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Linda Denise Blair (born January 22, 1959, in St. Louis, Missouri) is an American actress best known for her portrayal of the possessed child Regan MacNeil in William Friedkin's The Exorcist (1973), a performance that earned her a Golden Globe Award and an Academy Award nomination at age fourteen.1 She contributed to the Ghostbusters universe as a guest voice actor on Extreme Ghostbusters, voicing the character Celine in the episode "Witchy Woman."2
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Blair was born in St. Louis, Missouri, and moved with her family to Westport, Connecticut, when she was approximately two years old.1 Her father was a Navy test pilot who later became an executive recruiter; her mother worked as a real estate agent.1 From the age of five, Blair worked as a child model, appearing in retail catalogs for Sears and Macy's and in more than seventy television commercials.1 She also trained as an equestrian during her childhood years.1
Blair was selected from roughly 600 candidates to play Regan MacNeil in The Exorcist (1973), directed by William Friedkin and based on William Peter Blatty's novel.1 Her performance as the twelve-year-old girl at the center of a demonic possession drew immediate international attention. She won the Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actress and was nominated for the Academy Award in the same category, becoming one of the youngest nominees in that category's history.1 She reprised the role in Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977)3 and, decades later, in The Exorcist: Believer (2023).4
Her other notable work through the 1970s included the television film Born Innocent (1974), in which she played a teenage girl sent to a juvenile detention center, and Sarah T. -- Portrait of a Teenage Alcoholic (1975). Stranger in Our House (1978), also known as Summer of Fear, was another prominent TV film from this period. Roller Boogie (1979) marked a departure from her earlier dramatic roles and established her in a different, more commercially oriented register.1
Through the 1980s, Blair appeared in a succession of horror and exploitation features. She received multiple Golden Raspberry Award nominations during this period, winning the Worst Actress Razzie at the 6th Golden Raspberry Awards (March 1986) for Night Patrol, Savage Island, and Savage Streets, and the Worst Career Achievement Award at the 5th ceremony (March 1985).1 Later in her career she hosted the paranormal-themed series Scariest Places on Earth from 2000 to 2006,1 and appeared on the animal rescue reality program Pit Boss from 2010 to 2012,1 reflecting her longstanding commitment to animal welfare.
Blair was cast as a guest voice actor on Extreme Ghostbusters, the 1997 animated series that continued the Ghostbusters franchise with a new team of young investigators led by Egon Spengler. She voiced Celine, a purple-haired witch who is the central antagonist of the episode "Witchy Woman" near the end of the series's run.2
The casting carried a deliberate layer of in-universe humor. Earlier in the season, in the episode "Darkness at Noon, Part 2," Eduardo Rivera tells Kylie Griffin that she was acting possessed, saying "I had to. You were doing the Linda Blair bit, you were like possessed!"5 That reference set up Blair's own eventual appearance as the voice behind a supernatural threat.5 Spook Central's Extreme Ghostbusters episode review identifies the casting as a pointed nod to The Exorcist and Blair's defining association with possession and the occult.2
Blair became vegan in 2001 and co-authored the book Going Vegan! the same year.1 In 2004, she founded the Linda Blair WorldHeart Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to rescuing and rehabilitating abused animals.1 She has worked with PETA and the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society as part of her animal advocacy.1
In December 2025, Blair publicly disclosed that she had been diagnosed with Graves' disease in 2023 and had suffered a near-fatal thyroid storm.6 As of early 2026, she has described plans to return to acting and is working on a memoir.6
"Linda Blair," Wikipedia, accessed 2026-06-13, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linda_Blair ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7 ↩8 ↩9 ↩10 ↩11 ↩12 ↩13 ↩14
Spook Central, "Extreme Ghostbusters Episode Reviews" (October 1, 2020), https://www.spookcentral.tk/2020/10/01/extreme-ghostbusters-episode-reviews.html. "We have Jenna Leigh Green as Wanda, Allyce Beasley as Bess, and Linda Blair as Celine." ↩ ↩2 ↩3
Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977), Warner Bros. ↩
The Exorcist: Believer (2023), Universal Pictures / Blumhouse Productions. ↩
Spook Central, "Ghostbusters Honors... The Exorcist" (May 2, 2023), https://www.spookcentral.tk/2023/05/02/ghostbusters-honors-the-exorcist.html. "Eduardo tells Kylie that she was possessed saying, 'I had to. You were doing the Linda Blair bit, you were like possessed!' Interestingly, Linda Blair herself, would voice Celine (the purple-haired 'witch') in the episode 'Witchy Woman' near the end of the series." ↩ ↩2
Parade, "The Exorcist Icon Linda Blair Turns 67 as She Reveals Devastating Health Issue" (January 22, 2026), https://parade.com/news/the-exorcist-icon-linda-blair-turns-67-reveals-devastating-health-issue. Blair: "I have Graves' disease. It attacks your immune system." ↩ ↩2
