Recently, Linda Hamilton made a surprise appearance in Stranger Things, and this helped remind the world what a great actor she really is. Of course, it was hard for fans not to notice how different she now appeared. This wasn’t the Hamilton of The Terminator or Dante’s Peak…rather, this was someone who had fully and completely transformed herself into a force that made entirely new generations tremble in fear.
However, this was nothing new. Those who have closely followed Hamilton’s career know that she has been transforming and evolving her entire life. Don’t believe it, or maybe you just want to revisit the glory days of an iconic ‘80s actor? Keep reading to discover everything you need to know about Linda Hamilton’s jaw-dropping transformation!
Linda Hamilton: everyone underestimated her
One reason that Linda Hamilton’s Hollywood success took the world by surprise is that everyone underestimated her from the beginning. Rather than growing up in the shadow of Hollywood, the future star was raised in Salisbury, Maryland. Her father tragically died when she was only five years old, leaving her mother to raise four young children before she remarried. Perhaps sensing her daughter’s talents as a performer, Hamilton’s mother eventually enrolled her (along with her twin sister) in a children’s theater camp.
This ignited a real passion in young Linda Hamilton, and after graduating from high school, she studied drama at Maryland’s Washington College. She didn’t get much support there; instead, she encountered a professor who bluntly told her that she would probably never make a living as an actor. Soon enough, Hamilton quit college and moved to New York, ultimately studying under the career-making acting coach Lee Strasberg. Afterward, she enjoyed success as a stage actor before she found international success as a movie star.
Early breakthrough roles changed her life
In the early ‘80s, Linda Hamilton’s television career was really taking off. After securing a recurring role in Secrets of Midland Heights, she became a regular on King’s Crossing and even had a prolonged arc in the breakout television show Hill Street Blues. In 1984, she starred in her first theatrical role in the iconic horror movie Children of the Corn. Hamilton actually hated the experience, later dubbing it the worst film that she has ever made. However, that hated role had a silver lining: it gave her enough clout to get cast as Sarah Connor in James Cameron’s seminal tech horror film, The Terminator.
This film effectively kicked her career as a movie star into high gear, proving that Hamilton was a bankable movie star. Interestingly, The Terminator also kick-started Arnold Schwarzenegger’s career because it proved that the champion bodybuilder was capable of carrying a feature film. As for Hamilton, even though she had become a movie star as well, her next big career move involved (ironically enough) a return to the small screen. Soon, she starred in the Emmy-winning television drama Beauty and the Beast, but she left the show in 1989 after getting pregnant.
That departure disappointed Hamilton’s legion of fans…after all, they had gotten accustomed to seeing her give killer performances on the small screen. But it all worked out, as the actor leaving Beauty and the Beast freed her up for arguably the biggest blockbuster of the ‘90s: Terminator 2!
A stunning transformation and a troubled marriage
When Linda Hamilton appeared in Terminator 2, she seemed completely different than she did in her first sci-fi outing. Part of that is due to experience (she had starred in plenty of other major roles since then) and part of it is due to her workout routine. You see, the Sarah Connor character is meant to be a super-buff survivalist by the time of Terminator 2. In order to look the role, Hamilton hit the gym religiously, transforming herself into the ultimate muscle mommy of the ‘90s through three six-hour workouts per week.
Her ripped appearance in this sci-fi sequel ended up turning plenty of heads. One of those heads was director James Cameron, who fell in love with the woman he helped make into a star. They became romantically involved and even had a child together in 1993. Unfortunately, that relationship fell apart over time: they split up after Cameron had an affair with actor Suzy Amis, but they reconciled and then got married. However, after Cameron returned to Amis, he and Hamilton ended up getting divorced.
As it turns out, the divorce proved quite lucrative for Linda Hamilton. Her divorce settlement stipulated that she would get 50 percent of James Cameron’s earnings from Titanic. In this way, she walked away from this relationship with a cool $50 million!
Struggles with mental health
It takes plenty of courage to put yourself out there as an actor…after all, the whole world is watching and waiting to judge you for everything from your performance to your appearance. However, Linda Hamilton did something that required even more bravery than acting: namely, going public about her struggles with bipolar disorder. She spoke about this matter in 2005, telling Larry King that she wanted to be “an advocate for the mentally ill.” In this way, she helped normalize talking about something that society usually has a weird stigma about discussing.
Years later, Linda Hamilton had practically retired from acting, but she came back to portray the character that made her famous. In Terminator: Dark Fate, she played Sarah Connor for the final time, and her return was generally well-received by fans. That’s no surprise, really, given that this was the best franchise sequel since Terminator 2. A few years later, she popped up in the final season of Stranger Things, playing a mysterious military official who will stop at nothing to kidnap and experiment on Eleven.
Linda Hamilton playing an iconic character in a sci-fi show set in the ‘80s? Talk about coming full circle!