Fourth grade, fifth grade, sixth grade, everybody was taking their spurts except me. I was not growing up.”

The outlet reports that Linda was diagnosed with a form of dwarfism, and she’d never grow taller than her current height of 4 feet 9 inches. Though she said in an interview with The Bulletin that she was “totally alienated by school," her supportive family kept her going.

“I was so lucky my parents were encouraging on every level,” she said.

Everything changed for Linda when she saw a production of Peter Pan—her first Broadway show. “It was bigger than life,” she said, adding that “In some sense, I longed to be bigger than life, because I wasn’t.”

Her father had some concerns about Linda making it in Hollywood, but thankfully, she decided to try her hand at acting. She’s since won an Oscar for her role in The Year of Living Dangerously and earned parts in every type of production, from Grandmother Willow in Pocahontas, to the operations manager we all know and love on NCIS: LA.

We love these three!

The 73-year-old now enjoys her time on the CBS drama, which she made a triumphant return to recently after taking time off to recover from a scary accident. And she told CBS that she rarely has felt more at home than when surrounded by this cast.

“I get a kick out of it!” she said.

Megan Stein

Megan Stein is the executive editor for The Pioneer Woman, and oversees entertainment, features, and news for the website. Whether it's catching up on the latest true crime podcast, or re-watching the best '80s movies for the zillionth time, she's always here to talk about anything and everything relating to pop culture.