Linda Hayden (actress)

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Linda Hayden
Taste The Blood of Dracula (1970) trailer - Linda Hayden.png
Hayden in Taste the Blood of Dracula (1970)
Born
Linda M. Higginson [1]

(1953-01-19) 19 January 1953 (age 72)
Stanmore, Middlesex, England
OccupationActress
Spouse
Paul Elliot
(m. 1987)

Linda Hayden (born Linda Higginson, 19 January 1953) is an English film and television actress. She is best known for her roles in 1970s British horror films and sex comedies.

Contents

Career

Hayden was born in Stanmore, Middlesex. She trained with the Aida Foster stage school in dancing, singing and stage acting before making her film debut at the age of 15 in the controversial Baby Love (1969), playing a schoolgirl who seduces her adoptive family. She next featured in two horror films; playing Alice Hargood in Hammer's Taste the Blood of Dracula , (1970), [2] followed by a memorable performance as the demonically possessed Angel Blake in The Blood on Satan's Claw (1971), made by Tigon. In 1972, she played a pregnant teenage hitchhiker in Something to Hide , driving Peter Finch to murder and madness.

Hayden appeared opposite Robin Askwith, her then-boyfriend, in the British sex comedies Confessions of a Window Cleaner (1974), Confessions from a Holiday Camp (1977) and, with Fiona Richmond, in Let's Get Laid (1978); as well as the obscure cult film Queen Kong (1976). She also shared the stage with Askwith, in Richard Harris and Leslie Darbon's farce Who Goes Bare. Hayden and Richmond had previously appeared together in the thriller Exposé (1976), which was known as Trauma in the US and House on Straw Hill in Australia, and banned in the UK as a video nasty. In a documentary on the DVD of The Blood on Satan's Claw, Hayden says that Exposé is the only movie she regrets making and was not the film she had made originally.

Following a brief role in The Boys from Brazil (1978), Hayden concentrated on stage and television work. In 1980 she appeared in the ITV series The Professionals as 'Gerda' in the episode 'Black Out' and as 'Annie,' Terry McCann's girlfriend in the Christmas special Minder on the Orient Express , 1985. She also took a role in the thriller Underground at Toronto's Royal Alexandra Theatre and London's Prince of Wales Theatre in 1983, as well as a 1997 episode of The Bill .

Now semi-retired, she featured as Mrs Brown in Martin Kemp's 2010 remake of Exposé , with Jane March playing Linda—Hayden's role in the 1976 original.

Writing

In March 2023, Hayden penned an introduction to the LGBT+ horror novel, Satan's Lamp by William Jackson. Referring to her first film role as Luci in Baby Love, she writes, 'I was transfixed to see myself on an eighty-foot-high poster in Times Square... making me look like an evil creature and sending all the wrong messages... But in an odd twist of fate, this billboard turned out to be an augur of my future with the horror genre.' [3]

Personal life

She is the sister of the company actress Jane Hayden (b. 1957), who played a number of roles on films and TV in the 1970s. Hayden was in a relationship with fellow actor and co-star Robin Askwith in the 1970s. She married Paul Elliot in 1987.

Filmography

Film

YearTitleRoleNotes
1969 Baby Love Luci
1970 Taste the Blood of Dracula Alice Hargood Hammer production
1971 The Blood on Satan's Claw Angel Blake Tigon production
1972 Something to Hide Lorelei
1973 Night Watch Girl in Car Embassy Pictures
1974 Vampira Helga
Madhouse Elizabeth Peters Amicus Productions
Barcelona KillLindaLa redada(original title)
Confessions of a Window Cleaner Elizabeth Radlett Columbia Pictures
1976 Exposé Linda HindstattHouse on Straw Hill(alternative title)
Queen Kong The Singing Nun
1977 Confessions from a Holiday Camp Brigitte Columbia Pictures
1978 Let's Get Laid Gloria
The Boys from Brazil Nancy 20th Century Fox
2010 Stalker Ms. Brown
2012 Run for Your Wife Cameo

Television

YearTitleRoleNotes
1968 The Charlie Drake Show 2 episodes
1971 Now Look Here Sally4 episodes
1972 Crown Court Linda DaviesEpisode: "Traffic Warden's Daughter - Part 1"
1973 Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em LindaSeason 1, episode 1 "Getting a Job"
Marked Personal Gillian Gibson2 episodes
1975 Village Hall HelgaSeason 2, episode 3 "The Rough and the Smooth"
My Brother's KeeperJennieSeason 1, episode 1 "Pig in the Middle"
1976Heydays HotelIrmgardeTV film
1977The Galton & Simpson PlayhouseHenry's SecretarySeason 1, episode 2 "Swap You One of These for Another of Those"
1978 Robin's Nest JanSeason 3, episode 4 "Away from All What?"
1979Robin's NestMillie WintersSeason 4, episode 1 "Should Auld Acquaintance?"
1980MackenzieKristaSeason 1, episode 7 "Sole Agent"
The Professionals Gerda HelmSeason 4, episode 7 "Black Out"
1981 Dick Turpin SalSeason 3, episode 4 "Dick Turpin's Greatest Adventure - Part 4"
Shillingbury Tales Mandy Smith4 episodes
1982 Let There Be Love AnnabelleSeason 1, episode 3 "Dad's the Word"
1983 Cuffy MandySeason 1, episode 1 "Cuffy and a Carpetbagger"
Season 1, episode 6 "Cuffy and a Green Eye"
Just Good Friends SoniaSeason 1, episode 1 "After All This Time"
Hart to Hart UteSeason 5, episode 7 "Passing Chance"
1984 Hammer House of Mystery and Suspense Ellen JarvisEpisode 8 "Black Carrion"
1985 Minder AnnieEpisode: "Minder on the Orient Express"
1986 The Kenny Everett Television Show 2 episodes
1988Mr. H is LateSunbatherTelevision short
1989The Return of Sam McCloudNancy CratchettTV film
1991 The Upper Hand Diana WilkinsonSeason 2, episode 9 "A Friend in Need"
1992 Shelley Mrs. Archer1 episode
1997 The Bill Wendy PierceSeason 13, episode 112 "Performance Anxiety"

References and notes

  1. BFI biodata
  2. "Taste The Blood Of Dracula 1970" BritishHorrorFilms.co.uk (Retrieved: 16 February 2010)
  3. Jackson, William (2023). Satan's Lamp. MFco. pp 9-13. ISBN 978-1-912622-39-9