Linda Hamilton Has Undergone A Major Transformation

With an acting career that has encompassed one of filmdom's most popular franchises dating back to the 1980s, a cult-hit television series during that same decade, and, more recently, a key role in one of Netflix's most popular series, "Stranger Things," it's fair to say that Linda Hamilton has been a major player in Hollywood for well over four decades. Instantly recognizable from her numerous big and small screen roles, Hamilton has attained an enviable status in Hollywood, playing the same iconic screen character in three different decades — at distinctly different points in that character's life.

She's attained the heights of fame and witnessed enough that she made a conscious effort to pull herself out of the spotlight in order to live a quieter life. Yet her sheer talent would ensure she would always be in high demand, something that continues to be true to this day. 

Growing up in Salisbury, Maryland, Linda Hamilton's early life was about as far from Hollywood glamor as it gets. in fact, she experienced tragedy at an early age. "My father died when I was five, so my mother was widowed with four very young children," Hamilton recalled when speaking with Smashing Interviews Magazine. Her mother eventually remarried, and, as Hamilton told the Jewish Journal, her childhood was spent in "a very boring, white Anglo-Saxon household," where she "voraciously read books. I got fat, and I cut off my hair and my eyelashes. I wanted to be ugly."

When she was about 10, her mother enrolled Hamilton and her twin sister, Leslie, in a children's theater camp for the summer. Her first big role came in a production of "Rumpelstiltskin" alongside her sister. "My twin and I were cast as the princess because we were twins," she told Smashing Interviews. "In the '60s, you know, that was just very special. It's not like we had any extra special talents or anything, but the marquee said, 'Starring the Hamilton Twins.' So we would alternate. She would play the princess one night. I would play the princess the next night."

Bitten by the acting bug as a child, after graduating high school she studied drama at Maryland's Washington College — where a professor told her she was unlikely to actually make a living as an actor. Hamilton was undeterred. After two years, she quit college and moved to New York City, where she studied with famed acting coach Lee Strasberg at the Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute. That placed Hamilton in rare company, as others who've studied with Strasberg include Hollywood scion Jane Fonda and tragic film icon Marilyn Monroe.

At that time, however, Hamilton's goal was not movie stardom. "I was going to be a Shakespearean actress," she recalled in an interview with The New York Times. As she told the Los Angeles Times years earlier, "I love Shakespeare; I always thought of myself as a Shakespearean actress. I was a very serious student in New York, at the Actors Studio."

Hamilton's first acting roles were on the New York stage. She appeared in the 1975 play "Looice" at the New York Shakespeare Festival, and then in a 1977 production of "Richard III" at the Actors' Studio Theatre. In 1979, Hamilton landed her first screen role, a small part in the film "Night-Flowers." Further screen work followed, including a few made-for-TV movies and a recurring role in the 1980-81 TV series "Secrets of Midland Heights." She subsequently became a series regular in the 1982 series "King's Crossing" and had a four-episode story arc in critically acclaimed cop show "Hill Street Blues." The best, however, was yet to come.

In 1984, Linda Hamilton was tapped for her first starring role in a film, playing the protagonist in the horror film "Children of the Corn." One of many films to be based on a story from Stephen King, the film found Hamilton's character stumbling into a creepy rural community in which a bizarre religious cult comprised of children believes its their divine duty to kill anyone over the age of 18.

While "Children of the Corn" provided Hamilton with her big break, she's not particularly fond of the film. In a 1992 interview with Starburst (via Terminator Files), she admitted to making some mediocre movies. "I've had more than my share of those," she said, but added: "Nothing has beaten 'Stephen King's Children of the Corn' yet which still haunts my past as the worst film I've made. Can you believe they're making a sequel? They didn't dare ask me to reprise that role!"

Years later, in a 2020 chat with Smashing Interviews, Hamilton admitted that she feared her first starring role in a movie might also be her last. "I thought that one was going to end my career, and my career had barely begun. ... Every special effect that would've made the movie cool, they'd go, 'Oh, no. We couldn't afford that,'" she recalled. "I really felt sick inside. I really thought, 'Oh, my God. This is just going to end my career.' But I survived that one."

Not only did "Children of the Corn" not kill Linda Hamilton's fledgling movie career, it paved the way for another leading role in a film released that same year, "The Terminator." She played Sarah Connor, who's being stalked by a cyborg sent from the future to assassinate her before she can conceive her son, who will one day lead a revolt against the machines destined to take over the world and enslave humanity. The movie proved to be a surprise hit.

The film's success cemented the movie stardom of the titular Terminator, Arnold Schwarzenegger, enabling him to live an incredibly lavish lifestyle. For Hamilton, the film likewise placed her on Hollywood's radar. And while it's now impossible to imagine anyone other than Schwarzenegger playing the Terminator, Hamilton admitted at the time she was dubious of his acting ability. "I was a New York-trained actress," she told Smashing Interviews. "So I had some trepidations. But in those early days, one doesn't have the luxury of really choosing, you know. I was just establishing myself, so I went cheerfully along."

Hamilton didn't know it at the time, but she wasn't done with Sarah Connor just yet (although that would come nearly a decade later). First, however, came a successful foray into the world of television.

In the wake of "The Terminator," Linda Hamilton appeared in a few films (including "Black Moon Rising" and "King Kong Lives") before she was cast as assistant district attorney Catherine Chandler in "Beauty and the Beast." Debuting in 1987, the TV series turned the classic fairytale on its head, with Catherine falling in love with Vincent (Ron Perlman), whose leonine features have forced him to live in the subterranean tunnels beneath New York City with a group of outcasts. 

"Beauty and the Beast" received rave reviews from critics, earning a stunning 24 Emmy nominations (along with six Emmy wins). Behind the scenes, though, the pace churning out all those episodes wore on Hamilton. "Fifteen hours a day and you know we're used to doing it for three months now and then having a break, but this is nine months and when you're off you just want to lie down for three months. It's really aging, it's hard!" she said when recalling the experience for Den of Geek.

Hamilton became pregnant and left the show in 1989, with her character killed off. Discussing the show with Starburst, she conceded that the experience had lefts its mark on her. "It made a big impact and I don't regret it. I look back on it very lovingly now," she said, insisting that doing more than two seasons would have been a mistake. "I would not have been happy had I continued," she added.

Following Linda Hamilton's departure from "Beauty and the Beast," director James Cameron approached her about reprising Sarah Conner in a sequel to "The Terminator." This time, the character would not be a damsel in distress but a gun-toting, heavily muscled action hero. Hamilton leapt at the opportunity. "I said, 'This woman had been living with this certainty of man's demise for all these years and she'd have become this wild thing,' so the warrior woman and crazy woman were all me," she told BBC. "It was a wonderful opportunity to grow a character."

The character's evolution was reflected in Hamilton's physicality, and she became one of the actresses who did serious training for a role. For 13 weeks prior to the start of filming for 1993's "Terminator 2: Judgement Day," a personal trainer pushed her through punishing three-hour workouts, six days a week. She also learned how to use weapons by working with a former Israeli commando, who put her through the paces with "judo and heavy-duty military training," she told Entertainment Weekly. "I learned to load clips, change mags, check out a room upon entry, verify kills. It was very vicious stuff. And it was sheer hell."

To say that it paid off is an understatement. While "The Terminator" was a huge hit, "T2" was a bona fide blockbuster, raking in a whopping $517 million at the box office — more than six times what the original earned.

Not only did "Terminator 2" gain Linda Hamilton cred as one of Hollywood's few female action heroes, it also reconnected her with director James Cameron. This time, sparks flew between director and star, and the two began a relationship that would last for several more years. In 1993, the couple welcomed a child together, daughter Josephine. 

Cracks began forming in the relationship during production of Cameron's epic drama "Titanic," when the director's affair with actor Suzy Amis led him and Hamilton to separate. Cameron and Amis broke things off, and he reconciled with Hamilton, and they wed in 1997. It didn't last, however; the following year, Cameron split with Hamilton again when he reunited with Amis. In 1999, Hamilton filed for divorce . When the dust settled, Hamilton was awarded 50% of Cameron's "Titanic" earnings, reportedly receiving a $50 million divorce settlement.

Looking back at the relationship, Hamilton could see that it simply was not meant to be. "That relationship was a mystery to all of us — even Jim and myself — because we are terribly mismatched," Hamilton told The New York Times. She also shared her theory that Cameron wasn't attracted to her but rather the character she played in his film. "I think what happened there is that he really fell in love with Sarah Connor," she observed.

Following her divorce from James Cameron, Linda Hamilton continued her Hollywood career, appearing in multiple movies and TV series over the course of the decade. It was during these years that she also returned to what had been her first love, the stage.

In 2002, Hamilton starred in "Worse Than Murder: Julius and Ethel Rosenberg," staged at the Ventura Court Theater in Los Angeles. Playing a woman who was sentenced to death when she and her husband were convicted of passing nuclear secrets to Soviet spies, the opportunity was one that Hamilton could not pass up. Interviewed by the Jewish Journal, she explained that she'd been trying to distance herself from her most iconic role, appearing in films such as "Dante's Peak" and gravitating toward comedy. "I'd sworn off heavy roles since 'Terminator 2' because I was just so sick of playing these very earnest, strong women," she said, admitting she set her misgivings aside to do the play. "Its very largesse attracted me," she added. "It's a period piece, it's a romance, and I have to transform myself into a tenement Jew from the Lower East Side."

Hamilton returned to the stage in 2006, when she starred in a production of Tennesee Williams' "The Night of the Iguana" for the Berkshire Theater Festival, held in Stockbridge, Massachusetts. A few years later, she joined the cast of "Chuck," playing the mother of titular Chuck Bartowski (Zachary Levi). 

While her star rose, Linda Hamilton became aware of signs of possible bipolar disorder, which ultimately led to diagnosis and treatment. In 2005, she went public about her mental health journey during an appearance on CNN's "Larry King Live." "Well, I think it's important to stand as an advocate for the mentally ill," Hamilton said. "My journey has been so full of struggle and I just want to be able to offer some help and some general ideas to people that really need it the most."

According to Hamilton, she'd suffered from depression throughout her life but admitted her anxiety began increasing after the birth of her second child, daughter Josephine. "Months would go by where I wouldn't get a decent night's sleep where it would literally feel like I couldn't sleep," she added. "I had anxiety attacks." However, she'd since been controlling the condition, both with medication prescribed by her doctor, and a holistic whole-body approach to overall health.

While Linda Hamilton stepped away from the "Terminator" franchise, Sarah Conner remained in the public eye. Future "Game of Thrones" star Lena Headey played the character in a 2008 TV series, "The Sarah Conner Chronicles." That was fine with Hamilton, who'd moved on. In 2012, she relocated from Los Angeles to New Orleans. "I didn't have a friend here and I bought the first house I saw, found it on Zillow," she told AARP of that impulsive move. 

Meanwhile, Hamilton had scaled back her acting work — until she was asked to reprise Sarah Conner one more time, for the 2019 sequel "Terminator: Dark Fate." She was hesitant — not because of returning to her most iconic role, but because it would mean stepping back into the spotlight that she'd deliberately stepped away from. "That was my hesitation: Do I want to trade this lovely, authentic life for that?" she told The New York Times. Ultimately, she threw caution to the wind.

"There is a real gift in that so much time has passed, and that gives me so much more to explore with the character," she explained in an interview with Entertainment Weekly. "There was meat there. I didn't want to just recycle the same idea. It's a woman who has a different mission, a different story, so I wanted to see what we could do with that."

While the so-called Hamilton Twins may have been the toast of theater camp when they were kids, Linda Hamilton's twin sister, Leslie, didn't pursue acting as a profession. "She became a nurse," Hamilton said of her sister when speaking with Smashing Interviews, jokingly adding, "I'm the one in my family who didn't do something with her life." And while Leslie may not have gone Hollywood, she did appear onscreen in "Terminator 2," serving as her sister's stunt double in what would be her only screen credit.

In 2020, Hamilton grieved the loss of her sister when Leslie died at age 63. "Leslie was the consummate caretaker, and devoted her life to helping her children and the lives of others," read her obituary, as reported by Today.com.

Interviewed by AARP in 2025, Hamilton recalled how her sister's death made her take a look at her own life. "My twin sister died five years ago; that was a real reckoning, too, as her identical twin. It sure did shake me up a little bit, the huge loss of my other half," she said, admitting that she was struck with the realization of the tenuous nature of life. "I started doing some bucket-list things," she added.

Linda Hamilton stepped back into the spotlight in 2025 when she joined the cast of Netflix mega-hit "Stranger Things," playing nefarious Dr. Kay in the series' fifth and final season. As she told AARP, she'd already been a fan of the show, so signing on was a no-brainer. "When they invited me, I thought, 'Oh, they're wrong. No, no, no, no.' That's a whole other world that I'm not in, but I love watching. There was a funny little disconnect for a minute. And then I was like, 'Yippee!'"

For Hamilton, becoming a part of a series that had become a pop-culture phenomenon, as it ended its extraordinary decade-long run, was somewhat surreal. "So it was a stunning turn of events, and I was thrilled, absolutely thrilled," she told Netflix's Tudum. "It's the first show I've ever done where I'm a fan and an actor, so what a delight."

That said, joining such a successful show, with an already well-established cast, was as daunting as leaping onto a speeding locomotive. "It was really amazing that I had to jump into the middle of it all, and I'd never even heard the character's voice come out of my mouth yet," she added. "It was a little overwhelming. But when all was said and done, man, I felt really ready."