- Linney, Laura
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▪ American actressin full Laura Leggett Linneyborn Feb. 5, 1964, New York, N.Y., U.S.American actress best known for playing strong yet vulnerable characters.Linney was born into a theatrical family; her father was the playwright Romulus Linney. She graduated from Brown University in 1986 and later studied at the Arts Theatre School in Moscow and graduated from the Juilliard School (M.F.A.) in New York City in 1990. She immediately began performing on Broadway, eventually earning praise for her roles in Hedda Gabler and Six Degrees of Separation.Linney began her film career with a small part in Lorenzo's Oil (1992), followed by a role in the comedy Dave (1993). In 1993 she also appeared in Tales of the City, the television miniseries based on Armistead Maupin (Maupin, Armistead)'s book. Her breakthrough came in 1996 when she starred opposite Richard Gere (Gere, Richard) in the film Primal Fear, a thriller that revolves around the murder of an archbishop. This led to starring roles in other movies, including Absolute Power (1997)—in which she portrayed the daughter of a man (played by Clint Eastwood (Eastwood, Clint)) who is framed for a murder involving the president—and the comedy-drama The Truman Show (1998).At the beginning of the 21st century, Linney's acting began to receive widespread praise. For her role as a single mom in You Can Count on Me (2000), she was nominated for an Academy Award for best actress. She won Emmy Awards (Emmy Award) for roles in the sitcom Frasier (2002), the television movie Wild Iris (2004), and the HBO miniseries John Adams (2008). In 2005 Linney earned a second Academy Award nomination, for best supporting actress, for her performance as the freethinking wife of the sex researcher Alfred Kinsey (Kinsey, Alfred Charles) in Kinsey (2004). In the quirky drama The Squid and the Whale (2005), she starred as a promising writer dealing with a messy divorce in 1980s Brooklyn. She later appeared in the comedy Man of the Year (2006) and the FBI thriller Breach (2007). In 2007 Linney portrayed a playwright still reeling from her dysfunctional childhood in The Savages, for which she was nominated for a third Academy Award. Linney also continued to perform on stage, garnering Tony Award nominations for her roles in The Crucible (2002) and Sight Unseen (2005).
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Universalium. 2010.
