Laura Linney
| Laura Linney | |
|---|---|
 Linney, a presenter at the Obama Inaugural Celebration at the Lincoln Memorial, January 2009 |
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| Born | Laura Leggett Linney February 5, 1964 New York, NY, United States |
| Nationality | American |
| Education | Brown University (BFA 1986), Juilliard School (1990) |
| Occupation | Actress |
| Years active | 1992–present |
| Television | John Adams The Big C Frasier |
| Spouse(s) | David Adkins (1995–2000; divorced) Marc Schauer (2009–present) |
| Parents | Romulus Linney (deceased) Miriam Anderson Perse (née Leggett) |
| Relatives | Romulus Zachariah Linney (great-great-grandfather) |
Laura Leggett Linney (born February 5, 1964) is an American actress of film, television, and theatre. She is most well known for her performances in films such as The Truman Show, Mystic River and Kinsey, among others. As of 2012[update] she is playing the lead role of Cathy Jamison in the Showtime series The Big C, which has recently been renewed for a fourth and final season.
During her career she has received three Emmy Awards, two Golden Globe Awards and a Screen Actors Guild Award. Additionally she has been the recipient of three Academy Award nominations and three Tony Award nominations.
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Early life and education [edit]
Linney was born in Manhattan. Her mother, Miriam Anderson "Ann" Perse (née Leggett), is a nurse who worked at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, and her father, Romulus Zachariah Linney IV, was a well-known playwright and professor (he died on January 15, 2011).[1][2][3][4] Linney's paternal great-great-grandfather was Republican U.S. Congressman Romulus Zachariah Linney. Linney grew up under modest circumstances, living with her mother in a small one-bedroom apartment, after her parents' divorce.[5] She has a half-sister, Susan, from her father's second marriage.
She is a 1982 graduate of Northfield Mount Hermon School, an elite preparatory school in New England, for which she currently serves as the chair of the Arts Advisory Council. She then attended Northwestern University before transferring to Brown University, where she studied acting with Jim Barnhill and John Emigh and served on the board of Production Workshop, the university's student theatre group.[3] Linney graduated from Brown with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in 1986.[6] She went on to study acting at the Juilliard School as a member of Group 19 (1986–1990), which also included Jeanne Tripplehorn.[7] Linney later received an honorary Doctor of Fine Arts degree from Juilliard when she delivered the school's commencement address in 2009.[8]
Career [edit]
Film [edit]
Linney appeared in minor roles in a few early 1990s films, including Dave in 1993, before coming to prominence in the public television mini-series Tales of the City.[3] She was then cast in a series of high-profile thrillers, including Congo, Primal Fear and Absolute Power. She made her Hollywood breakthrough in 1998, playing Jim Carrey's on-screen wife in The Truman Show, for which she received critical acclaim.[3]
In 2000, Linney was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress for her role in the film You Can Count on Me.[3] The same year, she also appeared in the role of an artist's model in the low-budget film Maze with Rob Morrow. In 2003, Linney appeared in several notable films, including Mystic River, Love Actually and The Life of David Gale. Her 2004 performance in Kinsey, again as the title character's wife, was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.[3]
In 2005, Linney starred in the horror film The Exorcism of Emily Rose and the comedy-drama The Squid and the Whale. For the latter role, she received a Golden Globe nomination for "Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy". In 2006, Linney appeared in the political satire Man of the Year, the comedy Driving Lessons (starring Rupert Grint of Harry Potter fame), and the Australian drama Jindabyne by Ray Lawrence. Jindabyne was based on Raymond Carver's short story So Much Water so Close to Home.
In 2007, Linney appeared in the spy thriller Breach, the comedy-drama The Nanny Diaries opposite Scarlett Johansson and based on the book by Emma McLaughlin and Nicola Kraus,[9] and The Savages with Philip Seymour Hoffman.[3] She received a third Academy Award nomination for The Savages, this time for Best Actress.[10]
In 2008, Linney starred in The Other Man, opposite Liam Neeson, with whom she had starred in Kinsey and Love Actually, and Antonio Banderas.
Television [edit]
Linney starred as Mary Ann Singleton in the television adaptations of Armistead Maupin's Tales of the City books (1993, 1998 and 2001). She won her first Emmy Award[11] in 2002 for "Outstanding Lead Actress in a Miniseries or a Movie" for Wild Iris. In 2004, she won her second Emmy Award as "Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series," for her recurring role as the final love interest of Frasier Crane in the television series Frasier.[3] In 2008, Linney won an Emmy Award in the category Outstanding Lead Actress in a Miniseries or a Movie for her portrayal of Abigail Adams, wife of the second president of the United States, in the HBO mini-series John Adams.[3]
In October 1994, Linney guest-starred in an episode of Law & Order (episode "Blue Bamboo") as "Martha Bowen". She played a blonde American singer who successfully claimed "battered woman syndrome" as a defense to the murder of a Japanese businessman.
Laura Linney returned to series television as actress and executive producer in Showtime's half-hour series about cancer, The Big C, which debuted in mid-2010. She stars as a suburban wife and mother who explores the emotional ups and downs of suffering cancer, and the changes it brings to her life and her sense of who she is.[12] She won a Golden Globe award for her performance in January 2011.
Since 2009 she has served as host of the PBS television series Masterpiece Classic.
Theater [edit]
Linney's extensive stage credits on Broadway and elsewhere include Hedda Gabler, for which she won the 1994 Joe A. Callaway Award,[13] and Holiday in December 1995 through January 1996 (based on the 1938 movie starring Katharine Hepburn).[14] She received a Best Actress Tony Award nomination for her role in the Broadway production of The Crucible in March 2002 through June 2002.[15][16] She was nominated again in 2005 for Sight Unseen, in which she appeared on Broadway in May 2004 through July 2004.[17][18]
Linney also appeared on Sandra Boynton's children's CD, Philadelphia Chickens, on which she sings "Please Can I Keep It?", and played La Marquise de Merteuil in a revival of Christopher Hampton's play Les Liaisons Dangereuses.[19]
Linney had a three-month run on Broadway in the Manhattan Theatre Club production of Time Stands Still by Donald Margulies, from January 28, 2010 through March 27, 2010. She was nominated for a 2010 Tony award for Best Leading Actress in a Play. The play returned to Broadway with most of the original cast in September 2010 and closed on January 30, 2011.[20]
Personal life [edit]
Linney married David Adkins in 1995; they divorced in 2000. In 2007, she became engaged to Marc Schauer (not to be confused with Michigan Congressman Mark Schauer), a real estate agent from Telluride, Colorado.[21] At her wedding in May 2009, actor Liam Neeson walked her down the aisle.[22]
Linney was a guest and presenter at the We Are One: The Obama Inaugural Celebration at the Lincoln Memorial on January 18, 2009.[23]
Filmography [edit]
Theatre credits [edit]
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1990–1992 | Six Degrees of Separation | Tess | Nov 8, 1990 – Jan 5, 1992 Understudy |
| 1992 | Sight Unseen | Grete | Theatre World Award Nominated — Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Featured Actress in a Play |
| 1992–1993 | The Seagull | Nina | Nov 29, 1992 – Jan 10, 1993 |
| 1994 | Hedda Gabler | Thea Elvsted | Jul 10, 1994 – Aug 7, 1994 |
| 1995–1996 | Holiday | Linda Seton | Dec 3, 1995 – Jan 14, 1996 |
| 1998 | Honour | Claudia | Apr 26, 1998 – Jun 14, 1998 |
| 2000 | Uncle Vanya | Yelena Andreyevna | Apr 30, 2000 – Jun 11, 2000 |
| 2002 | The Crucible | Elizabeth Proctor | Mar 7, 2002 – Jun 9, 2002 Nominated — Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play |
| 2004 | Sight Unseen | Patricia | May 25, 2004 – Jul 25, 2004 Nominated — Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actress in a Play Nominated — Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play |
| 2008 | Les liaisons dangereuses | La Marquise de Merteuil | May 1, 2008 – Jul 6, 2008 |
| 2010–2011 | Time Stands Still | Sarah Goodwin | Jan 28, 2010 – Jan 30, 2011 Nominated — Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actress in a Play Nominated — Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play |
References [edit]
- ^ "Laura Linney Biography (1964–)". Filmreference.com. Retrieved April 25, 2010.
- ^ "Laura Linney Biography – Yahoo! Movies". Movies.yahoo.com. Retrieved April 25, 2010.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i Stated on Inside the Actors Studio, 2009
- ^ Cloninger Boggs, Mary Olivia (1981). The indubitable Busbees and their kin. M.O.C. Boggs. p. 105.
- ^ Studio 360 broadcast, March 28, 2010
- ^ "Laura Linney". All Movie Guide. The New York Times. Retrieved April 7, 2012.
- ^ "Alumni News". The Juilliard School. September 2007. Retrieved April 7, 2012.
- ^ "Laura Linney to Deliver Commencement Address and Receive Honorary Doctor of Fine Arts at Juilliard's 104th Commencement Ceremony". Press Release. The Juilliard School. May 2009. Retrieved April 7, 2012.
- ^ "Linney Opens The Nanny Diaries". Cinemablend.com. March 14, 2006. Retrieved April 25, 2010.
- ^ "Philip Seymour Hoffman's Next is The Savages". Comingsoon.net. Retrieved April 25, 2010.
- ^ Laura Linney Emmy Award Winner
- ^ Bryant, Adam (August 27, 2009). "Showtime and Laura Linney to Tackle Cancer in New Series". TVGuide.com. Retrieved August 27, 2009.
- ^ .asp "The Joe A. Callaway Award List" actorsequity.org, accessed January 31, 2011
- ^ Canby, Vincent."Theater Review:The Wee Problems Of the Seriously Rich In the Frenzied 20's"New York Times, December 4, 1995
- ^ Brantley, Ben."Theater Review:Two Against Mob Rule Who Can Turn Up the Heat"New York Times, March 8, 2002
- ^ Pogrebin, Robin."'Millie' Leads the Tony Nominations With 11; 'Morning's' Earns 9"New York Times, May 7, 2002
- ^ Gans, Andrew; Allen, Morgan; Simonson, Robert."2004–2005 Tony Nominations Announced; Spamalot Garners 14 Nominations" playbill.com, May 10, 2005
- ^ Brantley."Theater Review:A Fragile Victim of Love Long Past"New York Times, May 26, 2004
- ^ Smith, Liz (March 13, 2008). "Watch the hot actress thrive!". Nypost.com. Retrieved April 25, 2010.
- ^ Jones, Kenneth. "Broadway's 'Time Stands Still', Acclaimed Drama About War Scars, Closes Jan. 30" playbill.com, January 30, 2011
- ^ "Laura Linney Is Engaged". People.com. August 20, 2007. Retrieved April 25, 2010.
- ^ "Liam Neeson walked Laura Linney down the aisle". nymag.com. July 28, 2010. Retrieved December 30, 2010.
- ^ HBO.com – We Are One[dead link]
External links [edit]
 |
Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Laura Linney |
- Laura Linney at the Internet Movie Database
- Laura Linney at the Internet Broadway Database
- BlackFilm interview (August 2005)
- Combustible Celluloid interview (February 17, 2003)
- Hollywood.com interview (January 3, 2001)
- Laura Linney Profile by The New York Times Magazine (July 2010)
- Laura Linney at Emmys.com
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- 1964 births
- Actresses from New York City
- American film actresses
- American stage actresses
- American television actresses
- Brown University alumni
- Best Miniseries or Television Movie Actress Golden Globe winners
- Best Musical or Comedy Actress Golden Globe (television) winners
- Emmy Award winners
- Juilliard School alumni
- Living people
- Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Miniseries or Television Movie Screen Actors Guild Award winners
- People from Manhattan
- 20th-century American actresses
- 21st-century American actresses
- Primetime Emmy Award winners
