# 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.

## 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), 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

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.'

## 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

| 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 | |
| 1974 | Madhouse | Elizabeth Peters | Amicus Productions |
| 1974 | Barcelona Kill | Linda | La redada (original title) |
| 1974 | Confessions of a Window Cleaner | Elizabeth Radlett | Columbia Pictures |
| 1976 | Exposé | Linda Hindstatt | House on Straw Hill (alternative title) |
| 1976 | Queen Kong | The Singing Nun | |
| 1977 | Confessions from a Holiday Camp | Brigitte | Columbia Pictures |
| 1978 | Let's Get Laid | Gloria | |
| 1978 | The Boys from Brazil | Nancy | 20th Century Fox |
| 2010 | Stalker | Ms. Brown | |
| 2012 | Run for Your Wife | | Cameo |

### Television

| 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" |
| 1973 | Marked Personal | Gillian Gibson | 2 episodes |
| 1975 | Village Hall | Helga | Season 2, episode 3 "The Rough and the Smooth" |
| 1975 | 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" |
| 1980 | 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" |
| 1981 | 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" |
| 1983 | Just Good Friends | Sonia | Season 1, episode 1 "After All This Time" |
| 1983 | 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

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