Linda Hamilton

Linda Carroll Hamilton (born September 26, 1956) is an American actress.

Hamilton was born in Salisbury, Maryland, on September 26, 1956.

Hamilton's father died when she was five, and her mother later married a police chief.

Hamilton had an identical twin sister, Leslie Hamilton Freas (1956–2020), as well as one older sister, a younger brother and a stepbrother.

She has said that she was raised in a "very boring, white Anglo-Saxon" household, and that she "voraciously read books" in her spare time.

Hamilton went to Wicomico Junior High and Wicomico High School in Salisbury.

She studied for two years at Washington College in Chestertown, Maryland, before moving on to acting studies in New York City.

Hamilton has said that her acting professor at Washington College told her she had no hope of earning a living as an actress.

In New York, she attended acting workshops given by Lee Strasberg.

Also that year, she guest-starred in an episode of Murder, She Wrote and headlined the big-budget adventure film King Kong Lives, a sequel to the 1976 remake of King Kong.

The film was a moderate financial success but was universally panned by critics.

Hamilton's next major role was that of savvy district attorney Catherine Chandler in the television series Beauty and the Beast.

Known for portraying tough, resilient characters, she made her film debut in 1979 before coming to prominence with her starring role as Sarah Connor in The Terminator (1984) and two of its sequels, Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991) and Terminator: Dark Fate (2019).

Hamilton is the recipient of various accolades, including two Saturn Awards, two MTV Movie Awards, one Satellite Award and one Romy Award, as well as nominations for three Golden Globes and a Primetime Emmy.

Hamilton made her professional acting debut at age 23 with a small part in the 1979 drama Night-Flowers.

Her first major role came the following year when she appeared as Lisa Rogers—between December 1980 and January 1981–on the primetime CBS soap opera Secrets of Midland Heights.

Next, she appeared in her first starring film role in the low-budget thriller TAG: The Assassination Game (1982), and co-starred that same year in the made-for-television movie Country Gold.

She was listed as one of twelve "Promising New Actors of 1982" in John A. Willis' Screen World, Vol. 34.

Hamilton's other film credits include Children of the Corn (1984), Black Moon Rising, King Kong Lives (both 1986), Mr. Destiny (1990), Dante's Peak (1997), and The Kid & I (2005).

Hamilton made two prominent film appearances in 1984: firstly, a starring role in Children of the Corn, a horror film based on the short story by Stephen King.

Hamilton played Vicky Baxter, a motorist who runs into trouble while travelling with her boyfriend through rural Nebraska.

The film was financially profitable, making US$14 million at the domestic box office against a budget of US$3 million, but received generally negative reviews.

In a more positive assessment by The New York Times, Hamilton's performance was praised.

Next, she co-starred in James Cameron's science fiction action-thriller The Terminator (1984).

Hamilton played Sarah Connor, a young waitress—and soon-to-be mother of a valiant resistance leader—who finds herself at the center of a nightmarish ordeal when a soldier travels back in time to help her defeat a cyborg assassin, sent from the future to execute her.

The film was a surprise commercial hit, topping the U.S. box office for two weeks.

Critics believed it to be a perfect example of its genre, with some attributing its strength to Hamilton's performance; The Hollywood Reporter wrote that she displayed "tremendous resiliency" as Connor, while Janet Maslin felt she played the part "engrossingly" in her review for The New York Times.

That same year, she guest-starred in four episodes of the NBC police drama Hill Street Blues.

Following the success of The Terminator, Hamilton starred as car thief Nina in the action thriller Black Moon Rising (1986).

In an effusive review for the Los Angeles Times, Michael Wilmington praised "the clean thrust of the plot, the furiously lucid action and the canny, almost stylized, minimalist performances of the actors (Jones, Hamilton, [et al.])".

On television, she played Catherine Chandler in Beauty and the Beast (1987–1989) and the recurring role of Mary Elizabeth Bartowski on NBC's Chuck (2010–2012).

A modern re-telling of the classic fairy tale, the show ran for three seasons on CBS between 1987 and 1990, though Hamilton requested to be written out during its third season when she fell pregnant.

For her portrayal of Chandler, she won Austria's Romy Award for Favorite Actress in a Series in 1990, as well as receiving Golden Globe and Emmy Award nominations in 1988 and 1989, respectively.

Hamilton returned to film with a starring role opposite in the 1990 fantasy-comedy Mr. Destiny.

In her review for the Los Angeles Times, Sheila Benson believed that the film only worked because of "Hamilton's intrinsic warmth".

The following year, she re-teamed with James Cameron to star in Terminator 2: Judgment Day.

Reported at the time to be the most expensive motion picture ever made, it went on to gross over US$500 million worldwide; more than any other film that year.

Of his decision to present a more troubled version of the Sarah Connor character, Cameron later reflected, "It was all inspired by Linda really. I called her and said, 'Hey, we're [doing] another Terminator'. And she [replied], 'I want to be crazy'. I said, 'I can do that — I'll put you in a mental hospital'. She said, 'Perfect. That's what I want'".

Her theatre work includes Laura (Tiffany Theater, 2000) and The Night of the Iguana (Berkshire Theatre, 2006).

Divorced from actor Bruce Abbott and director James Cameron, Hamilton has a child from each marriage.