Bio: Laura Leggett Linney was born in New York City on February 5, 1964, into a theatre family. Her father was prominent playwright Romulus Linney, whose own great-grandfather was a congressman from North Carolina. Her mother, Miriam Anderson (Leggett), is a nurse. Although she did not live in her father's house (her parents having divorced when she was an infant), Linney's world revolved, in part, around his profession from the earliest age. She graduated from Brown University in 1986 and studied acting at Juilliard and the Arts Theatre School in Moscow and, thereafter, embarked on a career on the Broadway stage receiving favorable notices for her work in such plays as "Hedda Gabler" and "Six Degrees of Separation".Linney's film career began in the early 1990s with small roles in Lorenzo's Oil (1992) and Dave (1993). She landed the role of Mary Anne Singleton in the PBS film adaptations of Armistead Maupin's "Tales of the City" series, playing her in Tales of the City (1993), More Tales of the City (1998) and Further Tales of the City (2001). Linney's first substantial big-screen role was as the ex-girlfriend of Richard Gere's character in Primal Fear (1996) and her superb performance brought her praise and a better selection of roles. Clint Eastwood chose Linney to play his daughter, another prominent role, in 1997's Absolute Power (1997), followed by another second billing in the following year's The Truman Show (1998).Always a strong performer, Linney truly came into her own after 2000, starting the decade auspiciously with her widely-praised, arguably flawless performance in You Can Count on Me (2000). She found herself nominated for an Academy Award for this, her first lead role, for which her salary had been $10,000. Linney won numerous critics' awards for her role as Sammy, a single mother whose life is complicated by a new boss and the arrival in town of her aimless brother. On the heels of this success came her marvelous turn as Bertha Dorset in The House of Mirth (2000), clearly the best performance in a film of strong performances. Since then, Linney has frequently been offered challenging dramatic roles, and always rises to the occasion, such as in Mystic River (2003) and Kinsey (2004), for which she received another Academy Award nomination.
Tivia: Was once a teacher for deaf and autistic children.Filmed Mystic River (2003) in Boston, US, while filming Love Actually (2003) in London, UK. She flew across the Atlantic several times in a short manner of time, in order to complete filming on both movies.Attended and graduated from the Juilliard School in New York City (1990).Four weeks before turning age 50, she gave birth to her first child, a son Bennett Armistead Schauer on January 8, 2014. Child's father is her husband, Marc Schauer.Gained about 20 pounds for her role in Kinsey (2004), mainly by eating Krispy Kreme glazed doughnuts.Clint Eastwood picked her for the role of Kate Whitney in his movie Absolute Power (1997) after he saw her performance in Primal Fear (1996).Attended and graduated from Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island (1986).Won both a Golden Globe Award and an Emmy Award for her work on The Big C (2010), but not for the same season. Both times she was unable to accept the award in person, due to personal reasons.Was nominated for Broadway's 2002 Tony Award as Best Actress (Play) for portraying Elizabeth Proctor in a revival of Arthur Miller's "The Crucible".Loves Meryl Streep. In The Truman Show (1998), her character was named Meryl and Laura was made up to look like her.She says that she was the worst at reading and writing in her class.She was given the screenplay for The Squid and the Whale (2005) by Eric Stoltz, her boyfriend at that time, while they were filming The House of Mirth (2000). She agreed to do the film immediately, but this took four years to raise the financing.Great-great-granddaughter of U.S. Congressman Romulus Zachariah Linney (1841-1910), a Representive from North Carolina. He was elected as a Republican to the Fifty-fourth, Fifty-fifth, and Fifty-sixth Congresses (March 4, 1895-March 3, 1901).On May 2, 2009, she married for the second time to her boyfriend of five years Marc Schauer, following a 21-month-long engagement.At age 14, she spent the summer at the New London Barn Playhouse, summer-stock theater in New London, NH, and loved it, sometimes doing 14-hour days.Is just 10 years older than Amy Adams, who played her daughter in Nocturnal Animals (2016), albeit in a flashback sequence where Adams' character is supposed to be in college.Attended Northwestern University for one year before transferring to Brown University.Has played the wife of Gabriel Byrne in three films: Jindabyne (2006), P.S. (2004), and A Simple Twist of Fate (1994).She has English, as well as Irish, Scottish, and German ancestry.Her mother is a nurse.Her father is respected Off-Broadway playwright Romulus Linney.Longtime friends with Sir Ian McKellen whom she acquainted through their mutual friend Armistead Maupin.Engaged to Marc Schauer in August 2007. She met him at the 2004 Telluride Film Festival when he was her festival host that week.New York, New York: Spoke at the commencement of her alma mater, the Juilliard School in New York City, from which she graduated in 1990. Previously had spoken at the 2009 commencement, at which she was awarded an honorary degree (Doctor of Fine Arts). (May 2013)Has a yellow Labrador dog that she named Eleonora Duse, after the actress Eleonora Duse.Returned to work six months after giving birth to her son Bennett to begin filming Mr. Holmes (2015).Won the 1994 Joe A. Callaway Award, for Best Performance in a Classic Drama, for her performance as Thea Elvsted in "Hedda Gabler".The writers Romulus Linney (father of Laura) and Jonathan Baumbach (father of Noah Baumbach, who directed Linney in The Squid and the Whale (2005)), spent time at Yaddo, an artists colony, where they knew each other well enough to have gotten into an automobile accident together.Won a Theatre World Award and received a Drama Desk nomination for her stage performance in "Sight Unseen".Is to date the oldest Oscar nominee to become a natural first-time mother, having given birth to her son Bennett at age 49, surpassing even Jennifer Jason Leigh, Holly Hunter, Geena Davis and Chlo? Sevigny who became natural first-time mothers at age 48, 47, 46 and 45, respectively.Worked together with Aaron Eckhart on the sitcom Frasier (1993) and in the movie Sully (2016).New York, New York: On Broadway as "Sarah" in "Time Stands Still", a new play by Donald Margulies, directed by Daniel J. Sullivan. With Eric Bogosian, Brian d'Arcy James and Alicia Silverstone. (February 2010)Nominated for the 2017 Tony Award for "The Little Foxes" (Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Play).Only child of her mother. Has a paternal half-sister, Susan Linney.Counts Bill Condon among her all-time favorite directors with whom she has worked.Nominated for the 2005 Tony Award for "Sight Unseen" (Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Play).New York, New York: Starred on Broadway in the play "Sight Unseen" at the Biltmore Theater. This is her second time performing in the play. Years ago, she was cast in the role of the younger female character. (May 2004)Attended and graduated from Northfield Mount Hermon School (1982). A fellow alumnus is Kim Raver, who graduated in 1985.On July 16, 2011, she was in attendance at the wedding of Mamie Gummer to Benjamin Walker.He was awarded a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for Television at 6533 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood, California on July 25, 2022.Attended the wedding of longtime friend Armistead Maupin and Christopher Turner which took place in the garden of the Sausalito, California, home of Amy Tan and husband, Lou DeMattei.Her dream co-star is Irish actor Liam Neeson (with whom she had worked on stage in Arthur Miller's "The Crucible" (2002) and in three feature films through 2022).Nominated for the 2010 Tony Award for "Time Stands Still" (Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Play).Considers her second marriage to be the biggest risk she has ever taken.Her celebrity childhood crush was Errol Flynn.A visit to the Seychelles in the Indian Ocean is on her bucket list.Her guilty pleasure is Swedish Fish candy.Is on Julliard's Board of Trustees.