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| This attractive blonde daughter of playwright Romulus Linney didn't initially set out to be an actress but by her teens had settled on her chosen profession. After working in summer stock and training at Juilliard, Laura Linney began her big screen career with a small role as a young teacher in "Lorenzo's Oil" (1992). She made an impression as the secretary sleeping with the president in the Ivan Reitman-directed "Dave" (1993). Linney went on to co-star with Steve Martin in "A Simple Twist of Fate" (1994), modernized spin on "Silas Marner" and then landed her first starring roles as the naive transplant to San Francisco Mary Ann Singleton in the PBS adaptation of "Armistead Maupin's Tales of the City" (1994) and as a member of an expedition into the jungles of South America in the critically derided but financially successful "Congo" (1995). Linney's ascendancy continued when she nabbed the co-starring role as the former lover now courtroom adversary of Richard Gere in "Primal Fear" and was solidified when Clint Eastwood tapped her to portray his daughter in the political thriller "Absolute Power" (1997). In between her film work, the actress squeezed in Broadway appearances in a revival of "Holiday" (in 1995) and co-starred opposite Jane Alexander in "Honour" (in 1998). Linney also reprised her signature role of Mary Ann Singleton in the Showtime sequel "Armistead Maupin's More Tales of the City" in 1998. Perhaps her highest profile role to date came when she was tipped to portray Meryl, the wife of Jim Carrey's Truman Burbank in the satirical "The Truman Show" (1998). Under Peter Weir's solid direction, Linney essayed the role of an actress playing the wife of a man whose life is broadcast on TV. Her multi-layered performance as the increasingly unhappy Meryl chafing under her duty to be loyal wife and commercial pitchwoman worked in counterpoint to Carrey's fine work as the questioning Truman. With the Sundance hit "You Can Count on Me" (2000), Linney proved her capabilities, turning in a richly nuanced turn as a woman coping with a demanding new boss (Matthew Broderick), raising her six-year old son (Rory Culkin) and the return of her prodigal brother (Mark Ruffalo). A return to Broadway in "Uncle Vanya" opposite Derek Jacobi followed before she undertook the part of a lusty campaign manager in the TNT original "Running Mates" (2000). Linney then segued to early 20th-century Manhattan as the bitchy society matron Bertha Dorset in the exquisite adaptation of "The House of Mirth" (also 2000). She kicked off 2001 reprising Mary Ann Singleton in "Armistead Maupin's Further Tales of the City" (Showtime) and then co-starred with Gena Rowlands in "Wild "Iris" (2002), a drama about an estranged mother and daughter forced by circumstances to share a home. |
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