Linda Blair
- Birthday
- Jan 22, 1959
- Birthplace
- St. Louis, Missouri, USA
Bio: Although many people assume that The Exorcist (1974) was American actress Linda Blair's film debut, she had actually been working in commercials since age six. Blair was chosen from a field of 500 hopefuls for Exorcist because of her resemblance to the film's star, Ellen Burstyn. To the casual viewer, the film, which dealt with the Devil's possession of an innocent… More Bio: Although many people assume that The Exorcist (1974) was American actress Linda Blair's film debut, she had actually been working in commercials since age six. Blair was chosen from a field of 500 hopefuls for Exorcist because of her resemblance to the film's star, Ellen Burstyn. To the casual viewer, the film, which dealt with the Devil's possession of an innocent preteen girl, was hardly the sort of fare that any responsible parent would allow their child to appear in. But the Exorcist's director, William Friedkin, was careful to prearrange the special effects (head turning around, bloody body wounds, vomiting green bile) with the least amount of danger or trauma for Blair. From all reports, she handled the assignment like a trouper, though she balked at having her hair messed up for the purposes of the plot. Blair was nominated for an Academy Award for her Exorcist work, but this campaign was scuttled when it was learned that, not only had the girl been extensively doubled by a dummy, but her horrendous "Satan" voice, explicit obscenities and all, had been dubbed by adult actress Mercedes McCambridge. A major celebrity at 15, Blair was able for a while to parlay her Exorcist work into a series of demanding film and TV roles, most of which cast her as a much-abused victim. Her rape scene in the TV movie Born Innocent was so graphic that the network was forced to cut the scene when the film was rerun. In other appearances, Blair played a teen alcoholic, a kidnap victim, a heart-transplant patient on an endangered airliner, and her Exorcist role again in Exorcist II (1977). By this time, Blair was unable to maintain the equilibrium of her career, which degenerated into exploitative crime or girls-in-prison films. More recently, Blair was seen in Repossessed (1990), a ham-handed spoof of the film that made her famous. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
Most Popular
Filmography
-
An Affair of the Heart (2012)
- Actor
- 67%
-
imps* (2009)
- Actor
-
I'm Rick James (2007)
- Actor
-
All Is Normal (2006)
- Actor
-
Teddy Scares (2006)
- Actor
- See all 57 films
Linda Blair Videos
Double Blast
2 minutes 4 seconds
An Affair Of The Heart
2 minutes 27 seconds
Imps
3 minutes 40 seconds
Lisa Picard Is Famous
2 minutes 6 seconds
Repossessed
1 minutes 24 seconds
Born Today
- Han-seon Jo (32 years old)
- Amrita Rao (32 years old)
- Greg Kinnear (50 years old)
- Paulina Rubio (42 years old)
- Joshua Leonard (38 years old)
- Scott Adkins (II) (37 years old)
- Michal Zebrowski (41 years old)
- Lee Tamahori (63 years old)
- Joe Piscopo (62 years old)
- Setsuko Hara (93 years old)
- Sam Lloyd (50 years old)
- Jason Patric (47 years old)
- Michael Showalter (43 years old)
- Ken Loach (77 years old)
- Kumiko Aso (35 years old)
- Thomas Haden Church (53 years old)
- Will Forte (43 years old)
- Jon Gries (56 years old)
- Denis Lavant (52 years old)
- Christy Canyon (47 years old)
- James Corden (35 years old)
- Barry Manilow (70 years old)
- Kazunari Ninomiya (30 years old)
- Venus Williams (33 years old)
- See more (24)
