By Marie Reader

FROM WIKIPEDIA COMMONS

Linda Denise Blair (born January 22, 1959) is an American actress and activist. Known for her work in the horror genre, she first came to prominence with her portrayal of Regan MacNeil in The Exorcist (1973), for which she won a Golden Globe Award and received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. The film established her as a scream queen and she reprised her role in two sequels: Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977) and The Exorcist: Believer (2023).

Blair has starred in several television films, such as Born Innocent (1974), Sarah T. – Portrait of a Teenage Alcoholic (1975) and Stranger in Our House (1978). Her role in the musical film Roller Boogie (1979) brought her a reputation as a sex symbol. She has appeared in various exploitation and grindhouse films, such as Hell Night (1981), Chained Heat (1983) and Savage Streets (1984). Blair was the host of the Fox Family reality series Scariest Places on Earth (2000–2006) and made regular appearances on the Animal Planet reality series Pit Boss (2010–2012).

Blair is a prominent activist for the animal rights movement. In 2004, she founded the Linda Blair WorldHeart Foundation, a nonprofit organization that serves to rehabilitate and adopt rescue animals. A vegan, she co-authored the book Going Vegan! in 2001.

PERSONAL LIFE

At age 15, Blair dated Australian singer Rick Springfield, 25 years old at the time, whom she met during a concert at the Whisky a Go Go. She also dated Deep Purple and Trapeze bassist Glenn Hughes, and Neil Giraldo, guitarist and future husband of Pat Benatar. Between late 1979 and mid-1981, Blair dated Styx guitarist Tommy Shaw. Blair also dated Jim Dandy Mangrum of band Black Oak Arkansas. In the early 1990s, Blair was in a relationship with actor Wings Hauser.

In a 1982 interview accompanying a topless pictorial in Oui, Blair revealed that she found Rick James “very sexy”. James, who was shown the piece by a member of his retinue, returned the compliment through an intermediary. They dated for two years, and James wrote his hit song “Cold Blooded” about her. Speaking on their relationship in his book Glow: The Autobiography of Rick James, he said: “Linda was incredible. A free spirit. A beautiful mind. A mind-blowing body. She liked getting high and getting down as much as I did. We posed topless for a photograph that showed up everywhere. We didn’t care. We were doing our own thing our own way. It was a love affair that I hoped would last. It didn’t.” James revealed that he found out Blair had been pregnant by him, and had an abortion without his knowledge.

Blair supports animal welfare. She was a vegetarian for 13 years, before becoming a vegan in 2001. In that year, she co-authored the book Going Vegan!. In 2004, she founded the Linda Blair WorldHeart Foundation, a nonprofit organization that serves to rehabilitate and adopt rescue animals.

She believes in the paranormal.

Diane Colleen Lane (born January 22, 1965) is an American actress. Born and raised in New York City, Lane made her film debut at age 14 in A Little Romance (1979).

The film that could have catapulted her to star status, Streets of Fire (1984), was both a commercial and critical failure, and her career languished as a result. After taking a break, Lane returned to acting to appear in The Big Town and Lady Beware (both 1987), but did not make another big impression on a sizable audience until the western miniseries Lonesome Dove (1989), for which she was nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie. Lane earned further recognition for her role in A Walk on the Moon (1999), for which she was nominated for the Independent Spirit Award for Best Female Lead. This was followed by several film roles of varying degrees of success such as My Dog Skip, The Perfect Storm (both 2000), The Glass House, and Hardball (both 2001).

Lane was especially lauded for her role in Unfaithful (2002), which earned her Satellite, New York Film Critics Circle, and National Society of Film Critics awards for Best Actress. Her performance in Unfaithful also garnered her Academy Award, Golden Globe, and Screen Actors Guild Award nominations for Best Actress. She was also highly acclaimed by critics for her role in Under the Tuscan Sun (2003). For much of the rest of the decade, she alternately appeared in romances such as Must Love Dogs (2005) and Nights in Rodanthe (2008), and thrillers such as Fierce People (2005), Hollywoodland (2006), and Untraceable (2008).

She has appeared in four films directed by Francis Ford Coppola: The Outsiders, Rumble Fish (both 1983), The Cotton Club (1984), and Jack (1996), and also appeared in one film directed by his wife Eleanor Coppola: Paris Can Wait (2016). Lane had a recurring role as Martha Kent, the adoptive mother of Superman in Man of Steel (2013), and subsequent films of the DC Extended Universe.

TODAY’S ALMANAC

Question of the Day

Advice of the Day

Home Hint of the Day

Word of the Day

Puzzle of the Day