Laura Linney Biography

Laura Leggett Linney (born February 5, 1964) is an American actress (film, television, and theatre) and singer. She is most well known for her performances in films such as The Truman Show, Mystic River and Kinsey, among others. She also played the lead role of Cathy Jamison in the Showtime series The Big C, which completed its fourth and final season in May 2013.

During her career she has received four Emmy Awards, two Golden Globe Awards and a Screen Actors Guild Award. Additionally she has been the recipient of three Academy Award nominations and three Tony Award nominations.

Early life and education

Linney was born in Manhattan. Her mother, Miriam Anderson "Ann" Perse (née Leggett), is a nurse who worked at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, and her father, Romulus Zachariah Linney IV, was a well-known playwright and professor (he died on January 15, 2011). Linney's paternal great-great-grandfather was Republican U.S. Congressman Romulus Zachariah Linney. Linney grew up under modest circumstances, living with her mother in a small one-bedroom apartment, after her parents' divorce. She has a half-sister, Susan, from her father's second marriage.

She is a 1982 graduate of Northfield Mount Hermon School, an elite preparatory school in New England, for which she currently serves as the chair of the Arts Advisory Council. She then attended Northwestern University before transferring to Brown University, where she studied acting with Jim Barnhill and John Emigh and served on the board of Production Workshop, the university's student theatre group. It was during her senior year at Brown that she performed in one of her father's plays, when she played Lady Ada Lovelace in a production of Romulus Linney's Childe Byron, a drama in which Ada's father, the poet Lord Byron, mends a taut, distant relationship with his daughter. Linney graduated from Brown with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in 1986. She went on to study acting at the Juilliard School as a member of Group 19 (1986"1990), which also included Jeanne Tripplehorn. Linney later received an honorary Doctor of Fine Arts degree from Juilliard when she delivered the school's commencement address in 2009.

Career

Film

Linney appeared in minor roles in a few early 1990s films, including Dave in 1993, before coming to prominence in the public television mini-series Tales of the City. She was then cast in a series of high-profile thrillers, including Congo, Primal Fear and Absolute Power. She made her Hollywood breakthrough in 1998, playing Jim Carrey's on-screen wife in The Truman Show, for which she received critical acclaim.

In 2000, Linney was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress for her role in the film You Can Count on Me. The same year, she also appeared in the role of an artist's model in the low-budget film Maze with Rob Morrow. In 2003, Linney appeared in several notable films, including Mystic River, Love Actually and The Life of David Gale. Her 2004 performance in Kinsey, again as the title character's wife, was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.

In 2005, Linney starred in the horror film The Exorcism of Emily Rose and the comedy-drama The Squid and the Whale. For the latter role, she received a Golden Globe nomination for "Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture " Musical or Comedy". In 2006, Linney appeared in the political satire Man of the Year, the comedy Driving Lessons (starring Rupert Grint of Harry Potter fame), and the Australian drama Jindabyne by Ray Lawrence. Jindabyne was based on Raymond Carver's short story So Much Water so Close to Home.

In 2007, Linney appeared in the spy thriller Breach, the comedy-drama The Nanny Diaries opposite Scarlett Johansson and based on the book by Emma McLaughlin and Nicola Kraus, and The Savages with Philip Seymour Hoffman. She received a third Academy Award nomination for The Savages, this time for Best Actress.

In 2008, Linney starred in The Other Man, opposite Liam Neeson, with whom she had starred in Kinsey and Love Actually, and Antonio Banderas.

Television

Linney starred as Mary Ann Singleton in the television adaptations of Armistead Maupin's Tales of the City books (1993, 1998 and 2001). She won her first Emmy Award in 2002 for "Outstanding Lead Actress in a Miniseries or a Movie" for Wild Iris. In 2004, she won her second Emmy Award as "Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series," for her recurring role as the final love interest of Frasier Crane in the television series Frasier. In 2008, Linney won an Emmy Award in the category Outstanding Lead Actress in a Miniseries or a Movie for her portrayal of Abigail Adams, wife of the second president of the United States, in the HBO mini-series John Adams.

In October 1994, Linney guest-starred in an episode of Law & Order (episode "Blue Bamboo") as "Martha Bowen". She played a blonde American singer who successfully claimed "battered woman syndrome" as a defense to the murder of a Japanese businessman.

Laura Linney returned to series television as actress and executive producer in Showtime's half-hour series about cancer, The Big C, which debuted in mid-2010. She starred as a suburban wife and mother who explores the emotional ups and downs of suffering cancer, and the changes it brings to her life and her sense of who she is. She won a Golden Globe award for her performance in January 2011.

Since 2009, she has served as host of the PBS television series Masterpiece Classic.

Theater

Linney's extensive stage credits on Broadway and elsewhere include Hedda Gabler, for which she won the 1994 Joe A. Callaway Award, and Holiday in December 1995 through January 1996 (based on the 1938 movie starring Katharine Hepburn). She received a Best Actress Tony Award nomination for her role in the Broadway production of The Crucible in March 2002 through June 2002. She was nominated again in 2005 for Sight Unseen, in which she appeared on Broadway in May 2004 through July 2004.

Linney also appeared on Sandra Boynton's children's CD, Philadelphia Chickens, on which she sings "Please Can I Keep It?", and played La Marquise de Merteuil in a revival of Christopher Hampton's play Les Liaisons Dangereuses.

Linney had a three-month run on Broadway in the Manhattan Theatre Club production of Time Stands Still by Donald Margulies, from January 28, 2010 through March 27, 2010. She was nominated for a 2010 Tony award for Best Leading Actress in a Play. The play returned to Broadway with most of the original cast in September 2010 and closed on January 30, 2011.

Personal life

Linney married David Adkins in 1995; they divorced in 2000. In 2007, she became engaged to Marc Schauer (not to be confused with Michigan Congressman Mark Schauer), a real estate agent from Telluride, Colorado. At her wedding in May 2009, actor Liam Neeson walked her down the aisle.

Linney was a guest and presenter at the We Are One: The Obama Inaugural Celebration at the Lincoln Memorial on January 18, 2009.

Filmography

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1992	Lorenzo's Oil	Young Teacher
1993	Dave	Randi
	Class of '61	Lily Magraw	TV
	Tales of the City	Mary Ann Singleton	TV Mini-Series: 1 Episode
	Searching for Bobby Fischer	School Teacher
	Blind Spot	Phoebe	TV
1994	Law & Order	Martha Bowen	TV Series: 1 Episode
	'	Nancy Lambert Newland
1995	Congo	Dr. Karen Ross
1996	Primal Fear	Janet Venable
1997	Absolute Power	Kate Whitney
1998	'	Meryl Burbank/Hannah Gill	Nominated "? Blockbuster Entertainment Award for Favorite Supporting Actress " Drama
	More Tales of the City	Mary Ann Singleton	TV Mini-Series: 6 Episodes
1999	Love Letters	Melisa Gardner Cobb	TV
	Lush	Rachel Van Dyke	Nominated "? DVD Premiere Award for Best Actress
2000	'	Bertha Dorset	Nominated "? Toronto Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting Actress
	You Can Count on Me	Samantha 'Sammy' Prescott
	Maze	Callie
	Running Mates	Lauren Hartman	TV
2001	Wild Iris	Iris Bravard	TV
	Further Tales of the City	Mary Ann Singleton	TV Mini-Series: 3 Episodes
2002	'	Officer Connie Mills	Fangoria Chainsaw Award for Best Actress (3rd place)
	'	Sherry Johnson
2003	'	Constance Harraway
	Mystic River	Annabeth Markum
	Love Actually	Sarah	Nominated "? Phoenix Film Critics Society Award for Best Cast
2003"04	Frasier		TV Series Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series (2004)
2004	Kinsey	Clara McMillen
	P.S.	Louise Harrington	Mar del Plata Film Festival Award for Best Actress Nominated "? Satellite Award for Best Actress - Motion Picture Drama
2005	'	Erin Bruner	Nominated "? Fangoria Chainsaw Award for Best Heroine Nominated "? Saturn Award for Best Actress
	'	Joan Berkman
2006	Jindabyne	Claire
	Driving Lessons	Laura Marshall
	Man of the Year	Eleanor Green
	'	Jesse
	The Armenian Genocide	Maria Jacobsen	Documentary
2007	Breach	Kate Burroughs
	'	Wendy Savage
	'	Mrs. X
2008	John Adams	Abigail Adams	TV Mini-Series: 7 Episodes
	'	Caroline	Method Fest Independent Film Festival Award for Best Actress
	'	Lisa
2009	Morning	Dr. Goodman
	Sympathy for Delicious	Nina Hogue
2009"present	PBS Masterpiece	Host
2010"2013	'	Cathy Jamison	TV Series: 40 Episodes Also Executive Producer Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Miniseries or a Movie (2013) Satellite Award for Best Actress " Television Series Musical or Comedy (2010) Golden Globe Award for Best Actress " Television Series Musical or Comedy (2011) Nominated "? Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series (2011) Nominated "? Satellite Award for Best Actress - Television Series Musical or Comedy (2011) Nominated "? Golden Globe Award for Best Actress " Television Series Musical or Comedy (2012)
2011	'	Lila
	Arthur Christmas	North Pole Computer	Voice Only
2012	Hyde Park on Hudson	Margaret Suckley	Nominated " Satellite Award for Best Actress " Motion Picture
2013	The Fifth Estate	Sarah Shaw

Theatre credits

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1990"1992	Six Degrees of Separation	Tess	Nov 8, 1990 " Jan 5, 1992 Understudy
1992	Sight Unseen	Grete	Theatre World Award Nominated "? Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Featured Actress in a Play
1992"1993	The Seagull	Nina	Nov 29, 1992 " Jan 10, 1993
1994	Hedda Gabler	Thea Elvsted	Jul 10, 1994 " Aug 7, 1994
1995"1996	Holiday	Linda Seton	Dec 3, 1995 " Jan 14, 1996
1998	Honour	Claudia	Apr 26, 1998 " Jun 14, 1998
2000	Uncle Vanya	Yelena Andreyevna	Apr 30, 2000 " Jun 11, 2000
2002	The Crucible	Elizabeth Proctor	Mar 7, 2002 " Jun 9, 2002 Nominated "? Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play
2004	Sight Unseen	Patricia	May 25, 2004 " Jul 25, 2004 Nominated "? Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actress in a Play Nominated "? Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play
2008	Les liaisons dangereuses	La Marquise de Merteuil	May 1, 2008 " Jul 6, 2008
2010"2011	Time Stands Still	Sarah Goodwin	Jan 28, 2010 " Jan 30, 2011 Nominated "? Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actress in a Play Nominated "? Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play