Jennie Linden
- Actress
Jennie Linden was born in Worthing, West Sussex, the daughter of architect Marcus Fletcher and his wife Freida, a homemaker. She became interested in acting from an early age, and, at seventeen, won a scholarship at London's Central School of Speech and Drama. Having completed her training, Linden made her theatrical debut in the English capital in 1963 with a role in Never Too Late at the Prince of Wales Theatre. During the next few years, she also guest-starred in several iconic TV series, including The Avengers (1961), Sherlock Holmes (1964) and The Saint (1962). Her first feature film was Nightmare (1964), a Hammer horror, in which Linden was third-billed as the victim/heroine, driven to the brink of insanity by her scheming guardian and his mistress. She played the granddaughter of the Doctor (Peter Cushing) in Dr. Who and the Daleks (1965) and four years later gave her best-remembered performance as the sexy schoolteacher Ursula in Ken Russell's controversial drama Women in Love (1969). Her performance won her a BAFTA nomination as Most Promising Newcomer.
At the peak of her popularity Linden's career stalled, having unsuccessfully auditioned for the parts of Eleanor of Aquitaine in The Lion in Winter (1968) and for Marian Maudsley in The Go-Between (1971) (Katharine Hepburn and Julie Christie, respectively, got the nod). She turned down the role of Amy in Straw Dogs (1971) (which went to Susan George) and spurned the opportunity to work in Hollywood, instead opting for quiet family life in Hertfordshire with her husband Christopher Mann (a former theatrical agent, turned antiques restorer) and her son Rupert.
Between 1973 and 1974, Linden went on a worldwide tour with the Royal Shakespeare Company, playing Thea Elvsted in Trevor Nunn's production of Hedda Gabler. Her co-stars included Glenda Jackson (in the title role), Patrick Stewart and Timothy West. Linden continued to make occasional television appearances until the early nineties, before turning her back on the profession. She was latterly reported as having reinvented herself as a reflexologist.
At the peak of her popularity Linden's career stalled, having unsuccessfully auditioned for the parts of Eleanor of Aquitaine in The Lion in Winter (1968) and for Marian Maudsley in The Go-Between (1971) (Katharine Hepburn and Julie Christie, respectively, got the nod). She turned down the role of Amy in Straw Dogs (1971) (which went to Susan George) and spurned the opportunity to work in Hollywood, instead opting for quiet family life in Hertfordshire with her husband Christopher Mann (a former theatrical agent, turned antiques restorer) and her son Rupert.
Between 1973 and 1974, Linden went on a worldwide tour with the Royal Shakespeare Company, playing Thea Elvsted in Trevor Nunn's production of Hedda Gabler. Her co-stars included Glenda Jackson (in the title role), Patrick Stewart and Timothy West. Linden continued to make occasional television appearances until the early nineties, before turning her back on the profession. She was latterly reported as having reinvented herself as a reflexologist.
