Linney, Laura (1964– )

US actor. Known for her wholesome beauty and intelligent character portrayals of women who are more than they appear, she won wide acclaim and an Academy Award nomination for her convincing, highly nuanced performance as a single mother opposite Mark Ruffalo and Matthew Broderick in You Can Count on Me (2000). Other films include the Edith Wharton adaptation The House of Mirth (2000), Clint Eastwood's drama Mystic River (2003), and the biopic of sex researcher Alfred Kinsey Kinsey (2004; Academy Award nomination).

Her breakthrough film role was in the drama Primal Fear (1996) opposite Richard Gere. Other films include Dave (1993), Absolute Power (1997), The Truman Show (1998), The Mothman Prophecies (2002), The Life of David Gale (2003), and Love Actually (2003).

She was born in New York, New York, the daughter of playwright Romulus Rinney (1930– ). After graduating from Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island, she studied at the Julliard School in New York and the Arts Theater School in Moscow, Russia. She appeared on Broadway in plays such as The Seagull, Hedda Gabler, and Six Degrees of Separation. Her film debut was a small role in the drama Lorenzo's Oil (1992). On television, she appeared in the Public Broadcasting Service film adaptations of Armistead Maupin's Tales of the City series in 1993, 1998, and 2001.