‘Ncis: Los Angeles’ Confirms Linda Hunt Won’t Return This Season – but Here’s When She’ll Be Back

Linda Hunt has become one of the most popular actors on television thanks to her appearances on NCIS Los Angeles. Starring as “Hetty Lange,” the 77-year-old veteran has featured in 280 episodes of the show, all told. However, with the start of season 13, fans noticed a worrying trend: she was hardly to be seen at all.

With the COVID pandemic raging worldwide, Hunt only made a handful of appearances, including one in the season finale. This naturally led to a big question mark hanging over the prospect of her returning to the show or not.

Now, NCIS producer Scott R. Gemmill has given fans news on Hetty’s future.

So how did Linda Hunt get to star on the show anyway? And what can fans expect moving forward? Here’s all you need to know about the Academy Award-winning actress.

Linda Hunt was born on April 2, 1945 in Morristown, New Jersey. She was raised in Connecticut by her parents, Elsie and Raymond Hunt. At an early age, though, when Linda was only half-a-year-old, her parents noticed something that gave them cause for worry.

Linda’s motor skills weren’t developing at the usual rate, so her mother and father took her to a hospital in New York to seek help.

Linda Hunt – early life

What doctors found wasn’t exactly the news Linda’s parents wanted. As The Bulletin reported in 1991, examinations showed she was suffering from a form of cretinism – a condition of severely stunted physical and mental growth – which would likely eventually lead to Linda being institutionalized.

Elsie and Raymond, however, were not going to let hope fade. Instead, they were determined to support their beloved Linda and used books and theater to encourage her and help with her development.

By the time Linda started school, her motor skills were pretty much on par with the average child. Sadly, she struggled even so due to her learning difficulties and short stature.

“I was totally alienated by school almost from the first day, I had a bad experience with a teacher and was made to feel stupid. I felt bad that I didn’t fit in,” Hunt said.

“Everybody either wanted to take care of me or push me around, you know? I was teased a lot, sure I was, of course,” she told CBS.

“Fourth grade, fifth grade, sixth grade, everybody was taking their spurts except me.”

“I was a very determined kid”

The harsh treatment was tough on Hunt, as it would’ve been for anyone. However, she decided to use it as a motivational technique since she understood that she was unique.

“I was a very determined kid. This happens to kids who are different in any way,” Linda told the Daily Beast.

Though Linda had a rough time at school, her parents were determined to see their beloved daughter succeed. Then, at the age of eight, she saw something that changed everything.

Speaking to The Bulletin, Linda explained that she had always loved acting and theater. Her most significant source of inspiration came when she was eight years of age after her parents brought her to see the Broadway musical, Peter Pan.

“I’m lucky that I’ve always known what I wanted to do,” she told the newspaper. “[Mary Martin, who played Peter] was astonishing in her belief in the world she was creating, and that was fascinating to me. She had the power to make others believe what was in her mind.”

“It was bigger than life. And that in some sense, I longed to be bigger than life because I wasn’t,” she explained to CBS.