Linda Denise Blair (born January 22, 1959) is an American actress. Blair is best known for her role as the possessed child, Regan, in the 1973 acclaimed blockbuster The Exorcist, for which she was nominated for an Academy Award and two Golden Globes, winning one. She reprised her role in 1977’s Exorcist II: The Heretic, a controversial sequel which had a poor response with both audiences and critics.
Blair was born in St. Louis, Missouri and raised in Westport, Connecticut. She began her career as a six year old child model and started acting with a regular role on the short-lived “Hidden Faces” in 1968. Her first film role was in 1971’s The Sporting Club. Blair was selected from a field of 600 applicants for her most notable role as Regan in The Exorcist. The role earned her a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress and an Academy Award nomination. She reprised her role in the 1977 sequel, Exorcist II: The Heretic. As the 1970s closed, she started to land good, demanding… read more
Linda Denise Blair (born January 22, 1959) is an American actress. Blair is best known for her role as the possessed child, Regan, in the 1973 acclaimed blockbuster The Exorcist, for which she was nominated for an Academy Award and two Golden Globes, winning one. She reprised her role in 1977’s Exorcist II: The Heretic, a controversial sequel which had a poor response with both audiences and critics.
Blair was born in St. Louis, Missouri and raised in Westport, Connecticut. She began her career as a six year old child model and started acting with a regular role on the short-lived “Hidden Faces” in 1968. Her first film role was in 1971’s The Sporting Club. Blair was selected from a field of 600 applicants for her most notable role as Regan in The Exorcist. The role earned her a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress and an Academy Award nomination. She reprised her role in the 1977 sequel, Exorcist II: The Heretic. As the 1970s closed, she started to land good, demanding roles she was prepared for, and stepped into the fast lane, for which she was not prepared for. Blair encountered trouble as she was arrested and charged with drug possession and conspiracy to sell drugs: after trial, she was found not guilty of possession, but guilty of conspiracy to sell, leading her to get a reduced sentence of three years probation. Though she tried to act in film, Blair found it hard to restart her screen career and landed low grade films in the 70s and 80s. As she herself said in an interview, her career ‘went down faster than the Titanic’.
Blair has since worked in numerous films, including the 1990 Exorcist spoof, Repossessed, and a cameo role in 1996’s Scream. In 1997, she appeared in a Broadway revival of Grease. She was cast as a regular in the BBC television show, LA-7. She hosted Fox Family’s Scariest Places On Earth.
More recently, Blair has become an animal rights activist and humanitarian, working with PETA, Feed The Children, Variety, the Children’s Charity, and other organizations. Blair also devotes time to her non-profit organization, the Linda Blair WorldHeart Foundation, which works to rescue abused, neglected and mistreated animals. She is a vegan, and has co-authored the book Going Vegan!.
In 2008 she turned up at the 18th annual Malaga Fantasy and Horror Film Festival to accept a lifetime achievement award for her work in the horror genre.
She appeared in the 2009 documentary Confessions of a Teenage Vigilante, discussing her role as Brenda in 1984’s Savage Streets. The documentary is included as a bonus feature on the 2009 DVD release of the film.
In late 2010 it was announced that Blair is in talks to return to horror films for the upcoming Cousin Sarah. Also in 2010 she appeared as herself on the cable series Pit Boss and Jury Duty. —wikipedia
