It's Linda Blair's 61st birthday

Linda sends her love.

I miss this bitch. She usually picked pretty entertaining movies. They weren't high art, but Roller Boggie, Born Innocent, Hell Night, and Savage Streets were good fun. Even Exorcist II and Repossessed have their charms.

"Raquel Welch always ate all her potato salad."

She had nice boobs in her heyday

Agreed, R2. Even her trash films were really amusing. I really liked "Ruckus" which she co-starred in with Dirk Benedict. Nobody ever talks about that movie, but it was a pretty good exploitation flick. It also preempted "First Blood," which had a very similar plot.

She's 56, not 61...it's all public record.

She was most certainly not 8 years old when filming The Exorcist, R6.

Rick James sends his love.

Linda always delivers a head-turning performance.

^they made a beautiful couple, they should have married and had kids.

The guy with his hands on her shoulders, isn't he the technician they found out later was a gay serial killer?

She was born in 1959, which indeed makes her 61. She was one of those unfortunate Hollywood stories. She was picked out of hundreds of girls for the plum role of little Regan in "The Exorcist" because she had the right look (plump cutie pie face) and William Friedkin thought she had the mental stability to handle the role of a girl who screams obscenities at priests, vomits in their faces, and fucks herself with a crucifix. He was wrong about that. She became a Hollywood partier VERY quickly. At 15 she was fucked 24 year old Rick Springfield; her parents indulged their little movie star darling so much they let him move into the family home. She went on to become a coke snorting groupie, partying and drugging with the likes of Ozzy Osbourne, Keith Moon and LInda Lovelace. She finally got busted for cocaine, which derailed her career. It also didn't help that she had very little talent. She tried to reinvent herself as a sex symbol but was also too porky to be taken seriously as a sex goddess. Her career dried up and she's now an animal rights activist. She never married.

As for her and Rick James he said this about her "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 hope would last. It didn't." He also claimed she got pregnant by him and had an abortion. Too bad. The child probably would have had, um, interesting looks.

I wonder if she hid the pregnancy and delivered the child without his knowledge? it's certainly possible.

She actually seems pretty stable for a child star who got super famous (and notorious) after appearing in one of the most talked about movies of all time.

Hey, she was a party girl who grew up and devoted her life to helping sick and injured animals.

I love her.

She is usually pretty likable on screen, which is more than can be said about some better actors.

Happy Birthday!

R11 yes that is him--Paul Bateson. He was convicted of killing a journalist not long after "The Exercise" came out, and was later suspected of murdering numerous gay men in New York. He was paroled in 2003 but it's unclear if he's still alive. Very creepy. It apparently inspired Friedkin to make "Cruising."

^ "The Exorcist," not "exercise

[Quote] Her career dried up

Lies!!!!

She was never a brilliant actress and her best work, in The Exorcist, was the result of lots of takes, editing, and a mix of body doubles and voice doubles. Still as R16 said, she was incredibly likable on screen and you rooted for her. I think Hell Night was my favorite of her post-Exorcist films. It was billed as a run of the mill teenage slasher movie, but it's much more elegant and gothic than what you'd think and it has some incredibly good scares and moments of suspense. Linda's also very good in the film.

Someone told me she comes across as cunty to her fans at conventions, which surprises me. I love that she's devoted her life to rescuing animals.

She had a little girl's voice that seemed appropriate when she was playing little Regan and young teens but when she became an adult she still sounded that way, which made her seem kind of mentally challenged. I never found her that likable, onscreen or off. She always seemed like a not very bright, slutty, Hollywood dimwit.

She sure liked the Ricks with the dicks, huh?

Getting old sucks.

She used drugs and that fucked up her aging.

She trod the boards of the legitimate stage....

I hope when she gets elderly she doesn’t get dementia. I’d hate to be her nurse when she starts re-enacting scenes from the Exorcist.

[quote] She went on to become a coke snorting groupie, partying and drugging with the likes of Ozzy Osbourne, Keith Moon and LInda Lovelace. She finally got busted for cocaine, which derailed her career.

To this day, she denies that she was ever busted for cocaine. I don't understand why. It's been like 40 years. I'm not sure if she's ever admitted to even TRYING cocaine.

Bateson is still alive r17. He lives in upstate New York.

How was she in Grease? It's not hard following up chanteuses like Rosie O'Donnell and Brooke Shields, but still I wonder how she was. How come she's never been a replacement in Chicago or that 90's production of Cabaret?

"How was she in Grease? "

EVERYBODY was in "Grease." She played Rizzo. Every actress in the world seems to have played Rizzo.

Everyone will be Rizzo for 15 minutes.

Even Marcia, Marcia, Marcia!

Is the person giving Linda a back rub in OP's GIF the guy who would later turn out to be a serial killer?

I don't know r33, ask r17.

R34 Sorry. I missed that exchange. I'll go flog myself now.

Thanks, r35, I'd do it for you but I'm heading out the door for my Prancercise class.

Happy birthday, you chalk-faced whore!

In honor of your special day, a song from the heart.

She had the cutest baby fat face as a teen, but her face is much more gaunt now..

R39 it seems she started to get really skinny in the last 10–15 years, coinciding with her beginning a vegan diet. Looking at photos of her from the '70s and '80s versus ones from today, she almost looks like a different person. Having a bit of fat is a good thing as it gives your face natural filler, but she looks like she doesn't have an ounce of fat on her these days. She has naturally nice features and was quite beautiful in a girl-next-door way.

You posted THAT pic to illustrate her girl next door good looks?

You're right, R41, I should've posted this one:

[Quote] this one:

She had great tits.

R44=Pazuzu

I'm having a Linda Blair marathon this weekend. Last night was Hell Night. Tonight is Roller Boogie. Gotta say both movies are fun. A nice distraction from the craziness of the world. Yeah, she was not a great actress but she was cute and likable.

What should I watch next?

I've never seen "The Exorcist." I have seen "LA 7". (I think that was the name.)

Rick James died in 2004. Girl made some really bad choices.

"Ruckus"

[quote]In honor of your special day, a song from the heart.

Sounds like she says "Oh, I like rock music,,,fuck music..."

Her very own "What is it you cuntface?"

Linda BlairLinda Denise Blair (born January 22, 1959) (age 61)

Linda Blair Talks Filming 'The Exorcist'

R52. Fascinating interview. She seems very much together, smart intelligent woman. Wow, she dated Rick Springfield when she was 15; he was 25.

When asked about her being with Rick Springfield she rather incoherently babbles "we were really quiet about it and people have to remember back in history families would marry young people into, you know, they, there was no choice, and so, my mother loved Rick and he was part of our family." WTF?

Springfield wasn't, despite what the interviewer said, "one of the world's most famous singers." His career was just beginning and he got a lot of publicity from his affair with the 15 year old Blair. They were far from being ""quiet about it"; they were photographed everywhere and Blair was even seen making out with Springfield in a restaurant, in the presence of her older sister, no less. She makes more of the relationship than what it was. In Springfield's memoir he barely mentioned her, except to say that he introduced her to sex and she was a very enthusiastic pupil. In an interview, he admitted that if he did something like that now he would be "lynched" but by way of explanation he said "it was the seventies."

Rick James wrote “Cold Blooded” about her.

Savage Streets is such deliciously campy trash. It’s fun and I love it, even Linda’s performance.

Buffy was supposed to get her breakthrough role. So in a way, she killed Buffy, who undoubtedy would've not OD'd

Here's a list of people who supposedly auditioned for or were considered for the part of Regan MacNeil. It's a pretty weird list and a lot of it seems like bullshit gossip:

Anissa Jones (Buffy from Family Affair). Her as the vomit and obscenity spewing Regan; what a ridiculous notion. Anyway,

April Winchell (daughter of Paul Winchell, the ventriloquist. Said she was "seriously considered" for the role but had to drop out due to illness.

Pamelyn Ferdin, accomplished child actress of the era. She might have done well in the role.

Denise Nickerson, Violet from "Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory." She was a good actress, but didn't seem the right choice. After reading the script her parents were against her doing it. " According to Variety magazine, it was revealed that Carrie Fisher and her mother Debbie Reynolds were contenders for the roles of Regan and Chris MacNeil. That's pretty damn hard to believe.

According to Panorama magazine, William Friedkin didn't give Brooke Shields the part of Regan McNeil because "she was too young for the part." That sounds damn hard to believe too.

Dana Plato claimed that she had been offered the role of Regan but her mother Kay had turned it down. In the book "Former Child Stars: The Story of America's Least Wanted" William Peter Blatty later said that he had "no such recollection" of this actually happening, and that Plato herself may have been the source for this rumor.

Laura Dern supposedly auditioned for the role.

Eve Plumb supposedly auditioned for the role.

Sharon Stone was supposedly "considered" for Regan.

Melanie Griffith said she auditioned for Regan.

Like I said, it's a weird list. I think almost everyone on it would have been a ridiculous choice to play Regan.

Anissa Jones was the first choice to play it.

Did Rick James write Superfreak about her?

R56 the Director of that movie, Danny Steinman, directed Friday the 13th part V: A New Beginning a year later and you could tell!

It's the most exploitation, cheesy, campy, grindhouse F13 film ever. Pure sleaze and tits everywhere. Plus those rednecks for comic relief!

The more family friendly toned down part VI, which had NO nudity, was a response to how coarse and over the top part V was

[quote][R56] the Director of that movie, Danny Steinman, directed Friday the 13th part V: A New Beginning a year later and you could tell!

Yeah I know, but I always thought that part lV The Final Chapter was sleazier than A New Beginning. It was gorier, had that pervy morgue tech lusting over the dead body at the beginning, and that old-timey porn reel scene, and skeevy characters like the Crispin Glover and the Lawrence Monoson characters, and little kid Tommy being a witness to all the nihilistic high jinks going on across the way (skinny dipping, etc.), and the spear-in-the-balls death scene, etc.

in Sarah T: Portrait of a Teenage Alcoholic (where her BF is a pre Star Wars Mark Hamill)

Another year closer to sucking cocks in Hell.

R63 and didn't a pre JR from Dallas, Larry Hagman (and occasional Knots Landing crossover appearances) play her father in that movie?

Happy BD