Laura Linney
Birthday:
Birthplace:
New York, New York, USA
The daughter of respected off-Broadway playwright Romulus Linney, Laura Linney was born in New York City on February 5, 1964. Her parents divorced when she was six months old. Thanks to her father's job, Linney grew up working in the theater, both behind the scenes and, in her late teens, on the stage. Following prep school in Massachusetts, she attended both Brown University and Juilliard, and she was soon appearing in a number of Broadway productions. She garnered notice for her roles in plays like The Seagull and Six Degrees of Separation, and won particular acclaim for her performance in Hedda Gabler.Linney made her onscreen debut in 1992 with a small role as a teacher in Lorenzo's Oil. The following year, she had a brief but pivotal role as Kevin Kline's presidential mistress in Dave, appeared in Searching for Bobby Fischer, and landed a lead as one of the protagonists of Armistead Maupin's acclaimed Tales of the City, which aired on PBS. Linney later reprised her role as Mary Ann Singleton for More Tales of the City in 1998. Following leads in two box-office failures, A Simple Twist of Fate (1994) and Congo (1995), Linney had a supporting role as Richard Gere's lawyer/ex in Primal Fear (1996). Based on the strength of her performance, Clint Eastwood chose her to play his daughter -- another lawyer -- in Absolute Power the following year. In 1998, Linney sent up her wholesome, fresh-scrubbed appearance to great effect as Truman Burbank's wife in Peter Weir's highly acclaimed The Truman Show.The actress finally came into her own in 2000, thanks to two very different parts in two highly acclaimed independent features. Writer/director Kenneth Lonergan's You Can Count on Me featured Linney as Sammy, a small-town single mother whose placid life takes some interesting turns when she's visited by her errant brother Terry (Mark Ruffalo). Aided by Lonergan's precise script and her own copious note-taking, Linney turned in her most nuanced, accomplished performance to date. Critics paid attention: after its much-heralded debut at the 2000 Sundance Film Festival, the film went on to garner a slew of recognition for its lead actress, including Best Actress of the Year awards from the National Society of Film Critics and the New York Film Critics Circle, and an eventual Oscar nomination for Best Actress. Linney further polished her reputation with a supporting turn as the icy Bertha Dorset in director Terence Davies' adaptation of Edith Wharton's The House of Mirth, released in late 2000.She continued working steadily and garnered great critical respect throughout the next decade. In addition to returning for Further Tales of the City, she was one of the many talented actors who appeared in the controversial The Laramie Project. She had a few big-budget films that missed their mark in The Mothman Prophecies and The Life of David Gale, but those came around the same time as her superb turn as Sean Penn's wife in Mystic River, and as one of the few Americans in the very British romantic comedy Love Actually. She continued to earn strong reviews as the headstrong wife to Liam Neeson's Kinsey, and in 2005 offered a subtle but penetrating portrayal of a selfish mother and divorcee opposite Jeff Daniels in The Squid and the Whale. The next year she acted opposite Robin Williams in Barry Levinson's political and social satire Man of the Year.In 2007 Linney offered a spot-on portrayal of a dissatisfied Manhattan wife and mother in The Nanny Diaries, and earned a wealth of strong reviews for her work in Tamara Jenkins' The Savages. Playing a neurotic woman opposite Philip Seymour Hoffman as her brother, Linney scored her third Academy Award nomination.2008 brought Linney her fourth Golden Globe nomination, and first win, for the portrayl of first lady Abigail Adams in the acclaimed HBO miniseries John Adams. In the following years, Linney would continue to appear in several projects, including movies like Morning and The Details, and the accla
Photos
Highest Rated Movies
Filmography
MOVIES
RATING | TITLE | CREDIT | BOX OFFICE | YEAR |
---|---|---|---|---|
90% | Creating a Character: The Moni Yakim Legacy |
|
— | 2020 |
43% | The Roads Not Taken |
|
— | 2020 |
67% | Falling |
|
— | 2020 |
83% | Olympia |
|
— | 2019 |
46% | The Dinner |
|
— | 2017 |
73% | Nocturnal Animals |
|
$10.7M | 2016 |
85% | Sully |
|
$125.1M | 2016 |
52% | Genius |
|
$1.4M | 2016 |
38% | Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows |
|
$82.1M | 2016 |
88% | Mr. Holmes |
|
$14.2M | 2015 |
35% | The Fifth Estate |
|
$3.3M | 2013 |
No Score Yet | Letters to Jackie: Remembering President Kennedy |
|
— | 2013 |
37% | Hyde Park on Hudson |
|
$6.4M | 2012 |
46% | The Details |
|
$64.1k | 2012 |
92% | Arthur Christmas |
|
$46.5M | 2011 |
33% | Sympathy for Delicious |
|
$13.6k | 2011 |
39% | The City of Your Final Destination |
|
$0.5M | 2010 |
No Score Yet | Morning |
|
— | 2010 |
15% | The Other Man |
|
— | 2008 |
No Score Yet | Masterpiece Classic |
|
— | 2008 |
90% | The Savages |
|
$6.5M | 2007 |
34% | The Nanny Diaries |
|
$25.9M | 2007 |
32% | The Hottest State |
|
— | 2007 |
84% | Breach |
|
$33M | 2007 |
21% | Man of the Year |
|
$37.5M | 2006 |
48% | Driving Lessons |
|
— | 2006 |
65% | Jindabyne |
|
$0.3M | 2006 |
92% | The Squid and the Whale |
|
$7.1M | 2005 |
44% | The Exorcism of Emily Rose |
|
$75.1M | 2005 |
No Score Yet | Mary Pickford |
|
— | 2005 |
90% | Kinsey |
|
$10.3M | 2004 |
54% | P.S. |
|
$0.2M | 2004 |
64% | Love Actually |
|
$59.4M | 2003 |
88% | Mystic River |
|
$88.8M | 2003 |
19% | The Life of David Gale |
|
$19.6M | 2003 |
52% | The Mothman Prophecies |
|
$35.3M | 2002 |
92% | The Laramie Project |
|
— | 2002 |
No Score Yet | American Experience |
|
— | 2002 |
39% | Maze |
|
— | 2001 |
No Score Yet | F. Scott Fitzgerald: Winter Dreams |
|
— | 2001 |
No Score Yet | Wild Iris |
|
— | 2001 |
82% | The House of Mirth |
|
— | 2000 |
95% | You Can Count On Me |
|
$8.5M | 2000 |
14% | Running Mates |
|
— | 2000 |
0% | Lush |
|
— | 2000 |
No Score Yet | Love Letters |
|
— | 1999 |
95% | The Truman Show |
|
— | 1998 |
57% | Absolute Power |
|
— | 1997 |
76% | Primal Fear |
|
— | 1996 |
22% | Congo |
|
— | 1995 |
43% | A Simple Twist of Fate |
|
— | 1994 |
100% | Searching for Bobby Fischer |
|
— | 1993 |
95% | Dave |
|
— | 1993 |
No Score Yet | Class of '61 |
|
— | 1993 |
No Score Yet | Blind Spot |
|
— | 1993 |
92% | Lorenzo's Oil |
|
— | 1992 |
TV
RATING | TITLE | CREDIT | YEAR |
---|---|---|---|
81% |
Ozark
2017-2020
|
|
|
83% |
Armistead Maupin's Tales of the City
2019
|
|
|
No Score Yet |
Finding Your Roots With Henry Louis Gates Jr.
2012
|
|
|
No Score Yet |
The Graham Norton Show
2007
|
|
|
No Score Yet |
Independent Lens
1999
|
|
|
No Score Yet |
Variety Studio: Actors on Actors
2015-2019
|
|
|
No Score Yet |
The Late Show With Stephen Colbert
2015
|
|
|
98% |
Last Week Tonight With John Oliver
2014
|
|
|
No Score Yet |
The Late Late Show With James Corden
2015
|
|
|
No Score Yet |
The Talk
2010
|
|
|
No Score Yet |
Today
2017-2019
|
|
|
No Score Yet |
Watch What Happens Live With Andy Cohen
2009
|
|
|
No Score Yet |
Tavis Smiley
2013-2018
|
|
|
No Score Yet |
Grantchester on Masterpiece
2015
|
|
|
No Score Yet |
The View
1997
|
|
|
No Score Yet |
Wolf Hall on Masterpiece
2015
|
|
|
No Score Yet |
Mr. Selfridge on Masterpiece (Inactive)
2013
|
|
|
86% |
Downton Abbey
2011-2016
|
|
|
No Score Yet |
Masterpiece
1971-2014
|
|
|
55% |
The Big C
2010-2013
|
|
|
No Score Yet |
CBS This Morning
2012
|
|
|
No Score Yet |
Late Night With Jimmy Fallon
2009-2014
|
|
|
No Score Yet |
The Daily Show With Jon Stewart
1999-2015
|
|
|
No Score Yet |
The Nate Berkus Show
2010-2013
|
|
|
81% |
John Adams
2008
|
|
|
No Score Yet |
American Experience
1988
|
|
|
93% |
Frasier
1993-2004
|
|
|
No Score Yet |
King of the Hill
1997-2010
|
|
|
No Score Yet |
American Masters
2001
|
|
|
No Score Yet |
Armistead Maupin's 'Further Tales of the City'
2001
|
|
|
No Score Yet |
Law & Order
1990-2010
|
|
|
100% |
Tales of the City
1993
|
|
|
78% |
More Tales Of The City
1998
|
|
|
Quotes from Laura Linney's Characters
Daisy: | That spring Franklin showed me a world I never knew existed. |
Meryl: | Let me get you some help Truman, you're not well! |
Dr. Karen Ross: | Put 'em on the endangered species list! |
Connie: | Wake up #37 |
Connie: | Wake up #37. |
North Pole Computer: | "Are you sure you want to delete Christmas?" |
North Pole Computer: | Are you sure you want to delete Christmas? |
North Pole Computer: | Converting Milk and Cookies to biofuel. |