Age, Biography and Wiki
Linda Hamilton was born on September 26, 1956, in Salisbury, Maryland. Her father, Carroll Hamilton, was a physician who passed away when she was five. Her mother later married a police chief. Linda has an identical twin sister, Leslie, who passed away in 2020, and she also has an older sister and a younger brother. As of 2025, Linda Hamilton is 68 years old.
| Occupation | Voice Actress |
|---|---|
| Date of Birth | 26 September 1956 |
| Age | 68 Years |
| Birth Place | Salisbury, Maryland, U.S. |
| Horoscope | Libra |
| Country | U.S |
Height, Weight & Measurements
Linda Hamilton stands approximately 5 feet 6 inches tall. Specific details about her current weight and other measurements are not widely available.
| Height | 5 feet 6 inches |
| Weight | |
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Dating & Relationship Status
Linda Hamilton has been married twice, first briefly in the 1980s and then to James Cameron from 1997 to 1999. The divorce from Cameron resulted in a significant settlement of $50 million, contributing substantially to her net worth.
Hamilton's father (1928-1962) died when she was five; her mother (1931-2019) later married a police chief. Hamilton had an identical twin sister, Leslie Hamilton Freas (1956–2020), as well as one older sister, a younger brother, and a stepbrother. She has said that she was raised in a "very boring, white Anglo-Saxon" household, and that she "voraciously read books" in her spare time. Hamilton went to Wicomico Junior High and Wicomico High School in Salisbury.
Hamilton made two prominent film appearances in 1984: firstly, a starring role in Children of the Corn, a horror film based on the short story by Stephen King. Hamilton played Vicky Baxter, a motorist who runs into trouble while travelling with her boyfriend through rural Nebraska. The film was financially profitable, making US$14 million at the domestic box office against a budget of US$3 million, but received generally negative reviews. In a more positive assessment by The New York Times, Hamilton's performance was praised. Her next role was co-starring in James Cameron's science fiction action film The Terminator (1984) as Sarah Connor, a young waitress—and soon-to-be mother of a valiant resistance leader—who finds herself at the center of a nightmarish ordeal when a soldier travels back in time to help her defeat the titular cyborg assassin, sent from the future to execute her. The film was a surprise commercial hit, topping the U.S. box office for two weeks. Critics believed it to be a perfect example of its genre, with some attributing its strength to Hamilton's performance; The Hollywood Reporter wrote that she displayed "tremendous resiliency" as Connor, while Janet Maslin felt she played the part "engrossingly" in her review for The New York Times. That same year, she guest-starred in four episodes of the NBC police drama Hill Street Blues.
Hamilton's subsequent film appearances were in the psychological thrillers Silent Fall (1994) and Separate Lives (1995). For her performance in the television movie A Mother's Prayer (1995), where she played a widow diagnosed with AIDS, Hamilton received a CableACE Award and a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actress. On her decision to take the part, she said, "So many people think I'm just this incredibly ferocious, fierce woman. Sarah Connor has sort of etched herself into my psyche and will never go away. So I chose [to play] this woman because she was a great balance of strength and frailty". She put herself on a strict diet in preparation for the role, saying, "I had to know what it was like … I knew that I had to sort of sink in on myself. So I got very, very thin".
In 2011, Hamilton narrated the Chiller network's The Future of Fear, a documentary on the history of horror films. She then played a fictional U.S. president in the television miniseries Air Force One Is Down (2013), and had recurring roles as a bounty hunter on the Showcase series Lost Girl (2013) and a mentally ill mother on Syfy's Defiance (2014–2015). Her next projects were the television pilot Shoot Me Nicely (2016), which was later released as a short film, and the small-scale science fiction film Curvature (2017). In his evaluation of the latter for The Hollywood Reporter, Frank Scheck described it as "awfully loopy", adding, "it's always a pleasure to see Hamilton, even if it's painfully obvious that she's been cast [here] because of the genre resonance she brings to the table".
In 1991, Hamilton began a relationship and moved in with film director James Cameron after filming Terminator 2: Judgment Day. They had a daughter, born in 1993. Hamilton said she experienced postpartum depression after the birth of her second child. Hamilton and Cameron briefly separated when Cameron was filming Titanic (1997) and he began a relationship with actress Suzy Amis, who played a small role in the film. Hamilton and Cameron later got back together and married in 1997; this ended in a $50 million divorce settlement for Hamilton in 1999.
In a 2019 interview for The New York Times, Hamilton said she had been celibate for "at least 15 years". "One loses track, because it just doesn't matter — or at least it doesn't matter to me. I have a very romantic relationship with my world every day and the people who are in it," she said.
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| Husband | Bruce Abbott (m. 1982-1989) James Cameron (m. 1997-1999) |
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Net Worth and Salary
As of 2025, Linda Hamilton's net worth is reported to be around $70 million by several sources, although some estimates suggest it could be higher. Her net worth is primarily due to her extensive acting career, including roles in "The Terminator," "Beauty and the Beast," and "Chuck," as well as the substantial divorce settlement from James Cameron.
Career, Business and Investments
Linda Hamilton began her acting career participating in local children's theater groups. Her breakthrough role came with the "Terminator" series, where she played Sarah Connor. She has also appeared in notable films like "Dante's Peak" and TV series such as "Beauty and the Beast" and "Chuck." Hamilton has been recognized for her versatility with several Golden Globe nominations and one Emmy nod. In addition to her acting, she has invested in real estate, owning properties in Virginia, Florida, and New Orleans.
Hamilton's twin sister, Leslie, died on August 22, 2020, at the age of 63. Leslie appeared as Linda's double in a few scenes of Terminator 2: Judgment Day, including the scene in which the T-1000 disguises itself as Sarah Connor. Hamilton has described herself politically as a Democrat, but she voted for Republican candidate Arnold Schwarzenegger—her Terminator co-star—in the 2003 California election after his campaign convinced her he was suitable for the job. While filming Terminator 2: Judgment Day, Hamilton suffered permanent hearing damage in one ear because she had forgotten to put in her earplugs for a scene which called for Schwarzenegger to fire a shotgun inside an elevator.
Hamilton started to binge eat when she entered high school. After seeing a psychologist for the first time at the age of 22 in 1978–1979, she thought acting would help her feel better, but she ended up having a breakdown in the beginning of her acting career and turned to drugs and alcohol use and self-medicated with cocaine in order to get her confidence up. In an October 2005 appearance on Larry King Live, Hamilton discussed her depression and bipolar disorder, which led to violent mood swings and suicidal thoughts during her marriage to Abbott and, in her view, caused the failure of both her marriages. She also discussed how she eventually received therapy and medication to manage the condition.
Social Network
Linda Hamilton maintains a relatively low-key presence on social media platforms, focusing more on her acting career and personal life.
After guest-starring in an episode of Frasier, Hamilton played leading roles in two features that were released one week apart in 1997: political thriller Shadow Conspiracy and the big-budget action-adventure film Dante's Peak. The latter proved to be one of the biggest commercial hits of the year, grossing US$180 million. Critics were mostly unimpressed by the film's derivative narrative, but some praised the effects and performances, with Roger Ebert writing in his review for the Chicago Sun-Times, "In Brosnan and Hamilton [the filmmakers] have actors who play for realism and don't go over the top". For her portrayal of small-town mayor Rachel Wando, Hamilton was named Best Actress at the following year's Blockbuster Entertainment Awards. Speaking of her casting, she said, "Police officers, military officers and lesbians. That was pretty much what I [used to get offered] and nothing else. [When I auditioned for director] Roger Donaldson, he literally said to me: 'You've never played a part like this before' … And [I said], 'What do you mean?' [He replied] 'Normal.' He thought I couldn't play normal! Jesus! It was just the way people thought [about me]".
"There's an inherent risk in reviving a film classic like Laura … [original star] Gene Tierney … left such an indelible impression that any [actress] trying to fill [her] shoes [is] probably going to suffer by comparison. Linda Hamilton accepts this risk, and even turns it to her advantage, in [this] sparkling production … Where [Tierney] gave us Laura Hunt as a ravishing femme fatale shrouded in mystery, Hamilton gives us a genuine charmer — a woman intriguing enough to invite attention, elusive enough to ensure pursuit and smart enough to make it all seem worthwhile … after a few minutes in her company, you don't want to be anywhere else."
The following year, Hamilton starred in the small-scale mystery thriller Skeletons in the Closet (2001), subsequently winning a DVD Exclusive Award for Best Supporting Actress. She then portrayed the real-life Ethel Rosenberg in Worse Than Murder: Ethel and Julius Rosenberg, admitting that her decision to "transform myself into a tenement Jew from the Lower East Side" had been a daunting one: "I'm already prepared for the critics to be unkind to me, like, 'Why is she playing a Jewish character' or 'What's she trying to do, prove she's an actress?' But the fear is just part of the process". The play opened in May 2002—at the Ventura Theatre in California—to a rave review from Variety, who felt that Hamilton played her part with "sumptuous veracity". Next, she had supporting roles in two films: the post-Vietnam war drama Missing in America (2005) and the Penelope Spheeris-directed comedy The Kid & I (2005).
Hamilton returned once more to the Terminator franchise and the character of Sarah Connor when she headlined the Tim Miller-directed Terminator: Dark Fate, set 25 years after the events of T2. She admitted to being reluctant to sign on to the project, having spent the previous few years away from the spotlight: "I love my alone time like no one you've ever met … That was my hesitation: Do I want to trade this lovely, authentic life [that I've built] for that? I didn't want my neighbours looking at me differently. We're neighbors because of who we are, not what we do, and I don't want that to creep into my life again".
"A truck pulls up, we see boots hit the ground, and there she is: Sarah Connor 1.0, sunglasses on, stoic and iconic as fuck, gunning down a sprinting shape-shifter and employing a rocket launcher for a finishing move. It's the sort of movie entrance that the character (and the actor) deserves, the kind that prompts spontaneous, uncontrollable cheering in theaters … Her weathered survivor will charitably share the screen with newcomers and old co-stars alike, but from this moment on, Dark Fate is Hamilton's property. She calmly slips the superior sequel into the back pocket of her faded work pants and walks away with it. Everyone else is acting in her movie."
Education
Hamilton attended Wicomico Junior High and Wicomico High School. She then spent two years at Washington College in Chestertown, Maryland, before moving to New York City to study acting under Lee Strasberg at his acting workshops.
She studied for two years at Washington College in Chestertown, Maryland, before moving on to acting studies in New York City. Hamilton has said that her acting professor at Washington College told her she had no hope of earning a living as an actress. In New York, she attended acting workshops given by Lee Strasberg.
Between 1998 and 1999, Hamilton appeared in a succession of voice roles in episodes of The New Batman Adventures, Hercules, and Batman Beyond. Her next project was the Lifetime movie Sex & Mrs. X (2000), where she played a magazine writer who experiences a sexual reawakening when she is assigned to interview an upper-class Parisian madam. The Los Angeles Times called it an "[intriguing] character study that passes muster on the strength of good performances by [its leads]", adding that Hamilton was both "tough" and "tender" in the part. Later that year, she received a Satellite Award for Best Actress for her performance in the television film The Color of Courage, which Variety called "excellent". She also headlined a production of Laura, an adaptation of the 1944 film noir of the same name, at California's Tiffany Theater in December 2000. Hamilton received praise for her portrayal of the title character, with Jay Reiner of The Hollywood Reporter commenting:
