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Linda Denise Blair, who grew up in Westport, turns 56 on Thursday. The actress, was born January 22, 1959, in St. Louis, Missouri.
She began her career as a six-year-old child model and started acting with a regular role on the short-lived Hidden Faces (1968–69) daytime soap opera. Her first theatrical film appearance was in The Way We Live Now (1970).
She is best known for her role as the possessed child, Regan, in the film The Exorcist (1973) for which she earned a Golden Globe and People's Choice Award for Best Supporting Actress as well as an Academy Award nomination.
She reprised her role in the sequel, Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977) and garnering a Saturn Award nomination for Best Actress of 1978.
She also appeared in the television films Born Innocent (1974), Airport 1975 (1974), Sarah T. - Portrait of a Teenage Alcoholic (1975) and Sweet Hostage (1975). Her career took a new turn in the 1980s, as she starred in a number of successful low-budget horror and exploitation films, including Hell Night (1981), Chained Heat (1983) and Savage Streets (1984).
She later worked in numerous films, mostly comedies, including the Exorcist send-up Repossessed in 1990 and a cameo role in Scream (1996).
She hosted Fox Family's Scariest Places on Earth (2000-2006).
In 2010 she appeared as herself on the cable series Pit Boss and Jury Duty. She also appeared in the 2011 Rick Springfield documentary Affair of the Heart ,and was a panelist in a 2011 episode of The Joy Behar Show.
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