Linda Blair

Template:Short description Template:For Template:Use American English Template:Use mdy dates Template:Infobox person Linda Denise Blair (born January 22, 1959)<ref name=TCM>Template:Cite web</ref><ref name=Exorcist>Template:Cite web</ref> is an American actress and activist. She is known for portraying Regan MacNeil in the horror film The Exorcist (1973), which won her a Golden Globe and a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. The film established her both as a scream queen and in popular culture. She reprised the role in two sequels: Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977) and The Exorcist: Believer (2023).

Blair has starred in several television films, including Born Innocent (1974), Sarah T. – Portrait of a Teenage Alcoholic (1975), and Stranger in Our House (1978). She has also starred in exploitation and grindhouse films, including Hell Night (1981), Chained Heat (1983), and Savage Streets (1984). Her role in the musical film Roller Boogie (1979) brought her renewed recognition as a sex symbol. She was the host of the Fox Family reality series Scariest Places on Earth (2000–2006) and made appearances on the Animal Planet series Pit Boss (2010–2012).

Blair is a prominent activist for the animal rights movement. In 2004, she founded the Linda Blair WorldHeart Foundation, a non-profit organization that works to rehabilitate and adopt rescue animals.

Early life

Linda Denise Blair was born on January 22, 1959, in St. Louis, Missouri,<ref name=bio>Template:Cite episode</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> to James Frederick and Elinore (Template:Née Leitch) Blair.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Blair is of Scottish ancestry.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> She has an older sister, Debbie, and an older brother, Jim.<ref name=devil/> When Linda was two years old, her father, a Navy test pilot-turned-executive recruiter, took a job in New York City, and the family relocated to Westport, Connecticut.<ref name=devil>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref name=smh/> Her mother worked as a real-estate agent in Westport.<ref name=kaufman>Template:Cite journal</ref> Linda worked as a child model at age five,Template:Sfn appearing in Sears, JCPenney and Macy's catalogues, and in over 70 commercials for Welch's grape jams and various other companies.<ref name="devil" /><ref name="smh" /> She secured a contract at age six for a series of print advertisements in The New York Times.<ref name="bio" /> At the same age, she began riding horses, later becoming a trained equestrian.<ref name="irish" />

Career

Blair started acting with a regular role on the short-lived Hidden Faces (1968–69) daytime soap opera.Template:Sfn Her first theatrical film appearance was in The Way We Live Now (1970), followed by a bit part in the comedy The Sporting Club (1971).<ref name=irish>Template:Cite news</ref> In 1972, She was selected from a field of 600 applicants for her most notable role as Regan, the possessed daughter of a famous actress, in William Friedkin's The Exorcist (1973). The role earned her a Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actress, and an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress.Template:Sfn Film critic and historian Mark Clark notes that in her performance, "Blair matches [adult co-star] Ellen Burstyn note-for-note."<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Despite the film's critical successes, Blair received media scrutiny for her role in the film, which was deemed by some as "blasphemous", and she has said the film had significant impact on her life and career.Template:Sfn After the film's premiere in December 1973, some reporters speculated about Blair's mental state, suggesting the filming process had resulted in her having a mental breakdown, which she denied,<ref name="bio" /> and she later received anonymous death threats.<ref name="bio" /> To combat the rumors and news media speculation surrounding her, Warner Bros. sent the then-14-year-old Blair on an international press tour in hopes of demonstrating that she was "just a normal teenager".<ref name="bio" />

File:Sara T. Portrait of a Teenage Alcoholic publicity still – Linda Blair.jpg

Blair in a publicity still for Sarah T. – Portrait of a Teenage Alcoholic (1975)

Blair starred opposite Kim Hunter in the controversial television film Born Innocent (1974),Template:Sfn in which she plays a runaway teenager who is sexually abused.Template:Sfn The film was criticized by the National Organization for Women, the New York Rape Coalition, and numerous gay and lesbian rights organizations for its depiction of female-on-female sexual abuse; the Lesbian Feminist Liberation dismissed the film, stating: "Men rape, women don't," and regarded the film as "propaganda against lesbians."Template:Sfn After filming Born Innocent, Blair also had a supporting part as a teenaged kidney-transplant patient in the disaster film Airport 1975 (1974), which was critically panned, but a success at the box office.<ref name="airport">Template:Cite book</ref> A steady series of job offers led her to relocate to Los Angeles in 1975, where she lived with her older sister, Debbie.<ref name="bio" /> Between 1975 and 1978, she had lead roles in numerous television films: Sarah T. – Portrait of a Teenage Alcoholic (1975), as a teenager who becomes addicted to alcohol;Template:Sfn Sweet Hostage (1975) opposite Martin Sheen, in which she plays a kidnapping victim;Template:Sfn and Victory at Entebbe (1976), a dramatization of a real-life hostage situation starring Anthony Hopkins and Elizabeth Taylor.Template:Sfn

In 1977, Blair reprised her role as Regan in the Exorcist sequel, Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977), garnering a Saturn Award nomination for Best Actress of 1978.<ref name="Exorcist" /> The film was a critical and commercial failure, however, and at the time was the most expensive film ever made by Warner Bros. Studios.Template:Sfn After filming Exorcist II: The Heretic, she took a year off from acting and competed in national equestrian circuits under the pseudonym Martha McDonald.<ref name="devil" /> In 1978, she made a return to acting in the Wes Craven-directed television horror film Stranger in Our House (retitled Summer of Fear), based on the novel by Lois Duncan,Template:Sfn and also with the lead role in the Canadian production Wild Horse Hank, in which she used her equestrian skills to play a college student saving wild horses from ranchers.<ref name="wildhorse">Template:Cite book</ref>

Blair's career took a new turn in 1979 with her starring role in the musical drama Roller Boogie, which established her as a sex symbol.Template:Sfn The following year, she co-starred with Dirk Benedict in Ruckus, playing a young woman who helps a maligned Vietnam veteran evade antagonistic locals in a small town.Template:Sfn She also starred in a number of financially successful low-budget horror and exploitation films throughout much of the 1980s. She starred opposite Peter Barton and Vincent Van Patten in the slasher film Hell Night (1981), followed by roles in the women-in-prison film Chained Heat (1983), playing a teenager in a women's prison,Template:Sfn and the exploitation thriller Savage Streets (1984), in which she played the leader of a female vigilante street gang who target male rapists.Template:Sfn In a review of Savage Streets published by TV Guide, her performance was deemed "her best since The Exorcist (1973)... and that's not saying much."<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Also in 1983, Blair posed nude in an issue of Playboy.<ref name="smh" /> In 1985, she starred again in another women-in-prison feature titled Red Heat, playing a prisoner of war in West Germany.Template:Sfn This was followed by a lead in the direct-to-video film Night Force (1985), in which she portrayed a woman who travels to Mexico to save her friend from terrorists.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

The era of her career between 1980 and 1985 was marked by some critical backlash, with Blair earning a total of five Razzie Award nominations and being awarded two Razzies for Worst Actress.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> In the late 1980s, she worked in numerous low-budget horror films, including Grotesque (1988), opposite Tab Hunter,Template:Sfn and the Italian production Witchery (1988), opposite David Hasselhoff.Template:Sfn The following year, she starred in the romantic comedy Up Your Alley opposite Murray Langston,<ref name="langman">Template:Cite book</ref> and the Exorcist spoof Repossessed in 1990, co-starring Leslie Nielsen.Template:Sfn She also appeared in several Australian B-movies in the early 1990s, including Fatal Bond (1991) and Dead Sleep (1992).Template:Sfn

File:Linda Blair 2.jpg

Blair in 1999

In 1996, Blair reunited with director Wes Craven for a cameo role as a reporter in Scream (1996),Template:Sfn In 1997 she starred in a Broadway revival of Grease, playing Rizzo.Template:Sfn Also in 1997, she appeared in a documentary for Channel 4 in the United Kingdom 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.Template:Sfn she appeared in critic Mark Kermode's 1998 BBC documentary The Fear of God (which Kermode directed and hosted), included as a special feature on the DVD of The Exorcist.<ref>Template:Cite AV media</ref> In 1999, she appeared in an online parody of The Blair Witch Project titled The Blair Bitch Project.<ref name="stpete1999">Template:Cite news</ref>

In 2000, she was cast as a regular in the BBC television show, L.A. 7, and between 2001 and 2003, hosted Fox Family's Scariest Places on Earth, a reality series profiling reportedly haunted locations throughout the world.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

In 2006, she guest-starred on The CW television series Supernatural, playing the part of Detective Diana Ballard, as she aids Sam and Dean Winchester in the episode "The Usual Suspects", which aired November 9, 2006.<ref name="sacks" /> 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 the following year in the documentary Confessions of a Teenage Vigilante, discussing her role as Brenda in Savage Streets (1984). The documentary was included as a bonus feature on the 2009 DVD release of the film.

Template:Quote box 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,<ref name="webster" /> and was a panelist in a 2011 episode of The Joy Behar Show. In late 2011, she appeared at the taped Governors Awards for the 84th Academy Awards ceremony, honoring makeup artist Dick Smith, who had created the iconic makeup for Blair in The Exorcist.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In 2013, she accepted a role in the comedy web series Whoa!, and has since appeared in the 2016 feature The Green Fairy, and the films Surge of Power: Revenge of the Sequel (2016) and the upcoming Landfill (post-production).

In 2022, Blair competed in season eight of The Masked Singer as "Scarecrow", resembling a pumpkin-headed scarecrow. Before the first elimination on "Fright Night" could be announced, she interrupted Nick Cannon by declaring forfeit while claiming that her fellow contestants "Sir Bug a Boo" (who would be unmasked in the same episode to be Ray Parker Jr.) and "Snowstorm" (later unmasked in the following episode as Nikki Glaser) should face off. When unmasked, Blair praised the show and said that she wanted to talk about her animal charity, the Linda Blair WorldHeart Foundation Rescue and Wellness Center, in light of the nation's animal crisis – and to also annoy Ken Jeong, as she claimed that he annoys everyone on the show.

In October 2023, Blair reprised the role of Regan MacNeil during a cameo in The Exorcist: Believer.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> In January 2025, she revealed that she was working on a memoir along with her intentions to restart her acting career.<ref>Template:YouTube</ref>

Charitable activities

Blair supports animal welfare. She was a vegetarian for 13 years, before becoming a vegan in 2001. In that year, she co-authored the book Going Vegan!.<ref name=smh>Template:Cite web</ref> In 2004, she founded the Linda Blair WorldHeart Foundation, a nonprofit organization that works to rescue and rehabilitate abused, neglected, and mistreated animals and provide them with needed pet care.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

She has also worked with People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, Feed the Children, Variety, the Children's Charity, and other organizations,<ref name="Exorcist" /> as well as advocating for teen HIV/AIDS awareness.<ref name="irish" /> She is on the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society operations board of advisors.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In August 2005, in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, she travelled to Mississippi and saved 51 abandoned dogs.<ref name="sacks">Template:Cite web</ref>

Personal life

File:Linda Blair 2012 corp.jpg

Blair in 2012

At age 15, Blair dated Australian singer Rick Springfield, 25 years old at the time, whom she met during a concert at the Whisky a Go Go.<ref name="bio" /><ref name="devil" /> She also dated Deep Purple and Trapeze bassist Glenn Hughes, and Neil Giraldo, guitarist and future husband of Pat Benatar.<ref name="devil" /> Between late 1979 and mid-1981, she dated Styx guitarist Tommy Shaw. She also dated Jim Dandy Mangrum of the band Black Oak Arkansas. In the early 1990s, she was in a relationship with actor Wings Hauser.<ref name="kaufman" />

In a 1982 interview accompanying a topless pictorial in Oui, Blair revealed that she found Rick James "very sexy". James, who was shown the piece by a member of his retinue, returned the compliment through an intermediary.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> They dated for two years, and James wrote his hit song "Cold Blooded" about her. Speaking on their relationship in his book Glow: The Autobiography of Rick James, he said: "Linda was incredible. A free spirit. A beautiful mind. A mind-blowing body. She liked getting high and getting down as much as I did. We posed topless for a photograph that showed up everywhere. We didn't care. We were doing our own thing our own way. It was a love affair that I hoped would last. It didn't." James revealed that he found out Blair had been pregnant by him, and had an abortion without his knowledge.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

On December 20, 1977, at 18 years old, she was arrested for drug possession and conspiracy to sell drugs.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> She pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of conspiracy to possess cocaine, in exchange for three years' probation. She was also required to make at least twelve major public appearances to tell young people about the dangers of drug abuse.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

She believes in the paranormal.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

In 2014, Blair revealed that she was treated for an umbilical hernia.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Template:As of, she lived in Coto de Caza, California.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes	Template:Abbr
1970	The Way We Live Now	Sara Aldridge		Template:Sfn
1971	The Sporting Club	Barby		<ref name=irish/>
1973	The Exorcist	Regan MacNeil		Template:Sfn
1974	Airport 1975	Janice Abbott		<ref name="airport" />
	Born Innocent	Chris Parker	Television film	Template:Sfn
1975	Sarah T. – Portrait of a Teenage Alcoholic	Sarah Travis		Template:Sfn
	Sweet Hostage	Doris Mae Withers		Template:Sfn
1976	Victory at Entebbe	Chana Vilnofsky		Template:Sfn
1977	Exorcist II: The Heretic	Regan MacNeil		Template:Sfn
1978	Stranger in Our House	Rachel Bryant	Television film; also known as: Summer of Fear	Template:Sfn
1979	Wild Horse Hank	Hank Bradford		<ref name=wildhorse/>
	Roller Boogie	Terry Barkley		Template:Sfn
1980	Ruckus	Jenny Bellows		Template:Sfn
1981	Hell Night	Marti Gaines		Template:Sfn
1983	Chained Heat	Carol Henderson		Template:Sfn
1984	Night Patrol	Officer Sue Perman		Template:Sfn
	Savage Streets	Brenda		Template:Sfn
	Terror in the Aisles	Regan MacNeil	Archive footage	<ref name=fr/>
1985	Red Heat	Christine Carlson		Template:Sfn
	Savage Island	Daly		Template:Sfn
1987	SFX Retaliator	Doris	Also known as: The Heroin Deal	<ref name=fr/>
	Nightforce	Carla		Template:Sfn
1988	Moving Target	Sally Tyler		<ref name=fr/>
	Grotesque	Lisa		Template:Sfn
	Silent Assassins	Sara		<ref name=fr/>
	Bad Blood	Evie Barners		Template:Sfn
	Witchery	Jane Brooks		Template:Sfn
1989	Up Your Alley	Vickie Adderly		<ref name=langman/>
	The Chilling	Mary Hampton	Also known as: Gamma 693	<ref name=fr/>
	Aunt Millie's Will	Unknown	Short film	<ref name=fr/>
	W.B., Blue and the Bean	Annette Ridgeway	Also known as: Bailout	<ref name=fr/>
	Linda Blair’s How To Get Revenge	Herself	Direct to VHS film	<ref>Template:Citation</ref>
	Bedroom Eyes II	Sophie Stevens		Template:Sfn
1990	Zapped Again!	Miss Mitchell		Template:Sfn
	Repossessed	Nancy Aglet		Template:Sfn
	Dead Sleep	Maggie Healey		Template:Sfn
1991	Fatal Bond	Leonie Stevens		Template:Sfn
1992	Calendar Girl, Cop, Killer?: The Bambi Bembenek Story	Jane Mder	Television film	<ref name=fr/>
	Perry Mason: The Case of the Heartbroken Bride	Hannah Hawkes		<ref name=fr/>
1993	Phone	Unknown	Short film	<ref name=fr/>
1994	Skins	Maggie Joiner		<ref name=fr/>
	Double Blast	Claudia	Television film	<ref name=fr/>
1995	Sorceress	Amelia Reynolds		Template:Sfn
1996	Prey of the Jaguar	Cody Johnson		Template:Sfn
	Scream	Obnoxious Reporter	Uncredited	Template:Sfn
1997	Marina	Marina	Short film	<ref name=fr>Template:Cite web</ref>
2003	Monster Makers	Shelly Stoker	Television film	<ref name=fr/>
2005	Diva Dog: Pit Bull on Wheels	Unknown	Short film	<ref name=fr/>
	Hitters Anonymous	Brenda		<ref name=fr/>
2006	All Is Normal	Barbara		<ref name=fr/>
	The Powder Puff Principle	School Board President	Short film	<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
2009	IMPS*	Jamie	Filmed in 1983	<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
2012	An Affair of the Heart	Herself	Documentary	<ref name=webster>Template:Cite web</ref>
2016	Surge of Power: Revenge of the Sequel	Helen Harris		<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
2021	Landfill	Detective Karen Atwood		<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
2023	The Exorcist: Believer	Regan MacNeil	Cameo	<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes	Template:Abbr
1968–1969	Hidden Faces	Allyn Jaffe	Unknown episodes	<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
1974	What's My Line?	Herself	Mystery Guest
1982	Fantasy Island	Sarah Jean Rollings	Episode:"King Arthur in Mr. Rourke's Court"	<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
	The Love Boat	Muffy	Episode: "Isaac Gets Physical"	<ref name=tvg>Template:Cite web</ref>
1985	Murder, She Wrote	Jane Pascal	Episode: "Murder Takes the Bus"	<ref name=tvg/>
1989	Monsters	La Strega	Episode: "La Strega"	<ref name=tvg/>
1990	MacGyver	Jenny Larson	Episode: "Jenny's Chance"	<ref name=tvg/>
1992	Married... with Children	Ida Mae	Episode: "The Magnificent Seven"	<ref name=tvg/>
1994	Robins Hood's	Carla Patelle	Episode: "Old Friends, Dead Ends"
1996	Renegade	Teddy Rae Thompson	Episode: "Self Defense"	<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
1998	Psi Factor: Chronicles of the Paranormal	Rebecca Royce	Episode: "All Hallow's Eve"	<ref name=tvg/>
1999	Godzilla: The Series	Alexandra Springer	Voice role; Episode: "S.C.A.L.E."	<ref name=wh>Template:Cite web</ref>
2000	L.A. 7	Joni Witherspoon	9 episodes	<ref name=tvg/>
	Artistic Differences		TV special	<ref name=tvg/>
2000–2003	Hollywood Squares	Herself	10 episodes	<ref name=tvg/>
2001–2006	Scariest Places on Earth	Herself / Host	41 episodes	<ref name=tvg/>
2001	Intimate Portrait	Herself	1 episode
2002	History's Mysteries		2 episodes
2006	Supernatural	Detective Diana Ballard	Episode: "The Usual Suspects"	<ref name=tvg/>
2010–2012	Pit Boss	Herself	12 episodes	<ref name=tvg/>
2012	Celebrity Ghost Stories		1 episode	<ref name=tvg/>
2013	Battling Darkness		TV documentary
2014	RuPaul's Drag Race		Episode: "Scream Queens"	<ref name=tvg/>
2018	Eli Roth's History of Horror		1 episode
	American Rescue Dog Show		Guest judge
2019	E! True Hollywood Story		Episode: "Horror Movies: Cursed or Coincidence?"
2020	JJ Villard's Fairy Tales	Various	Voice roles; 2 episodes
	Cursed Films	Herself	Episode: "The Exorcist"
2022	The Masked Singer	Herself/Scarecrow	Season 8 contestant

Awards and nominations

List of awards and nominations received by Linda Blair

Organization	YearTemplate:Efn	Work(s)	Category	Result
Academy Awards	1974	The Exorcist	Best Supporting Actress	Template:Nom
Golden Globe Awards	1974		Best Supporting Actress – Motion Picture	Template:Won
			New Star of the Year – Actress	Template:Nom
Golden Raspberry Awards	1982	Hell Night	Worst Actress	Template:Nom
	1984	Chained Heat		Template:Nom
	1985	Herself	Worst Career Achievement Award	Template:Won
	1986	Night Patrol	Worst Actress	Template:Won
		Savage Island		Template:Won
		Savage Streets		Template:Won
Joe Bob Briggs LifeTime Achievement Awards	1991	Herself	Horror	Template:Won

See also

• List of animal rights advocates

Works cited

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External links

• Template:IMDb name
• Linda Blair World Heart Foundation
• Template:Instagram