This piece was adapted from one that originally appeared in Issue 741 of HELLO! Canada. To read the full piece, pick up the issue, on newsstands now!
Laughter has certainly defined Goldie Hawn's life, both as a Hollywood icon and as a devoted partner, mother and grandmother.
The gal who rose to fame in her 20s playing the quintessential ditzy blond in the popular 1960s sketch show Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In and was the era's "It" girl is still captivating audiences as she turns 75.
This month, she reprises her role as Mrs. Claus alongside Kurt Russell's Santa in Netflix's The Christmas Chronicles 2.
While comedy is what made Goldie a star, it wasn't on her radar growing up in Maryland as the younger daughter of a working mom and musician father.
"I wanted to be a prima ballerina or a Broadway chorus girl, but never the goofy, crazy Goldie Hawn most people think of today," she wrote in her 2005 memoir, Goldie: A Lotus Grows in the Mind. "That comedy just happened, unintentionally, and I think it all began with a desire to be liked and to fit in. Well, that and the fact that some people just seem to look at my face and laugh."
Scroll through the gallery (or click through if you're on desktop) for a look back at Goldie's golden moments as she turns 75!
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Photo: © Joseph Klipple/Getty Images
"I called you Goldie after the woman who meant the most to me in my life," her mom replied. "I also gave you that name because I knew nobody would ever forget it."
Laura would appear in two of Goldie's films: Swing Shift and Deceived.
Photo: © Joseph Klipple/Getty Images
Goldie ran her own ballet school in Washington, D.C. before trying her luck in New York City. She's seen at left at age 19.
Photo: © Joseph Klipple/Getty Images
"Lambchop helped me through my early troubled years of success," she said.
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Photo: © Bettmann/Getty Images
"I didn't plan on becoming a producer... I only wanted to create better roles for myself," she later said.
Photo: © Warner Bros/Archive Photos/Getty Images
"A miracle appened. Kurt Russell was sent to us by God. Here was a grown man who was capable of loving fully, with all of his heart."
They went on to co-star in 1987's Overboard. Their baby, Wyatt, took his first steps on-set.
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Photo: © Michael Buckner/Getty Images for The Hawn Foundation
In 2017, she returned as Amy Schumer's mom in Snatched.
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Photo: © Axelle/Bauer-Griffin/FilmMagic
"Mom's like 'Because the second they leave your body, they don't belong to you anymore.' I think that was the most powerful thing she's ever said to me."
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