Linda Blair

Linda Denise Blair is an American actress and activist. She is best known for playing Regan MacNeil in the horror film The Exorcist (1973), for which she won a Golden Globe Award and received a nomination for an Academy Award. The film established her as a horror icon; she reprised the role in Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977), for which she was nominated for a Saturn Award. Blair went on to star in numerous television films, such as Innocent, Sarah T. – Portrait of a Teenage Alcoholic (1975), and Stranger in Our House (1978), before establishing herself as a sex symbol in the romantic musical film Roller Boogie (1979). The 1980s had her starring in numerous horror and exploitation films, including the slasher Hell Night (1981), the prison drama Chained Heat (1983), and the grindhouse cult thriller Savage Streets (1984). She was the host of the Fox Family reality series Scariest Places on Earth (2001–2003) and had regular appearances on the Animal Planet series Pit Boss (2010–2012). Besides her acting, Blair has publicly supported various charitable causes, particularly animal rights. In 2004, she founded the Linda Blair WorldHeart Foundation, a nonprofit organization that serves to rehabilitate and adopt rescue animals. A vegan, Blair co-authored the book Going Vegan! In 2001.