Linda Denise Blair is an American actress.
Blair is best known for her role as the possessed child, Regan, in the film The Exorcist, for
which she was nominated for an Academy Award and won a Golden Globe.
She reprised her role in Exorcist II: The Heretic.
Youth and beginnings Blair was born in St. Louis, Missouri, and
was 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 daytime soap opera.
Her first theatrical film appearance was in The Way We Live Now.
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 and People's Choice Award for Best Supporting Actress as
well as an Academy Award nomination.
She reprised her role in the sequel, Exorcist II: The Heretic, garnering a Saturn Award
nomination for Best Actress of 1978.
Between these two films, she appeared in Born Innocent, Airport 1975, Sarah T. - Portrait
of a Teenage Alcoholic and Sweet Hostage opposite Martin Sheen.
Later career Blair's career took a new turn in the 1980s,
as she starred in a number of successful low-budget horror and exploitation films, including Hell
Night, Chained Heat and Savage Streets.
Blair later worked in numerous films, mostly comedies, including the Exorcist send-up Repossessed
in 1990, and a cameo role in Scream.
In 1997, she appeared in a Broadway revival of Grease.
She was cast as a regular in the BBC television show, L.A. 7.
She hosted Fox Family's Scariest Places on Earth.
Other interests Blair also became 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 a non-profit organization she organized, the Linda Blair WorldHeart
Foundation, which works to rescue abused, neglected and mistreated animals.
She commenced to follow a vegan diet, and was a co-author of the book Going Vegan!
Legal problems Towards the end of the 1970s, Blair encountered
trouble with law enforcement authorities as she was charged with drug possession and conspiracy
to sell drugs.
She pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of conspiracy to possess cocaine, in exchange
for three years' probation and a $5,000 fine.
Blair was also required to make at least 12 major public appearances to tell young people
about the dangers of drug abuse.
Though she pursued roles in subsequent films, Blair found it hard to restart her screen
career and landed low-grade films in the 1980s and later.
As she herself said in an interview, her career "went down faster than the Titanic."
Honors In 1997, she appeared in a documentary for
Channel 4 in the UK entitled "Didn't You Used to be Satan?", which served as a biography
of her life to that point and how the film The Exorcist had dominated her career and
life.
She also appeared in critic Mark Kermode's 1998 BBC documentary "The Fear of God", included
as a special feature on the DVD of The Exorcist.
Most of Kermode's linking scenes to camera were removed from the DVD version to shorten
the running time.
The version shown on BBC TV in 1998 was shown intact.
In 2008, she appeared 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 Savage Streets.
The documentary was included as a bonus feature on the 2009 DVD release of the film.
In 2010 she appeared as herself on the cable series Pit Boss and Jury Duty.
She appeared in the 2011 Rick Springfield documentary Affair of the Heart, and was a
panelist in a 2011 episode of The Joy Behar Show.
Called upon with honors, Blair appeared at a pre-taped 84th Academy Awards ceremony honoring
makeup artist Dick Smith.
Smith had created the iconic makeup for Blair in The Exorcist.
Awards and nominations Filmography
Film Television
References
External links Official website
Linda Blair at the Internet Movie Database Linda Blair at AllMovie
Linda Blair World Heart Foundation Linda Blair's Official FanClub on Twitter