Born in Salisbury, Maryland, USA, following high school, Linda studied for two years at Washington College in Chestertown, Maryland, before moving on to acting studies in New York. In New York, she attended acting workshops given by Lee Strasberg. Her first parts where small parts in TV series, with her biggest break coming with her role in The Terminator. Most known to the public at large from her part in the TV series Beauty and the Beast (before Terminator 2: Judgment Day, at least).



Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991): $1,000,000

Daughter, with James Cameron, Josephine Archer Cameron born 15 February 1993. Linda is an LA Dodgers fan. She reprised her Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991) character, Sarah Connor, for the theme-park attraction T2 3-D: Battle Across Time (1996), a short film shot in a new 3-D process that makes the film appear to jump out at you. After her role in Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991), she learned that she made such an impression as the pumped and ferociously tough Sarah Connor that she was typecast into being offered only roles for similarly tough characters. Her identical twin sister Leslie Hamilton Gearren was Linda's double in Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991). Leslie is seen when Sarah is remembering playing with John at the park and when the T-1000 is impersonating her. She divorced second husband James Cameron after discovering he was having an affair with actress Suzy Amis during the making of the movie Titanic (1997). Her divorce from him was the second-most expensive divorce next to that of Steven Spielberg and Amy Irving. Hamilton stood to take half of Cameron's earnings - close to $50 million. Good friends with former "Beauty and the Beast" (1987) co-star Ron Perlman. They reunited in the theater play Love Letters (1990), and in the post-Vietnam war drama Missing in America (2005). In the original screenplay of The Terminator (1984), the character she played, Sarah Connor, was 19 years old. It was decision of James Cameron to make the character somewhat older to fit into Hamilton's age. In real life, Linda was 27 when filming started and turned 28 before the film was released. Has worked with both actors who were the main heroes of the Predator movies: Arnold Schwarzenegger in two Terminator movies (The Terminator (1984) and Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)), and Danny Glover in Missing in America (2005). James Cameron offered her the role of Molly Brown in Titanic (1997) (ultimately played by Kathy Bates), but she declined. Read for the part of Joanne Galloway in A Few Good Men (1992). The part went to Demi Moore instead. A former manager of hers embezzled $100,000 of her money. Her father died in a car crash when she was young.