Linda Blair began modelling when she was five years old. By her teens she had started acting on television and movies, and in 1973 she got an Oscar nomination for her portrayal of Regan, the demon-possessed child in The Exorcist (co-starring Max von Sydow). She also appeared four years later in the sequel, and starred in the cult favorite Roller Boogie in 1979. Blair has appeared in dozens of movies, TV shows and performed on Broadway (in Grease as Rizzo), and is a well-known advocate for animal welfare and environmental causes.
Career Highlights: The Exorcist, Repossessed, Exorcist II: The Heretic
First Major Screen Credit: The Exorcist (1973)
Biography
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, All Movie Guide
Blair was born in St. Louis, Missouri, the daughter of Elinore (née Leitch), a real estate agent, and James Frederick Blair, an executive recruiter.[1] She moved with her parents to Westport, Connecticut when she was two years old. As a young child, Blair began her career by modeling, then acting in commercials, including a long-running one for Gulden's Mustard. Blair had originally planned to become a veterinarian, but instead accepted a role in The Exorcist because the money would allow her to pursue horsemanship. She was chosen over the very similar-looking Pamelyn Ferdin since the director wanted an unknown, and Ferdin had already gained recognition after appearing in Star Trek, The Odd Couple and Night Gallery.
The film was nominated for ten Academy Awards, including Best Picture, and Blair received an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress, as well as Golden Globe and People's Choice Award wins. Blair received a Golden Globe nomination for the now defunct "most promising female star" category.
Despite the film's several nominations, the Best Picture Oscar went to George Roy Hill's film The Sting. The Exorcist won for Blatty's screenplay and for Best Sound. Blair's chances for an Oscar were hurt when Mercedes McCambridge revealed to the press that she had provided the (initially) uncredited demonic voice, though Linda's voice was underlaid in the track, and another woman claimed to have body-doubled for Blair in several scenes, though the director dismissed the contributions of the double as insignificant. The Best Supporting Actress Oscar instead went to 10-year old Tatum O'Neal for her performance in Peter Bogdanovich's Paper Moon.
After The Exorcist
1970s
Following the success of The Exorcist, Blair appeared in several controversial television films, including Born Innocent and Sarah T...Portrait Of a Teenage Alcoholic, which were the highest rated in their respective years. She was also featured in Airport 1975. Soon afterward, she received a Saturn Award for Best Actress nomination for her performance in the Exorcist sequel, Exorcist II: The Heretic which co-starred Richard Burton. The film was met with negative reviews.
One of Blair's latest appearances occurred in the Supernatural episode "The Usual Suspects", where a brief homage was paid to her Exorcist fame in the closing dialogue of the episode, when Dean Winchester says that she "looks familiar" and expresses a craving for pea soup.
