Linda Purl

She works steadily (see IMDB link below). She did a lot of schlock in the 80s and 90s too. She played Matlock's (Andy Griffth) daughter for example.

She played Pam’s mom on The Office. Looks good for her age. I think she lives in Colorado now

I first knew her as Fonzie’s girlfriend (and Heather O’Rourke’s mom) on the later seasons of Happy Days. She did a hilariously bad Single White Female ripoff TV movie with Heather Locklear. Can’t remember the name but it’s worth seeking out.

Oh, I thought she was pretty. But you are right, she was in EVERYTHING. However, she was capable and always delivered.

I hope she's had a nice life. I liked her.

She gave a fantastic performance as a oversexed wife in a Murder, She Wrote aping Tennessee Williams plays. Lansbury underplayed most of the episode, which allowed the fabulous overacting of Barry Nelson, Penny Fuller, Beah Richards, and the always great Lois Nettleton time to shine. Purl was really unexpectedly terrific in it, and it made me wonder why she did so much episodic and dreck when she was capable of more.

I remember her in some made for TV movie about two mentally retarded (what's the new word for that? don't intend to offend) and she says 'It's not Mr. Bugs Bunny, It's MRS. Bugs Bunny!"

I believe it was with Shaun Cassidy.

"WOGER, I WANT TO HAVE A BAY-BEE!"

God forgive me but when I read R6 my immediate thought was Woger I luff you! And then burst out laughing at R7.

When I was a kid I had a school assignment where I had to interview someone about their career. I wrote to Ms. Purl and sent a list of questions, my phone number and instructions to call by a certain date before the assignment was due. I think I picked her because there was an address for her (or a fan club) in one of my sister’s 16 magazines. She never called or wrote back.

[quote] I remember her in some made for TV movie about two mentally retarded (what's the new word for that? don't intend to offend) and she says 'It's not Mr. Bugs Bunny, It's MRS. Bugs Bunny!"

Here's the MRS. Bugs Bunny scene.

Yes, it was Shaun Cassidy.

[quote] She never called or wrote back.

Cunt.

Speaking of cunts, Mrs. Peterson at R6 was a cunt.

I just saw her in this delicious piece of tripe from 1977, with Desi Arnaz Jr., Jessica Walter, Bill Bixby, David Doyle, and Tom Bosley:

Sweet Mother of God R9. Who had the gem of an idea to make and cast that movie? Please let me know because I want to track him or her down and viciously slap them - multiple times!

Never mind - I'll do it myself. I'm IMDbing and I'm on it.

O.K. DL - I'll send a card from (what I am assuming will be) CA right now.

Purr-l.

Lucy was her mother in law!!!

She was cute and talented. She was the first choice to play Chris Hargensen in Carrie but she refused the role, saying the script was sordid and unpleasant.

She might have made a good Carrie. She had that vulnerable and innocent, yet intense look.

No, she was up for a different role, not Sissy Spacek's part.

I remember her as Maude’s runaway drug addicted pregnant 🤰 daughter

There were rumors that she was in a relationship with Stephanie Zimbalist.

She was supposed to play Regan in the Exorcist but she was 6 months pregnant 🤰 (no father)

No father? Did someone alert the Vatican, R20?

Visiting Hours. She was good in this sleazy Canadian horror flick.

I could see her being a lez.

Four failed marriages.

with 6 you get egg roll

I just saw her in this delicious piece of tripe from 1977, with Desi Arnaz Jr., Jessica Walter, Bill Bixby, David Doyle, and Tom Bosley:

OMG! I remember that movie - those were the "movies of the week" - one sordid thing after another: pregnancy! drug addiction! pregnant drug addiction! mentally retarded people wanting to get married! (I don't remember that clip with Shaun Cassidy, but I was a huge fan, so I'm sure I watched it). Linda Purl had that generic, mid-western, corn-fed girl look and she showed up on practically everyone of these flicks.

Desi got around.

Unimpressive vocal stylings, that's how she hooked Desi Jr.

I'm definitely getting golfing vibes.

As to her singing, she's no Garnett McGee.

R19 Really? Do tell!

I’ve met her twice. Really a lovely person. Looks great. In terrific shape. Very devoted to acting. Impressive woman.

She killed The Secret Storm

I remember her! I want more personal life gossip please!

she has creepy eyes

sly eyes

Is that her on the left?

Is Linda the JJL in this knockoff?

There was an attention hog Miss Popularity in my neighborhood who succeed with a face similar to LP's. She got the same sticky-uppy nose with prominent nostrils from her mom; she also had bright blue eyes and dramatic aspirations, she could have played LP's younger sister in a Movie of the Week.

I lOVED her in "Young Pioneers", then she started showing up everywhere. In 2001, imagine my schock to see her as Aunt Polly in Broadway's flop "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer"! Since then, she's been popping up at different Jazz venues in NYC. Here she is singing "Just the way you look Tonight", last year at Jazz at Lincoln Center.

She lived in Japan for years - I think her dad was a diplomat. She was also had a singing career in Japan, recording 'hit' singles,

R40 wasn’t she Kim Cattrall’s body double at one point?

That's a very bad nose job from a young age, right?

"Linda Purl"? Was "Lurleen" unavailable? Sounds like a Hee-Haw name.

It's a Virgo nose.

She’s more talented than that Patty Duke girl.

From IMDB: [quote]Linda Purl was born in Greenwich, Connecticut, and raised in Japan, becoming the only foreigner to train at the Toho Geino Academy.

That is pretty interesting. I remember Linda in two tv movies: Women at West Point and A Last Cry for Help (with DL fave Grant Goodeve). Both movies were from 1979.

She was in an episode of Designed Survivor just 2 or 3 years ago.

She was supposed to be the hot ingenue on “The Partridge Family”, but then the studio pushed for someone prettier and more talented.

FINALLY a Susan Dey comment!

R45 I love you. LP really is a Virgo, as I'm sure you knew.

Well, whaddya know!?

She had the career I dreamed of.

"People" magazine says that she and Patrick Duffy are now an item. Years ago, I was told that she and Perry King were together in between their respective marriages. Girl gets around!

She looks like a good-time girl

[italic]Like Normal People[/italic] upthread reminded me of the other "special" TV movie that came out around the same time: CBS's [italic]No Other Love,[/italic] with Julie Kavner and Richard Thomas.

Eagerly awaiting the sequel “Still Like Normal People: The Other Side of Vir-ginia”.

R3 - the Linda Purl and Heather Locklear TV Movie was Body Language (1992). Linda also co-starred with Linda Gray in the hilarious Accidental Meeting (1994).

But who played who? Linda was the good girl to Heather's bad?

I remember her. And the nostrils.

[quote] But who played who? Linda was the good girl to Heather's bad?

Actually it was the opposite. Purl was the scheming (murderous?) secretary to Locklear’s basically decent executive. No Amanda Woodward here. The plot was kind of a combo of Single White Female and The Temp, though The Temp came out a year after Body Language and was nowhere near as entertaining. Even Dunaway couldn’t elevate that one.

Thanks for the title, r58. So generic it’s no wonder I forgot it. Sounds like a late night Skinemax movie.

[quote]Is that her on the left?

No, not Linda, that woman on the left was the sex bomb of that soap, actress Marla Adams. She reminded me a bit of the actress who played Angelique on Dark Shadows.

Sex bomb? She looks like Katherine Helmond.

R59 all I remember is that it did go into penalty kicks!

I always got her and Season Hubley missed up.

Omg r8! A woman I lived with in college used to suddenly say “Woger I luff you, Woohhhgggeeer” and I would burst into uncontrollable laughter. Mean and stupid, I realize, but amusing when you’re a bored and drunk 20 year old.

[quote]Sex bomb? She looks like Katherine Helmond.

Yes, her character was some sort of femme fatale. I can't be 100% sure, I was a kid when my mom watched The Secret Storm. IIRC, Marla's character was a typical sexy female soap character with multiple marriages, BFs and lots of 'drama'.

Was she the Melissa Benoist of her day? Did one of her husbands beat her too?

She gave a great performance in "Visiting Hours", which I think has been unfairly sidelined as far as slasher flicks go. It's a well-made, trashy horror flick with Lee Remick playing a feminist journalist who is being stalked in a hospital by a misogynist psychopath (played by Michael Ironside). Linda Purl plays a nurse at the hospital and has a lot of screen time. There is one particularly horrific scene where she returns home and is stabbed viciously by Ironside while her young daughter is in the house.

Linda Purl is a much better actress than Heather Locklear so Body Language puts us on her side, despite her playing the psycho and Heather the victim. Plus Heather is crazy to neglect her gorgeous boyfriend.

What the hell? So in the past few hours, DL has conjured up Linda Purl to now she's in all of the entertainment magazines?

It's all over E, Entertainment Tonight, People, USA Today.

I haven't heard of Linda Purl in over 40 years - and now DLers start a thread a week ago and BAM!! She's back in the news?

Here's some of Body Language. The whole movie is on YouTube.

Ev'rything's Coming Up Purl!

She gently slid two very soft fingers into me. I slid back and moaned in pleasure as Linda brought me into the height of ecstasy.. I'll never forget her.

R74 - Bitch stole my story!

Season Hubley and Miss Kay Lenz are legends. I've never heard of Linda Purla.

Please tell me Patrick Duffy is starring in a one man show about Mark Twain on his own VOD home channel.

Are we sure Linda Purl and Kay Lenz weren’t the same person? Have they ever been seen in the same room at the same time?

Jesus Christ, this is funnier than any of the movie-within-the-movie scenes in "Postcards from the Edge."

I remember her being everywhere back in the day, but I only specifically remember her in Young Pioneers. I forgot who played the husband, but I think he was hot.

Kay Lenz was a goddess, a supreme actress - introduced in a tragic two part episode of Medical Centre. She went on to star in feature films directed by Clint Eastwood, starring William Holden and Mr. Charles Bronson. Miss Kay Lenz was the video vixen of her day for Rod Stewart and her beloved husband, David Cassidy. Kay Lenz is still a young woman, Gorgeous, glamorous and legendary. Linda Purla was just a pig faced chick who fucked Desi Arnaz junior and opened her eyes wide for Andy Griffin.

No, they have never been in the same room. How unlikely. They are very different people R78!

Was there a rivalry between her and Linda Blair? I used to get them mixed up in the 70s.

Accidental Meeting is also on YouTube. Here's a trailer.

Anyone remember the series “Robin’s Hoods” from back in the early 90s?

Linda IS the Maid of Honor.

Linda gets Maxwell Caulfield as The Perfect Tenant.

Linda has a pleasant if unremarkable singing voice.

It was so random when I saw her trending yesterday on Yahoo. First it was just her name and then a few hours later she was trending as: "Who is Linda Purl?" Heh.

R88 - I know, right? Like I said upthread - DL started some random thread about her and now there's articles in the celebrity magazines about her relationship with Patrick Duffy.

WHY? Somebody must read DL or something. Why the sudden interest in Patrick Duffy's dating life and Linda Purl?

Patrick Duffy is the one talking about it. Linda Purl's lips are sealed.

People magazine reports that years ago, the pair were casual friends, but lost touch over time. During the pandemic, they both happened to be on a group text chain with other friends, and as the weeks passed, eventually the conversation dwindled down to just the two of them.

At that point, “I loaded up my car and drove 20 hours and ended up on her doorstep just to see if it was real,” says Duffy. “We haven’t been apart since.”

They were probably spotted together in a torrid embrace. PEOPLE or another outlet contacted Patrick Duffy and told him they were going to run the story, with or without him. Duffy decided to take part in shaping the narrative. Linda Purl maintains a dignified silence.

Linda's latest album is called Taking a Chance On Love. Coincidence?

Here's the promo video.

Self releases are always the worst for fonts.

When I was a kid, I confused her with Sian Barbara Allen. I'd have to tell myself that Linda was the smart one and Sian was the one who who always played "special" characters.

They both guest starred on "The Waltons".

I don't see a resemblance.

She's still very close with former sister-in-law Lucie Arnaz.

Vice Squad also featured MTV VJ Nina Blackwood in a small role.

I wonder if Linda Purl & Patrick Duffy rim each other?

Butts are old people's worst feature. I doubt it.

Maybe the first few dates, but really not much after that.

I think at their age even fisting just means holding hands.

Victoria Principal on the new romance: "Better Linda Purl than Linda Gray".

Who gave Ms. Perl a bigger necklace - Patrick or Desi Jr.?

Linda looks like younger less plastic-surgeried Trudie Styler!

The mid 70's had so many young actresses in movies of the week, soaps, primetime - Glynnis O'Connor, Kay Lenz, Pamela Sue Martin, Jamie Smith Jackson, Linda Purl, Sian Barbara Allen, Sissy Spaceck and the list goes on.

Doesn't TV always have young actresses?

TV doesn't have Season Hubley or the legendary Miss Kay Lenz. We are unlikely to see their likes again.

Did she ever do Battle of the Network Stars? Will someone start a “It’s Tuesday, tell me about Linda Purl” thread?

Ms. Annette O'Toole. She was far too beautiful for television - so she was forced to become a superstar!

[quote]I don't see a resemblance.

I was just a dumb kid.

As a kid I got her confused with Linda Blair

If you were a young actress in the 1970s, was it compulsory to play a prostitute?

most actress' have played prostitutes.

All actresses are prostitutes. And Lesbians. I think Norman Mailer said that.

"Yes, it was delicious; but are they any other parts of a Matzo that you eat?"

R115 Eve Plum set the bar high and it was a great way to bury Marcia, Marcia, Marcia!

I’m watching The Office on Comedy Central and she has been in the last few episodes. She looks great!

Kay Lenz always played sleazy slutty characters. Did she ever play a normal likable woman?

I remember some awful movie Kay was in with James Woods, she was giving Pizza Face Woods a blowjob.

Of course, it wasn't a real blowjob. James was sitting down on a chair, Kay was under a coat, or blanket, with her head bobbing up and down.

What a turn-off, especially as Woods is so repulsive looking and ReThug to boot! ugh

^^^MISS Kay Lenz

Exactly R120. Her full name is "Introducing MISS Kay Lenz". She was never slutty. Sexy and sensitive, alluring and heartbreaking, young, beautiful, Breezy. Yes.

Ann Margaret was slutty.

Linda Purl's nose was so ugly.

Do we have Linda's high school yearbook pic?

R121 But she was a bit of a downmarket Shelley Hack. Kay would never be a fabulous “CHARLIE GIRL”!

How can she be a downmarket Shelley Hack when Shelley could barely keep a job as an actress.

I always got Kay Lenz and Shelley Hack confused.

Linda's a good actress and she does have a nice singing voice. As someone else said, it's not very memorable or unique, but she knows how to put over a song.

[quote]As a kid I got her confused with Linda Blair

In the article about she and Patrick Duffy dating I assumed the story was about Linda Blair until I saw her picture and realized I was confusing the two.

The lines about their split write themselves. Go back to Atlantis! Go back to Dallas!

Purl's a singer.