Laura Linney

Laura Linney has been on stage and screen since the early 1990s. A New York-raised and Julliard-trained actress, she is especially known for playing restrained and earnest roles in melodramas such as You Can Count on Me (2000, with Mark Ruffalo) and Mystic River (2003, with Sean Penn and Kevin Bacon). Linney got her start as an understudy on Broadway, and while pursuing a stage career she began working in film and television. By the end of the 1990s she had gone from bit parts to secondary roles in major movies, including Absolute Power (1997, playing Clint Eastwood's daughter) and The Truman Show (1998, playing Jim Carrey's pretend wife). Since then she's worked steadily and received heaps of praise, if not much Hollywood buzz. She won Oscar nominations for You Can Count on Me and Kinsey (2004, starring Liam Neeson as Alfred Kinsey); she won Emmy awards for her 2003 guest role on the sitcom Frasier and for her leading role in the 2000 TV-movie Wild Iris; and she nabbed a Tony nomination in 2002 for her performance on stage in Arthur Miller's The Crucible. Although she maintains her long-held connection to the theater (her father, Romulus Linney, is a playwright), Linney works like crazy in the movies. Her recent films include Love Actually (2003); The Squid and the Whale (2005); Driving Lessons (2006, starring Rupert Grint); Jindabyne (2006); Man of the Year (2006, starring Robin Williams); The Hottest State (2006, written and directed by Ethan Hawke); and The Savages (2007, with Philip Seymour Hoffman).