Linda Lee Sylvander, known during her acting career as Linda Haynes, died July 17 in Summerville, South Carolina at 75, with the death only recently coming to public attention. No cause was given by her family, who said she died “peacefully”
Born November 4th, 1947, in Miami, FL, she was immersed in show business from 1969 to the early 1980s. A life member of The Actor’s Studio, Haynes made her film debut as Dr. Anne Barton in the 1969 Japanse sci-fi monster flick, Latitude Zero.
From there, she appeared in such films as Coffy (1973) and The Nickel Ride (1974). That served as a springboard to her best work, a portrayal of a world-weary barmaid in the revenge thriller Rolling Thunder (1977). She went on to star in the women-in-prison flick Human Experiments (1979), then neatly segued to another prison film, Brubaker (1980).
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She wrapped up her acting career with the made-for-TV movie Guyana Tragedy: The Story of Jim Jones (1980).
She then made a left turn, going to work as a legal secretary for a Florida law firm.
No less than director Quentin Tarantino praised Haynes’ work in Rolling Thunder.
“ THE performance of the film for me is Linda Haynes as Linda Forchet! She was in one of the sleepers for the first QT fest THE NICKEL RIDE, she was in Pam Grier’s COFFY… she was the girl that reaches into Grier’s afro when she has the razors in there and ‘aaaahhhh’. But Linda Forchet is my favorite female character in a Paul Schrader movie…….She has that look that Ava Gardner got, you know blousey, but it took Ava years to do it, and Linda Haynes just did it naturally. And I mean that in a good way.”
Survivors include her son, Gregory Leif Sylvander, her daughter-in-law, Courtney Lynn Sylvander, her grandchildren, James Riley Sylvander and Amelia Grace Sylvander. She also is survived by her cats Bingo, Bluey and dogs Rex, Biggie and Raya.
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