Born:
February 05, 1964
in
New York
Best Known For:
Her consistently high quality performances.
Early-life:
Born Laura Leggett Linney on February 5, 1964, in New York. Her mother was a nurse, her father a playwright - it was his work which initially attracted her to acting. She has a half-sister, Susan, from her dad's second marriage. After graduating from high school in 1982, Linney studied at Northwestern University, then transferred to Brown University, where she became a prolific amateur stage actress. She later had spells studying acting at Juilliard and the Arts Theatre School in Moscow.
Career:
Linney's professional career began on Broadway, where she was acclaimed for her work in several productions. She started appearing in small roles in films and on TV in the early 1990s, but began landing bigger parts after the first instalment of Armistead Maupin's Tales of the City was broadcast. Movies Primal Fear, The Truman Show and Absolute Power followed. She reunited with the director of Absolute Power, Clint Eastwood, for Mystic River, and bagged Oscar nominations for Kinsey, You Can Count on Me and The Savages. Other notable work includes Love Actually, Frasier, and The Squid and the Whale, while her extraordinary turns in miniseries John Adams and comedy drama The Big C have been widely acclaimed.
Quote:
"A lifetime of work, particularly where you get to see an actor grow and change, is better than becoming a rock 'n' roll movie star."
Trivia:
Linney has received Tony Award nominations for The Crucible, Sight Unseen, and Time Stands Still.