Biography for
Laura Linney

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Laura Linney was born in New York City on February 5, 1964, into a theatre family. Her father is the prominent playwright Romulus Linney. Although she did not live in her father's house (her parents having divorced when she was an infant), Linney's world revolved, in part, around his profession from the earliest age. She graduated from Brown University in 1986 and studied acting at Julliard and the Arts Theatre School in Moscow and, thereafter, embarked on a career on the Broadway stage receiving favorable notices for her work in such plays as "Hedda Gabler" and "Six Degrees of Separation".

Linney's film career began in the early 1990s with small roles in Lorenzo's Oil (1992) and Dave (1993). She landed the role of Mary Anne Singleton in the PBS film adaptations of Armistead Maupin's "Tales of the City" series, playing her in "Tales of the City" (1993), "More Tales of the City" (1998) and "Further Tales of the City" (2001). Linney's first substantial big-screen role was as the ex-girlfriend of Richard Gere's character in Primal Fear (1996) and her superb performance brought her praise and a better selection of roles. Clint Eastwood chose Linney to play his daughter, another prominent role, in 1997's Absolute Power (1997), followed by another second billing in the following year's The Truman Show (1998).

Always a strong performer, Linney truly came into her own after 2000, starting the decade auspiciously with her widely-praised, arguably flawless performance in You Can Count on Me (2000). She found herself nominated for an Academy Award for this, her first lead role, for which her salary had been $10,000. Linney won numerous critics' awards for her role as Sammy, a single mother whose life is complicated by a new boss and the arrival in town of her aimless brother. On the heels of this success came her marvelous turn as Bertha Dorset in The House of Mirth (2000), clearly the best performance in a film of strong performances. Since then, Linney has frequently been offered challenging dramatic roles, and always rises to the occasion, such as in Mystic River (2003), in which she worked again with Clint Eastwood, and Kinsey (2004), for which she received another Academy Award nomination.

Though not by any means typecast, Linney often plays a woman whose wholesome beauty is deceiving and whose character is ultimately more complex than it seems. Linney is divorced and lives in Connecticut. Although her career now focuses on movies, she continues to appear on the Broadway stage on occasion.

Spouse

Trivia

Her father is respected Off-Broadway playwright Romulus Linney.

Has a sister, Susan Linney.

Graduated from Brown University in 1986.

1990 graduate of the Juilliard School.

Was nominated for Broadway's 2002 Tony Award as Best Actress (Play) for portraying Elizabeth Proctor in a revival of Arthur Miller's "The Crucible".

Graduated Northfield Mount Hermon School in 1982.

Her mother is a nurse.

She says that she was the worst at reading and writing in her class.

Clint Eastwood picked her for the part of Kate Whitney in his new movie Absolute Power (1997) after he saw her performance in Primal Fear (1996).

Gained about 20 pounds for her role in Kinsey (2004), mainly by eating Krispy Kreme glazed doughnuts.

Has a yellow Labrador dog that she named Eleonora Duse, after the actress Eleonora Duse.

Laura Linney was given the script for The Squid and the Whale (2005) by Eric Stoltz, her boyfriend at that time, while they were filming The House of Mirth (2000) in 2000. She agreed to do the film immediately, but it took four years to raise the financing.

Won the 1994 Joe A. Callaway Award, for Best Performance in a Classic Drama, for her performance as Thea Elvsted in "Hedda Gabler".

Nominated for the 2005 Tony Award for "Sight Unseen" (Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Play).

The writers Romulus Linney (father of Laura) and Jonathan Baumbach (father of Noah Baumbach, who directed Linney in The Squid and the Whale (2005)), spent time at Yaddo, an artists colony, where they knew each other well enough to have gotten into a car accident together.

Loves Meryl Streep and donuts. In "The Truman Show" (1998) her character was named Meryl and Laura was made up to look like her.

Was at Northwestern University for one year before transferring to Brown University.

Engaged to Marc Schauer in August 2007. She met Marc at the 2004 Telluride Film Festival when he was her festival host that week.

Won a Theatre World Award and received a Drama Desk nomination for her stage performance in "Sight Unseen".

Has played the wife of Gabriel Byrne in three films: Jindabyne (2006), P.S. (2004), and A Simple Twist of Fate (1994).

Was once a teacher for deaf and autistic children.

Personal Quotes

[On Jim Carrey]: He has tremendous charm. He has an enormous heart, just a big big heart. I think that is the thing. I think if you look at his other work you can see that there, which is what makes his characters more then just mimicry. I think that is why his work has hit so hard. Because there is just more there. So with this one you see more of his humanity.

[On her character on The Truman Show (1998)]: Well the thing that was interesting was that we sort of did these back stories about these characters and where they were and what was going on with them. And when the movie picks up, Hanna Gill, who plays Meryl Burbank, is aware of the fact that she is losing her influence over Truman. He's not happy at home. He's beginning to get agitated. He's beginning to think of things outside the house, and she can feel that she is losing her power. So consequently the smile gets bigger and bigger and the desperation, that is why there is that intense undertow to her. Because she knows she is losing it.

[On her character in The Truman Show (1998)]: The concept of The Truman Show - it was so much fun. What gave us all an additional challenge was that those of us who were the cast play the actors but playing a role. So we did all this elaborate back-story. So I made up my actress name Hanna Gill, who plays Meryl Burbank, who is married to Truman Burbank. So we did all this double layering of character work not really knowing what was going to come through. I'm glad that some of the people who have seen the movie can say that they can actually see it in all of us. All of us who play the characters surrounding Jim (Jim Carrey) in the film, that they can see the double layer.

[On her father]: My parents were divorced and I didn't grow up with him, but I spent a lot of time around him and his influence on me has been profound.

[On her fame]: I don't consider myself a celebrity and I don't consider myself a star.

(On making You Can Count on Me (2000)) Kenneth Lonergan and I locked horns. It was about tiny things that would drive me crazy. He was very specific about his script being word perfect.

When you work and live on a film set for 12, 14 hours a day and moving from location to location, it's hard just to exist.

People can't really place me. They're not really sure who I am. Sometimes they think I'm Helen Hunt. Sometimes they think I'm Laura Dern.

I tend to make low-budget movies but, yeah, I make more money than I ever thought I would make.

With big, emotional roles it's very easy, especially if you've grown up in the American school of acting, to exploit your own pain. You have to be careful about that, because 9 times out of 10, your pain is not appropriate to the character. You can watch someone on-stage cry and cry - but in the audience you feel nothing. It's easy to become indulgent. For me, what's important is the story first.

A lifetime of work, particularly where you get to see an actor grow and change, is better than becoming a rock & roll movie star.

[On how she has benefited from receiving Oscar nominations]: It's helped me to keep working, quite frankly.

Really, any sense of spirituality, which I do have, really comes from the arts that are sort of my inspiration.

I guess whatever sense of community, discipline, the laws of truth for me have come from growing up in an artistic environment with people who are loving and look out for each other.

[On doing different kinds of work]: I just want to say, "Go work! It doesn't matter what it is. Work begets work. Just go!"

[About her hair color changing with nearly every role she has.] My mother always gets upset whenever my hair goes dark. She really hates it. And then going from dark to blonde takes a toll. It's amazing that I have a single strand of hair left on my head! (2007)

There are as many bad independent films as there are bad commercial films. I've been in some very good commercial films. "Mystic River" is a good movie. "The Truman Show" is a good movie.

Salary

Where Are They Now

(May 2004) Starring on Broadway in the play, Sight Unseen, at the Biltmore Theater. This is her second time performing in the play. Years ago she was cast in the role of the younger female character.

(December 2006) She is filming The City of Your Final Destination (2007) in Argentina, during December 2006 - January 2007.

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