Early life

Hamilton was born in Salisbury, Maryland. Hamilton's father, Carroll Stanford Hamilton, a physician, died when she was five, and her mother later married a police chief. Hamilton has an identical twin sister (Leslie Hamilton Gearren), one older sister and one younger brother. She has said that she was raised in a "very boring, white Anglo-Saxon" family, and “voraciously read books” during her spare time. Hamilton went to Wicomico Junior High (now Wicomico Middle School) and Wicomico High School in Salisbury, with Leslie, her twin. 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.

Career

Hamilton's acting debut came first on television, followed by a major role as Lisa Rogers in the prime-time soap opera Secrets of Midland Heights (December 1980/January 1981). Her big-screen debut was in the thriller TAG: The Assassination Game (1982) and as a result, she was listed as one of twelve "Promising New Actors of 1982" in John Willis' Screen World, Vol. 34. She also shared a starring role in the CBS made-for-TV movie Country Gold, with Loni Anderson and Earl Holliman.

Hamilton played the lead role in Children of the Corn, based on the horror short story by Stephen King. The movie, which made $14 million at the box office, was panned by critics. Hamilton's next role was in The Terminator, opposite Michael Biehn, in 1984. The movie was an unexpectedly huge commercial and critical success. Following The Terminator, Hamilton starred in Black Moon Rising, an action thriller with Tommy Lee Jones. She then returned to television as a guest-star in the mystery series Murder, She Wrote, scoring favorable reviews. Hamilton next starred opposite Ron Perlman in the TV series Beauty and the Beast. The series was critically acclaimed, and she received Emmy and Golden Globe nominations. Hamilton left the series in 1989 and it ended in 1990.

Hamilton returned to the big screen in 1990 with Michael Caine in Mr. Destiny and in 1991 with Terminator 2: Judgment Day, the sequel to The Terminator. The latter was a smash at the box office, grossing over $500 million, more than any other film of that year. Hamilton underwent intense physical training to emphasize the character's transformation from the first film. Her identical twin sister was Linda's double in Terminator 2. Hamilton received two MTV Movie Awards for her role in the film, one for Best Female Performance and the other for Most Desirable Female. She reprised the character, Sarah Connor, for the theme park attraction T2 3-D. In 1990, Hamilton was chosen by People Magazine as one of the 50 Most Beautiful People in the world. Following the success of the Terminator series, she hosted Saturday Night Live.

She returned to television in A Mother's Prayer (1995) playing a mother who lost her husband and is diagnosed with AIDS. For her performance in the film, which co-starred Kate Nelligan and Bruce Dern, Hamilton was awarded a CableACE Award for best dramatic performance and nominated for another Golden Globe in 1996. That same year, Hamilton filmed two motion pictures that were released one week apart in 1997: Shadow Conspiracy with Charlie Sheen and Dante's Peak with Pierce Brosnan. Shadow Conspiracy flopped at the box office, but Dante's Peak grossed $180 million and was one of the biggest commercial hits of the year. She received a Blockbuster Entertainment Award for female performance in Dante's Peak.

Hamilton has since appeared on the television shows Frasier (season 4 episode "Odd Man Out" as Laura) and According to Jim and has done more TV movies, including On the Line, Robots Rising, Rescuers: Stories of Courage: Two Couples, Point Last Seen, and The Color of Courage. Hamilton and her Beauty and the Beast costar Ron Perlman reunited in the 2005 post-Vietnam war drama Missing in America.

In 2009, she returned as Sarah Connor in Terminator Salvation, in voice-overs only. In 2010, she joined the cast of Chuck in the recurring guest role of Mary Elizabeth Bartowski, a CIA agent and long-missing mother of Chuck and Ellie. She also appears as a guest star in the Showtime cable television show Weeds as the marijuana supplier for the show's main character (Mary-Louise Parker). In November 2011, she narrated the Chiller The Future of Fear horror documentary.

More recently, Hamilton has had a prominent guest role on Lost Girl and a prominent recurring guest role on Defiance.

Personal life

Hamilton has been married and divorced twice. Her first marriage, from 1982 to 89, was to Bruce Abbott, who left her when she was pregnant with their son Dalton. In 1991, she moved in with film director James Cameron following his divorce from Kathryn Bigelow. They had a daughter, Josephine, born on February 15, 1993. She and Cameron married in 1997; but the marriage was short-lived, ending in a $50 million divorce settlement in 1999.

Hamilton has described herself politically as a Democrat, but she voted for Republican candidate Arnold Schwarzenegger, her Terminator co-star, in the 2003 California gubernatorial election after his campaign convinced her he was suitable for the job.

In an October 2005 appearance on Larry King Live, Hamilton told the audience that she has bipolar disorder, which she said destroyed her marriage to Abbott, whom she admitted having abused verbally and physically, and eventually sought treatment.

While filming Terminator 2: Judgment Day, Hamilton suffered permanent hearing damage in one ear when she fired a gun inside an elevator without using her ear plugs.

TV and filmography

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1980	Shirley	Gloria	Episode: "Teddy Roosevelt Slept Here"
1980	Reunion	Anne Samoorian	Television movie
1980	Rape and Marriage: The Rideout Case	Greta Rideout	Television movie
1980-1981	Secrets of Midland Heights	Lisa Rogers	10 episodes
1982	King's Crossing	Lauren Hollister	10 episodes
1982	Tag: The Assassination Game	Susan Swayze
1982	Country Gold	Josie Greenwood	Television movie; air date: November 23, 1982
1984	Children of the Corn	Vicky
1984	The Terminator	Sarah Connor
1984	Hill Street Blues	Sandy Valpariso	4 episodes
1984	The Stone Boy	Eva Crescent Moon
1985	Secret Weapons	Elena Koslov	Television movie
1986	King Kong Lives	Dr. Amy Franklin
1986	Black Moon Rising	Nina
1986	Murder, She Wrote	Carol McDermott	Episode: "Menace, Anyone?"
1987-1989	Beauty and the Beast	Catherine Chandler	46 episodes
1988	Go Toward the Light	Claire Madison	Television movie
1990	Mr. Destiny	Ellen Jane
1991	Terminator 2: Judgment Day	Sarah Connor
1991	Saturday Night Live	Host	Episode: "Linda Hamilton/Mariah Carey"
1994	Silent Fall	Karen Rainer
1995	A Mother's Prayer	Rosemary Holstrom
1995	Separate Lives	Lauren Porter/Lena
1996	T2 3-D: Battle Across Time	Sarah Connor	Short film
1997	Dante's Peak	Mayor Rachel Wando	$180 million gross
1997	Shadow Conspiracy	Amanda Givens
1997	Frasier	Laura	Episode: "Odd Man Out"
1998	On the Line	Det. Jean Martin	Television movie
1998	Rescuers: Stories of Courage: Two Couples	Marie Taquet	Television movie
1998	Point Last Seen	Rachel Harrison	Television movie
1998	The Color of Courage	Anna Sipes	Television movie
1998-1999	Hercules	Nemesis	Voice only in two episodes: "Hercules and the King for a Day" (1998) and "Hercules and the Romans" (1999)
1999	The Secret Life of Girls	Ruby Sanford
2000	Skeletons in the Closet	Tina Conway
2000	Sex & Mrs. X	Joanna Scott	Television movie
2000	Buzz Lightyear of Star Command	Dr. Furbanna	3 episodes
2001	Bailey's Mistake	Liz Donovan	Television movie
2001	A Girl Thing	Rachel	Television movie
2002	Silent Night	Elisabeth Vincken	Television movie
2003	Wholey Moses	Valerie	Short film
2004	Jonah	June	Short film
2005	Smile	Bridget
2005	According to Jim	Melissa Evans	Episode: "Lean on Me"
2005	Missing in America	Kate
2005	The Kid & I	Susan Mandeville
2006	Thief	Roselyn Moore	2 episodes
2006	Home by Christmas	Julie Bedford	Television movie
2006	Broken	Karen
2008-2009	The Line	Carol	11 episodes
2009	Hard Times	Cory
2009	Terminator Salvation	Sarah Connor	Voice only; uncredited
2010	Weeds	Linda	3 episodes
2010	DC Showcase: Jonah Hex	Madame Lorraine
2010-2012	Chuck	Mary Elizabeth Bartowski	12 episodes
2013	Bad Behavior
2013	Lost Girl	Acacia	2 episodes
2013	Air Force One Is Down	United States President Harriet Rowntree	Television Mini-Series
2014	Bermuda Tentacles	Admiral Hansen	Television movie
2014-2015	Defiance	Pilar McCawley	6 episodes
2015	A Sunday Horse	Mrs. Walden

Awards and nominations

List of awards and nominations

Year	Award	Category	Work	Result
1992	Saturn Award	Best Actress	Terminator 2: Judgment Day	Won
1998	Blockbuster Entertainment Awards	Favorite Actress—Action/Adventure	Dante's Peak	Won
1995	CableACE Awards	Actress in a Movie or Miniseries	A Mother's Prayer	Won
2001	DVD Exclusive Awards	Video Premiere Award Best Supporting Actress	Skeletons in the Closet	Won
1988	Golden Globe Awards	Best Performance by an Actress in a TV-Series—Drama	Beauty and the Beast	Nominated
1989	Golden Globe Awards	Best Performance by an Actress in a TV-Series—Drama	Beauty and the Beast	Nominated
1996	Golden Globe Awards	Best Performance by an Actress in a Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for TV	A Mother's Prayer	Nominated
1992	MTV Movie Awards	MTV Movie Award Best Female Performance	Terminator 2: Judgment Day	Won
1992	MTV Movie Awards	MTV Movie Award Most Desirable Female	Terminator 2: Judgment Day	Won
2000	Satellite Awards	Golden Satellite Award Best Performance by an Actress in a Miniseries or a Motion Picture	The Color of Courage	Won

[ Source: Wikipedia ]