Linda Manz | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Manz inOrphan Train (1979) | |
| Born | Linda Ann Manz (1961-08-20)August 20, 1961 New York City,New York, U.S. |
| Died | August 14, 2020(2020-08-14) (aged 58) Palmdale, California, U.S. |
| Occupation | Actress |
| Years active | 1978–1997 |
| Spouse | |
| Children | 3 |
Linda Ann Manz (August 20, 1961 – August 14, 2020) was an American actress. She made her feature film debut at age 15 inTerrence Malick's period dramaDays of Heaven (1978), playing an adolescent girl growing up in rural Texas in 1916. She followed this with a supporting role inThe Wanderers (1979). Manz earned critical acclaim for her portrayal of a troubled teenage girl from a dysfunctional family inDennis Hopper's drama filmOut of the Blue (1980).
Manz stepped away from her acting profession in the mid-1980s and relocated toSouthern California, where she lived outside the public eye and focused on raising her three children. She returned to acting in 1997 with small roles inHarmony Korine's filmGummo andDavid Fincher's thrillerThe Game. She developed a strong cult following that began in the 1990s.[1]
Linda Ann Manz was born in New York City to Sophie E. Manz, and never knew her father.[2] Growing up inUpper Manhattan, Manz had a troubled childhood and a difficult relationship with her mother. She frequently ran away from home and attended several schools.[3] Manz toldPeople magazine in 1979: "For a long time, I was always asking people to adopt me".[2] She was initially indifferent to acting but, as she later explained in 2011, it was her mother, a cleaner at theWorld Trade Center, who encouraged her to seek a career as an actress.[4] Her mother insisted that Manz attend a performing arts academy that taught acting and dancing.
While she was at an academy for show business, a teacher told her that casting director Barbara L. Claman was looking for streetwise kids to appear in a new Hollywood film. Manz turned up unannounced at Claman’s office, "smoking and looking all of 10 years old" but, according to Claman, "she had that special quality we wanted."[3][5] This introduction eventually led in 1976 to Manz being selected at age 15 byTerrence Malick to act in his second film,Days of Heaven. She plays a streetwise orphan who joins her older brother and his lover when they flee Chicago in 1916, and find work, then refuge, with a wealthy Texas farmer. The film was not released until 1978 due to Malick's lengthy editing.[2]
Manz's part was initially smaller, but Malick was so impressed by her that he made a last-minute decision to have her improvise an unscripted narration.[6] Manz told interviewers, years later, that, "I just watched the movie and rambled on," and "They took whatever dialogue they liked."[2] She received excellent reviews, with criticRoger Ebert saying, "Her voice sounds utterly authentic; it seems beyond performance."[7]
Manz appeared alongsideKen Wahl,Karen Allen andErland Van Lidth de Jeude in the 1979 teenage-gang dramaThe Wanderers, directed byPhilip Kaufman,[8] Her next role was in the short-lived CBS seriesDorothy.[2]Manz next had a spot in the 1979 television movieOrphan Train as Sarah,[9] one of many orphans relocated from eastern orphanages to farms inthe West andMidwest in the late 1800s/early 1900s.
She received notice as the lead inDennis Hopper's influential cult filmOut of the Blue (1980).[2][6][10] In Hopper’s drama she played Cebe, a troubled Elvis-obsessed teenager who masks her vulnerability with a punk attitude.[3] Over aCB radio she broadcasts statements such as "Kill all hippies!" and "Subvert normality!"[11] Her voice was subsequently sampled byPrimal Scream in their song "Kill All Hippies", which was released in 2000.[12]
In 1981, she starred oppositeLeif Garrett andRalph Seymour in the television filmLongshot, which focused on a group of teenagefoosball enthusiasts. In 1985, Manz appeared in a small role as a robber in "The Snow Queen", an episode ofFaerie Tale Theatre.[13]
By the mid-1980s, she had disappeared from the industry. Manz insisted this was not due to any dramatic walking-out-on-Hollywood story, tellingTime Out in 1997: "There was a whole bunch of new young actors out there, and I was kind of getting lost in the shuffle, so I laid back and had three kids. Now, I enjoy just staying home and cooking soup."[3][2]
The directorHarmony Korine, who admired her work, sought out Manz after her 16-year absence from the screen and she took on the role of a fast-talking, tap-dancing mother of one of the main characters inGummo (1997), Korine'snihilistic portrayal of marginalized life in a small-town.[2][9] Manz followed this with the small role of the roommate ofDeborah Kara Unger's character Christine inDavid Fincher's thriller filmThe Game (1997), the last time she appeared on screen.[14]
In 1985, Manz married Bobbie L. Guthrie, a camera operator in the film industry.[6] Together they had three children: Michael, Christopher and William.[2] She lived later inAntelope Valley, California.[6] Her son Christopher died before her in 2018.
Manz died inPalmdale, California on August 14, 2020, aged 58, of complications frompneumonia andlung cancer.[3][15][16]
Following her death in 2020, Manz's work—particularly her lead performance inOut of the Blue—has received renewed critical attention through restorations and retrospectives, and she has been cited as a cult figure in American independent cinema.[17][18][19]
| Year | Title | Role | Notes | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1978 | Days of Heaven | Linda | [20] | |
| 1978 | King of the Gypsies | Uncredited | [20] | |
| 1979 | The Wanderers | Peewee | [20] | |
| 1979 | Boardwalk | Girl Satan | [21] | |
| 1980 | Out of the Blue | Cebe | [20] | |
| 1981 | Longshot | Maxine Gripp | [22] | |
| 1983 | 'Mir reicht's … ich steig aus! | Linda | [23] | |
| 1997 | Gummo | Solomon's Mother | [24] | |
| 1997 | The Game | Amy | [24] | |
| 1999 | Buddy Boy | Uncredited | [24] | |
| 2016 | Along for the Ride | Herself | Documentary |
