Linda Thorson
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Linda Thorson
Biography
When leggy, 5'9" brunette actress Linda Thorson replaced Diana Rigg on the long-running British TV adventure series The Avengers, one critic summed up Thorson as "a cute trick, but not in Diana's league." Hold on there! Though Thorson was only 20, she was no mere bubble-headed starlet. The daughter of a Canadian math and physics teacher, she was a trained dancer and an alumnus of London's Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts. She had previously won speaking and singing honors while in school, and was well on her way to a prestigious stage career when she was selected from a field of 200 actresses to play Tara King, the new partner of crimefighter John Steed(Patrick MacNee) on The Avengers. Some fans of the series have a low regard of Thorson's contributions, citing her misguided efforts to inject more sexual tension between Tara and Steed, and her tendency to react more fearfully to dangerous situations than the unflappable Rigg. In point of fact, Thorson was only following orders; the producers of The Avengers were responsible for the questionable "improvements" in their flagging property. After the series' cancellation in 1969, Thorson launched her stage career in earnest, racking up respectable credits on the British stage and in such films as Valentino (1977) and The Great Tycoon (1979). She won a Theatre World Award for her 1982 Broadway debut in Steaming, and proved a superb farceur in the Alan Ayckbourn stage comedy Noises Off. The mature, poised, wryly self-confident Linda Thorson who co-starred on the 1986 TV comedy series Marblehead Manor was a far cry from the slightly awkward, plucked-eyebrowed nymphet who co-starred in the waning days of The Avengers. ~ Hal Erickson, RoviFilmography:
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Linda Thorson
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AMG AllMusic Guide: Pop Artists:
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Linda Thorson
- Genres: Rock
Biography
Linda Thorson is known primarily as a stage, screen, and television actress, her late-'60s stint in the TV series The Avengers being her most famous role. It's not well known that, at the apex of her exposure on The Avengers, she also recorded some pop singles for the U.K.'s small Ember label. Produced by Kenny Lynch, who'd had some success of his own as a singer/songwriter in Britain in the '60s, these actually were respectable pop-soul concoctions. They were derivative and unexceptional, though Thorson's vocals were competent and respectably emotive, not just a novelty vehicle as an adjunct to her television stardom. Seven of these tracks were reissued on the 2005 CD compilation A Snapshot of Swinging London, which also includes four tracks from around the same time by another highly visible youth icon of late-'60s Britain, Twiggy. ~ Richie Unterberger, RoviWikipedia on Answers.com:
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Linda Thorson
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This article includes a list of references, related reading or external links, but its sources remain unclear because it lacks inline citations. Please improve this article by introducing more precise citations. (August 2011) |
| Linda Thorson | |
|---|---|
| Born | Linda Robinson 18 June 1947 Toronto, Canada |
| Occupation | Actress |
| Spouse | Barry Bergthorson (divorced) Bill Boggs (divorced); 1 child Gavin Mitchell (2005-present) |
Linda Thorson (born Linda Robinson on 18 June 1947 in Toronto) is a Canadian actress, best known for playing Tara King in The Avengers[1] (1968-69).
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Personal life
Born Linda Robinson in Toronto, Ontario, Canada[1][2] she moved to the UK in 1965 to train to be a dancer.[3] She graduated from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art on 1 July 1967.[3][4] Her professional name is based upon her first married name, Mrs Barry Bergthorson.[5]
She was married to the American news anchorman and producer Bill Boggs with whom she has a son; they divorced.[2] She has been married to production designer Gavin Mitchell since 20 November 2005.
Thorson is also bidialectal, speaking in a Canadian/American accent when she is in North America, and a British accent when she is in the United Kingdom.
Acting roles
Thorson is best known for her role as Tara King (succeeding Diana Rigg as Emma Peel) in the last season of the British TV adventure series, The Avengers, with the original star Patrick Macnee.[4] She was reunited with Macnee in a commercial for Laurent-Perrier champagne in the mid 1970s which led to the series reappearing as The New Avengers,[6] although Thorson did not reprise her role.
Since then, she appeared in character roles in many TV series and films, including Thriller, Return of the Saint, The Greek Tycoon (1978), Sweet Liberty (1986), and Marblehead Manor (1987).[3] She appeared from 1989 to 1992 in the daytime drama One Life to Live as Julia Medina.[3] She also appeared in Star Trek: The Next Generation, playing a Cardassian starship captain in the 6th season episode 'The Chase' (1993).[7]
Thorson has performed in over fifty dramatic and musical stage productions, including five appearances on Broadway.[2] She appeared in the theatre in 1971, starring alongside Michael Crawford and Anthony Valentine in the London West End hit show No Sex Please, We're British and later appeared in A Midsummer Night's Dream as Titania at the Open Air Theatre, Regents Park, London. In 2002, she portrayed a Supreme Court Justice in the movie Half Past Dead with Steven Seagal and Ja Rule.
Throughout 2006-07, Thorson played the villainous Rosemary King in the ITV series, Emmerdale, and most recently played Hester Salomon in a UK tour of Equus. In the summer of 2008, she appeared at the Open Air Theatre, Regent's Park in the Lerner & Loewe musical, Gigi.
References
- ^ a b "Full Biography: Linda Thorson". New York Times. http://movies.nytimes.com/person/70859/Linda-Thorson/biography. Retrieved 2009-05-09.
- ^ a b c "Linda Thorson Biography". Film Reference. http://www.filmreference.com/film/37/Linda-Thorson.html. Retrieved 5 July 2010.
- ^ a b c d Lisanti, Tom; Paul, Louis (April 2002). Film fatales: women in espionage films and television, 1962-1973. McFarland & Company. pp. 287–289. ISBN 978-0-7864-1194-8.
- ^ a b Rogers, Dave (1989-08-15). The Complete Avengers: The Full Story of Britain's Smash Crime-Fighting Team!. Berlin: St. Martin's Griffin. p. 158. ISBN 978-0-312-03187-9.
- ^ Room, Adrian (1981). Naming names: stories of pseudonyms and name changes. Routledge & Kegan Paul. p. 196. ISBN 978-0-7100-0920-3.
- ^ Behind the Scenes: The New Avengers
- ^ "Interview with Linda Thorson". BBC. 26 September 2005. http://www.bbc.co.uk/wiltshire/entertainment/films_and_tv/lindathorson.shtml. Retrieved 5 July 2010.
External links
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Mentioned in
Possession: Law & Order (TV Episode)
(2001 TV Episode)
Symphony in Knocked Flat: Moonlighting (TV Episode)
(1986 Comedy Drama TV Episode)
A Snapshot of Swinging London
(2005 Album by Twiggy/Linda Thorson)
Honor Blackman
(Actor, Spy Film/Drama)
The Forget-Me-Knot: The Avengers (TV Episode)
(1968 Spy Film TV Episode)
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