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Linda Hayden | |
|---|---|
| Born | Linda M. Higginson [1] 19 January 1953 |
| Occupation | Actress |
| Spouse | Paul Elliot (m. 1987) |
Linda Hayden (born 19 January 1953, Linda Higginson) is an English film and television actress. She is best known for her roles in 1970s British horror films and sex comedies.
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 (1968), 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 (1970), made by Tigon. [3] 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 popular 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.
In March 2023, Hayden penned an introduction to the LGBT+ horror novel, Satan's Lamp. 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.' [4]
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.
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1969 | Baby Love | Luci | |
| 1970 | Taste the Blood of Dracula | Alice Hargood | Hammer production |
| 1970 | 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 Kill | Linda | La redada(original title) | |
| Confessions of a Window Cleaner | Elizabeth Radlett | Columbia Pictures | |
| 1976 | Exposé | Linda Hindstatt | House 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 |
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1968 | The Charlie Drake Show | 2 episodes | |
| 1971 | Now Look Here | Sally | 4 episodes |
| 1972 | Crown Court | Linda Davies | Episode: "Traffic Warden's Daughter - Part 1" |
| 1973 | Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em | Linda | Season 1, episode 1 "Getting a Job" |
| Marked Personal | Gillian Gibson | 2 episodes | |
| 1975 | Village Hall | Helga | Season 2, episode 3 "The Rough and the Smooth" |
| My Brother's Keeper | Jennie | Season 1, episode 1 "Pig in the Middle" | |
| 1976 | Heydays Hotel | Irmgarde | TV film |
| 1977 | The Galton & Simpson Playhouse | Henry's Secretary | Season 1, episode 2 "Swap You One of These for Another of Those" |
| 1978 | Robin's Nest | Jan | Season 3, episode 4 "Away from All What?" |
| 1979 | Robin's Nest | Millie Winters | Season 4, episode 1 "Should Auld Acquaintance?" |
| 1980 | Mackenzie | Krista | Season 1, episode 7 "Sole Agent" |
| The Professionals | Gerda Helm | Season 4, episode 7 "Black Out" | |
| 1981 | Dick Turpin | Sal | Season 3, episode 4 "Dick Turpin's Greatest Adventure - Part 4" |
| Shillingbury Tales | Mandy Smith | 4 episodes | |
| 1982 | Let There Be Love | Annabelle | Season 1, episode 3 "Dad's the Word" |
| 1983 | Cuffy | Mandy | Season 1, episode 1 "Cuffy and a Carpetbagger Season 1, episode 6 "Cuffy and a Green Eye" |
| Just Good Friends | Sonia | Season 1, episode 1 "After All This Time" | |
| Hart to Hart | Ute | Season 5, episode 7 "Passing Chance" | |
| 1984 | Hammer House of Mystery and Suspense | Ellen Jarvis | Episode 8 "Black Carrion" |
| 1985 | Minder | Annie | Episode: "Minder on the Orient Express" |
| 1986 | The Kenny Everett Television Show | 2 episodes | |
| 1988 | Mr. H is Late | Sunbather | Television short |
| 1989 | The Return of Sam McCloud | Nancy Cratchett | TV film |
| 1991 | The Upper Hand | Diana Wilkinson | Season 2, episode 9 "A Friend in Need" |
| 1992 | Shelley | Mrs. Archer | 1 episode |
| 1997 | The Bill | Wendy Pierce | Season 13, episode 112 "Performance Anxiety" |
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Hammer Film Productions Ltd. is a British film production company based in London. Founded in 1934, the company is best known for a series of Gothic horror and fantasy films made from the mid-1950s until the 1970s. Many of these involve classic horror characters such as Baron Victor Frankenstein, Count Dracula, and the Mummy, which Hammer reintroduced to audiences by filming them in vivid colour for the first time. Hammer also produced science fiction, thrillers, film noir and comedies, as well as, in later years, television series.
Dracula is a 1958 British gothic horror film directed by Terence Fisher and written by Jimmy Sangster based on Bram Stoker's 1897 novel of the same name. The first in the series of Hammer Horror films starring Christopher Lee as Count Dracula, the film also features Peter Cushing as Doctor Van Helsing, along with Michael Gough, Melissa Stribling, Carol Marsh, and John Van Eyssen. In the United States, the film was retitled Horror of Dracula to avoid confusion with the U.S. original by Universal Pictures, 1931's Dracula.
Piers Inigo Haggard, OBE was a British director who worked in film, television, and theatre.
Madeline Smith is an English actress. After working as a model in the late 1960s, she went on to appear in many television series and stage productions, plus comedy and horror films, in the 1970s and 1980s.
Robin Mark Askwith is an English actor and singer who has appeared in a number of film, television and stage productions.
Michele Dotrice is an English actress. She played Betty Spencer, the long-suffering wife of Frank Spencer, portrayed by Michael Crawford, in the BBC sitcom Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em, which ran from 1973 to 1978, and returned in 2016 for a special.
Pamela Franklin is a British former actress. She is best known for her role as Sandy in the film The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1969), for which she won a NBR Award and received a BAFTA Award nomination.
Cheryl Hall is a British retired actress. She is best known for playing Shirley Johnson in the British sitcom Citizen Smith (1977–1979) and had a recurring role as Sadie in The Bill (1984–1988).
Taste the Blood of Dracula is a 1970 British supernatural horror film produced by Hammer Film Productions. Directed by Peter Sasdy from a script by Anthony Hinds, it is the fifth installment in Hammer's Dracula series, and the fourth to star Christopher Lee as Count Dracula, the titular vampire. The film also features Geoffrey Keen and Gwen Watford.
Confessions of a Window Cleaner is a 1974 British sex comedy film, directed by Val Guest.
Dracula A.D. 1972 is a 1972 British horror film, directed by Alan Gibson and produced by Hammer Film Productions. It was written by Don Houghton and stars Christopher Lee, Peter Cushing and Stephanie Beacham. Unlike earlier films in Hammer's Dracula series, Dracula A.D. 1972 had a contemporary setting in an attempt to update the Dracula story for modern audiences. Dracula is brought back to life in modern London and preys on a group of young partygoers that includes the descendant of his nemesis, Van Helsing.
The Blood on Satan's Claw is a 1971 British supernatural period folk horror film directed by Piers Haggard and starring Patrick Wymark, Linda Hayden, and Barry Andrews. Set in early 18th-century England, it follows the residents of a rural village whose youth fall under the influence of a demonic presence after a local farmer unearths a mysterious deformed skull buried in a field.
Carol Hawkins is an English actress, best known for her various comic roles in numerous television sitcoms and films in the 1970s and 1980s.
John Derek Carson-Parker, known as John Carson, was an English actor known for his appearances in film and television.
Exposé is a 1976 British psychological horror thriller film that was referred to as a video nasty during the 1980s. It was directed by James Kenelm Clarke, partly financed by Paul Raymond and stars Udo Kier, Linda Hayden and 1970s sex symbol Fiona Richmond.
Satan's Slave is a 1976 British supernatural horror film directed by Norman J. Warren, written by David McGillivray, and starring Candace Glendenning, Michael Gough, Martin Potter, and Barbara Kellerman. Its plot follows a young woman who, after surviving a car accident that kills her parents, stays in the remote estate of her uncle and cousin, unaware that they are both necromancers who intend to sacrifice her to resurrect the spirit of a supernaturally-gifted ancestor.
Let's Get Laid, also known as Love Trap, is a 1978 British comedy film directed by James Kenelm Clarke and starring Robin Askwith, Fiona Richmond and Anthony Steel. A man returns to London after being demobbed at the end of the Second World War, only to find himself suspected of a murder in Wapping.
Dracula is a British horror film series produced by Hammer Film Productions. The films are centered on Count Dracula, bringing with him a plague of vampirism, and the ensuing efforts of the heroic Van Helsing family to stop him. The original series of films consisted of nine installments, which starred iconic horror actors Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing as Count Dracula and Doctor Van Helsing, respectively. The series is part of the larger Hammer horror oeuvre.
Jane Hayden is an English stage, television, and film actress.
Folk horror is a subgenre of horror film and horror fiction that uses elements of folklore to invoke fear and foreboding. Typical elements include a rural setting, isolation, and themes of superstition, folk religion, paganism, sacrifice and the dark aspects of nature. Although related to supernatural horror film, folk horror usually focuses on the beliefs and actions of people rather than the supernatural, and often deals with naïve outsiders coming up against these. The British films Blood on Satan's Claw (1971), The Wicker Man (1973) and Witchfinder General (1968) are regarded as pioneers of the genre, while the 2019 film Midsommar sparked renewed interest in folk horror. Southeast Asian cinema also commonly features folk horror.
