Bio
Laura Linney is an American actress best known for her roles in the feature films The Truman Show (1998) and Kinsey (2004), and for her starring role as Abigail Adams in the 2008 television mini-series John Adams, for which she won Emmy, Golden Globe and SAG awards for Best Actress.
She also starred as Cathy Jamison, a reserved, stifled, Minneapolis schoolteacher who receives life changing news and decides, from that moment on, to make drastic, long-overdue adjustments to the way she is living her life, in the comedy-drama television series The Big C.
Linney received an Academy Award nomination in 2008 in the lead actress category for her role in the box office hit, The Savages, opposite Phillip Seymour Hoffman, and also starred in the critically acclaimed HBO miniseries John Adams, for which she won an Emmy Award, a SAG Award and a Golden Globe.
Additionally, Linney wrapped filming on the James Ivory film, City Of Your Final Destination, opposite Sir Anthony Hopkins; Sympathy For Delicious with Orlando Bloom and Mark Ruffalo; and The Other Man with Liam Neeson and Antonio Banderas.
Linney received a Tony nomination for her work in the Manhattan Theatre Club production of Donald Margulies' Time Stands Still.
Linney's additional credits include Kenneth Lonergan's You Can Count On Me, for which she was nominated for an Oscar, a Screen Actors Guild Award, a Golden Globe Award and an Independent Spirit Award. She received the award for Best Actress from the New York Film Critics Circle and the National Society of Film Critics for her work in that film.
She received Golden Globe and Independent Spirit Award nominations for her work in The Squid And The Whale. In 2004, she starred in Kinsey, opposite Liam Neeson and directed by Bill Condon, for which she was nominated for an Oscar, Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild Award.
In addition, for that performance, she won the award for Best Supporting Actress by the National Board of Review.
In 2003, Linney appeared in the ensemble romantic comedy Love Actually. For her work in Mystic River, she earned a Best Supporting Actress in a Drama nomination by The British Academy of Film and Television Arts.
Her other film credits include Congo, Absolute Power, Primal Fear, The Truman Show, The House Of Mirth, Lorenzo's Oil, Dave, Searching For Bobby Fischer, A Simple Twist Of Fate, The Mothman Prophecies, The Life Of David Gale, P.S., The Exorcism Of Emily Rose, Breach, Man Of The Year, Driving Lessons, Jindabyne, The Hottest State, The Nanny Diaries, and The Other Man.
Linney returned to television in 2004 on the NBC comedy Frasier. For this role, Linney won a 2004 Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series.
She previously won an Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actress for Wild Iris, opposite Gena Rowlands.
Additional television appearances include the lead role in PBS's Tales Of The City, based on the novels by Armistead Maupin, a role which she reprised in More Tales Of The City for Showtime.
Linney was also seen opposite Joanne Woodward in the Hallmark Hall of Fame presentation of Blind Spot, and opposite Steven Weber in Love Letters, directed by Stanley Donen.
Linney is a graduate of Juilliard. In 2008, she starred in the Roundabout Theatre Company's revival of Christopher Hampton's Les Liaisons Dangereuse with Ben Daniels. She was nominated for a Tony for her performance in Richard Eyre's The Crucible, opposite Liam Neeson.
In 2004, Linney starred in Donald Margulies' Broadway staging of Sight Unseen, the same play she did 12 years prior. She received a Tony nomination as well as nominations from the Drama League, the Drama Desk Club and the Outer Critic Circle for Outstanding Actress in a Play.
Her additional theatre credits include roles in the Broadway presentations of Six Degrees Of Separation; The Seagull; Hedda Gabler, for which she won a 1994 Calloway Award; Phillip Barry's Holiday, a comedy of manners, opposite Tony Goldwyn; Honour; Sight Unseen; for which she earned a Theatre World Award and a Drama Desk nomination; and John Guare's Landscape Of The Body at the Yale Repertory Theatre.