Linda Hayden (actress)

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.

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

(1953-01-19) 19 January 1953 (age 71)
OccupationActress
Spouse
Paul Elliot
(m. 1987)

Career

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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 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.

Writing

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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.' [3]

Personal life

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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

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Film

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Year Title Role Notes
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 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

Television

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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"

References and notes

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  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
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