Laura Linney is currently best known for her role as Wendy Byrde, one of the best characters on Netflix’s Ozark. Wendy is a character that fans love to hate and Linney plays her to perfection — we’ll get more into that later. However, did you realize this veteran film and television actress actually made her mark on Broadway in 1990, and she’s been nominated for five Tony Awards? Her early career was dominated by her role in Armistead Maupin’s Tales of the City in 1993. She played Mary Ann Singleton, a role she reprised in 1998’s More Tales of the City and 2019’s Netflix miniseries Tales of the City.

Linney has won two Golden Globe Awards for Best Actress for her roles in 2008’s John Adams and in 2010’s The Big C. She’s won four Primetime Emmy Awards for Wild Iris (2002), Frasier (2004), John Adams, and The Big C: Hereafter (2013.) She’s been nominated for three Academy Awards for her work in 2000’s You Can Count On Me, 2004’s Kinsey, and 2007’s The Savages. Linney’s list of nominations and accolades is obviously long and prestigious, and yet even now, in her late-50s, she’s doing some of the best work of her career as the delightfully corrupt and moral-free Wendy Byrde. These are Laura Linney’s best performances.

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8 Love Actually

     Universal Pictures

Laura Linney played Sarah, an American working for a company in London, in Love Actually. Her character had one of the sadder storylines in this poignant look at the romantic lives of eight couples in the month leading up to Christmas in London. Linney’s Sarah is completely smitten with her handsome dark-haired co-worker Karl, played by Rodrigo Santoro. They finally hook up at the company Christmas party only to have their tryst stalled by a phone call from Sarah’s brother Michael, who suffers from mental illness and resides in an institution. Michael calls Sarah incessantly, which never allows her to follow through with Karl, and she ends up alone.

MOVIEWEB VIDEO OF THE DAY

MOVIEWEB VIDEO OF THE DAY

MOVIEWEB VIDEO OF THE DAY

7 The Truman Show

     Paramount Pictures

The Truman Show is about a man named Truman Burbank (in a great Jim Carrey performance) whose life, unbeknownst to him in the beginning, is a reality television show. Linney played Truman’s wife, Meryl Burbank, who is actually an actress named Hannah Hill, portraying his Stepford-esque wife. Truman figures out the lie about his life when he sees his wife in an infomercial. That sighting unraveled Truman’s whole life as well as the television show following his life.

RELATED: The Truman Show and Narc TV Series in Development at Paramount

6 Kinsey

     Fox Searchlight Pictures

Laura Linney played Clara McMillen, the wife of Alfred Kinsey (played by Liam Neeson) in Kinsey. The couple were at the forefront of the research into the depths of human sexuality. The book Sexual Behavior in the Human Male (1948) was one of the first books to use science to discuss the sexual behavior of people. The film worked in large part thanks to the chemistry between Linney and Neeson. McMillen was a woman ahead of her time, comfortable with not just her own sexuality and the exploration of it, but also of her husband’s sexuality.

5 The Squid and the Whale

     Samuel Goldwyn Films / Sony Pictures

Laura Linney and Jeff Daniels starred in the very relatable Noah Baumbach film about a family coming apart at the seams called The Squid and the Whale. They played a couple getting a divorce who force their sons to choose sides in their emotional battle. Linney’s Joan finds fulfillment focusing on her career as a successful writer, which bothers her ex-husband, as she is more successful than he is.

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4 Mystic River

     Warner Bros. Pictures

In the heartbreaking film Mystic River, Laura Linney played Annabeth Markum, the wife of Sean Penn’s Jimmy Markum, an ex-con who is on a mission to find the person who murdered their daughter. She is the devil on his shoulder, spurring him on to do whatever it takes to get to the bottom of the mystery of who killed their daughter. Linney is haunting as a suffering mother who abandons her morality and tells Jimmy to do whatever must be done to find the killer, resulting in a heartbreaking finale.

3 Frasier

     CBS Television Distribution

Laura Linney did a six-episode arc on Frasier playing matchmaker Charlotte, which won her a Primetime Emmy. Kelsey Grammar’s Frasier Crane approaches Charlotte to help him find a mate as he grapples with his nonexistent love life in the light of his brother Niles and his wife having a baby and his father’s remarriage. He pays Charlotte $10,000, and she sends him on a series of bad dates, which leads Frasier to find out that she’s great at marketing her business but not so great at the actual act of matchmaking.

Frasier ends up falling for Charlotte, only to find out she has a boyfriend. However, once Charlotte and her boyfriend break up, she and Frasier get together, at least until she moves to Chicago, and he moves to San Francisco. However, the series finale has him on a plane to Chicago to reunite (presumably) with Charlotte.

2 You Can Count On Me

     Paramount Classics

In You Can Count On Me, Laura Linney and Mark Ruffalo play siblings Sammy and Terry. Their parents died in a car accident when they were children. Now adults, Terry returns to his childhood home to visit Sammy and her son. He’s at a crossroads in his life — he’s broke and not loving his relationship with his girlfriend, who is suicidal. He decides to live with Sammy and her son, and the film follows the rebuilding of the adult siblings’ relationships with each other.

1 Ozark

     Netflix

With Wendy Byrde, Laura Linney has been given one of the juiciest roles of her long and illustrious career. Wendy, her husband Marty, and their two teenagers move to a small town on the banks of a lake in Ozark. The Byrdes are from Chicago but after Marty and his business partner get involved in money laundering for a Mexican drug cartel, their slide from upstanding citizens to criminal masterminds is swift. Wendy proves to be much better at committing crimes without remorse than her husband. Linney played Wendy Byrde perfectly.