Linda Blair

Linda Blair, born on January 22, 1959, in St. Louis, Missouri, began her career at the age of five as a child model, appearing in catalogs for Sears, JCPenney, and Macy’s, and over 70 commercials for various companies including Welch’s grape jams. By age six, she secured a contract for print advertisements in The New York Times and began competitive horseback riding, later becoming a trained equestrian. Her acting debut came with a regular role in the daytime soap opera “Hidden Faces” (1968–69), followed by minor film appearances in “The Way We Live Now” (1970) and “The Sporting Club” (1971). Her breakthrough role arrived in 1972 when she was cast as Regan MacNeil, the possessed child in William Friedkin’s horror film “The Exorcist” (1973), a role for which she was selected from 600 applicants. This performance earned her a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress and an Academy Award nomination, thrusting her into international fame.

Following “The Exorcist,” Blair continued to secure lead roles, notably in television films such as “Born Innocent” (1974), which was the #1 TV movie of that year, and “Sarah T. – Portrait of a Teenage Alcoholic” (1975). She reprised her iconic role in “Exorcist II: The Heretic” (1977), earning a Saturn Award nomination. Despite some career challenges in the late 1970s and 1980s, including a highly publicized arrest, she embraced genre films with lead roles in cult classics like “Chained Heat” (1983) and “Savage Streets” (1984). She also starred in the “Exorcist” spoof “Repossessed” (1990) and made a comeback to mainstream attention in the 2000s, hosting the Fox Family series “Scariest Places on Earth” (2000–2006) for six years, where she visited “haunted” locations globally. In 1997, she performed on Broadway as “Rizzo” in a revival of “Grease.” More recently, she made a cameo appearance in “The Exorcist: Believer” (2023) and competed on “The Masked Singer” in 2022.

Outside of her acting career, Linda Blair is a dedicated animal rights activist. In 2004, she founded the Linda Blair WorldHeart Foundation, a non-profit organization focused on rescuing and rehabilitating abused, neglected, and abandoned animals in the Los Angeles area. She lives and works full-time at the 2-acre rescue sanctuary in California. Her commitment to animal welfare has been featured on The Today Show in a segment titled “From Devil to Angel.” She continues to advocate for animal rights and makes frequent appearances at horror fan conventions, maintaining her connection to the legacy of “The Exorcist.”