Laura Linney is currently best known for her role as Wendy Byrde, one of the best characters on Netflix's Ozark. Wendy is a character that fans love to hate, and Linney plays her to perfection — we'll get more into that later. However, did you realize this veteran film and television actress actually made her mark on Broadway in 1990, and she's been nominated for five Tony Awards? Her early career was dominated by her role in Armistead Maupin's Tales of the City in 1993. She played Mary Ann Singleton, a role she reprised in 1998's More Tales of the City and 2019's Netflix miniseries Tales of the City.

Linney has won two Golden Globe Awards for Best Actress for her roles in 2008's John Adams and 2010's The Big C. She's won four Primetime Emmy Awards for Wild Iris (2002), Frasier (2004), John Adams, and The Big C: Hereafter (2013.) She's been nominated for three Academy Awards for her work in 2000's You Can Count On Me, 2004's Kinsey, and 2007's The Savages. Linney's list of nominations and accolades is obviously long and prestigious, and yet even now, in her late 50s, she's doing some of the best work of her career as the delightfully corrupt and moral-free Wendy Byrde. These are Laura Linney's best performances.

Update December 4, 2023: This article has been updated with even more great performances by Laura Linney and where each title can be streamed.

12 Mystic River (2003)

In the heartbreaking film Mystic River, Laura Linney played Annabeth Markum, the wife of Sean Penn's Jimmy Markum, an ex-con who is on a mission to find the person who murdered their daughter. She is the devil on his shoulder, spurring him on to do whatever it takes to get to the bottom of the mystery of who killed their daughter.

Why Linney's Performance Is Great

While she only features in a supporting role, Linney is haunting as a suffering mother who abandons her morality and tells Jimmy to do whatever must be done to find the killer, resulting in a heartbreaking and twisted finale in Clint Eastwood's 2003 crime drama.

Rent on Prime Video

11 Love Actually (2003)

Laura Linney played Sarah, an American working for a company in London, in Love Actually. Her character had one of the sadder storylines in this poignant look at the romantic lives of eight couples in the month leading up to Christmas in London. Linney's Sarah is completely smitten with her handsome dark-haired co-worker Karl, played by Rodrigo Santoro. They finally hook up at the company Christmas party only to have their tryst stalled by a phone call from Sarah's brother Michael, who suffers from mental illness and resides in an institution. Michael calls Sarah incessantly, which never allows her to follow through with Karl, and she ends up alone.

Why Linney's Performance is So Good

Linney is exceptional as the dutiful Sarah. Her comedic timing is utterly faultless, and it makes a refreshing change seeing her in more of a jovial and unserious capacity. Her on-screen chemistry with Rodrigo Santoro helps to lift this narrative strand of two people meant for each other but who can't seem to catch a break. Love, Actually, has remained a holiday classic for years, and part of that is due to the strong ensemble, and Linney is one of the crown pieces of the film.

Stream on Netflix

10 Mr. Holmes (2015)

One of Linney's best performances comes in one of her most underrated films, Mr. Holmes. The film tells the story of an older Sherlock Holmes, wonderfully played by Ian McKellen, towards the end of his life. Linney plays Mrs. Munoro, a young widowed housekeeper trying to take care of her son Roger. Linney has always excelled at playing complex mother figures, and here she gets a chance to shine as a figure looking in on the world-famous detective who has no patience for the eccentricities that others have had for him in the past.

What Makes It Great

Mr. Holmes reunited Linney with Kinsey director Bill Condon, and the two are an excellent pairing together. Condon knows how to bring out Linney's best tendencies, being both a warm, inviting personality but also having a real fire underneath when cornered. Mr. Holmes was an overlooked film upon its release, but it is worth checking out.

Stream on Kanopy and PlutoTV

9 Frasier (1993-2004)

Laura Linney did a six-episode arc on Frasier playing matchmaker Charlotte. Kelsey Grammar's Frasier Crane approaches Charlotte to help him find a mate as he grapples with his nonexistent love life in the light of his brother Niles and his wife having a baby and his father's remarriage. He pays Charlotte $10,000, and she sends him on a series of bad dates, which leads Frasier to find out that she's great at marketing her business but not so great at the actual act of matchmaking.

Frasier ends up falling for Charlotte, only to find out she has a boyfriend. However, once Charlotte and her boyfriend break up, she and Frasier get together, at least until she moves to Chicago and he moves to San Francisco. However, the series finale has him on a plane to Chicago to reunite (presumably) with Charlotte.

Why Linney's Performance Is Great

Linney's dexterity as an actor means she can play a whole host of roles across a variety of genres. In this instance, her comic timing as Charlotte is impeccable, slotting seamlessly into the cast of this acclaimed and respected network TV series. Linney won a Primetime Emmy for her work on the series. What's more, her performance left many fans of the hit sitcom yearning for more and fans are still hoping that she appears in the recent revival on Paramount+.

Stream on Prime, Paramount+, and Hulu

8 Primal Fear (1996)

While it is Edward Norton whose performance truly steals the show in a breakout performance in 1996’s Primal Fear, Laura Linney’s rendition of fierce prosecutor Janet Venable is a radiant and complementing addition to this underrated thriller adaptation. A film that follows the tale of the prosecution of a choir boy who has been charged with the murder of an archbishop delivers the hearty thrills and spills of a homicide investigation, and the killer twist makes for a truly mouthwatering finale.

Why Linney's Performance is So Good

As we have become so accustomed to her ever-solemn exterior in Ozark, Linney excels in this diva-ish, stern-faced attorney role in Primal Fear. Combining a razor-sharp wit with an almost flirtatious edge, she successfully creates this compelling character, who seems to charm and almost entrance Richard Gere's Martin Vail with her impressive self-assurance and confidence.

Stream on Pluto

7 The Miracle Club (2023)

One of Linney’s more recent projects was taking center stage in Jimmy Smallhorne’s low-budget flick, The Miracle Club. The Irish comedy-drama follows a group of women who make the pilgrimage to the venerated town of Lourdes, a place held in truly sacred regard among Catholics for its miraculous powers of healing. Linney plays Chrissie, a woman living in American exile for several decades, who joins the group of her deceased mother’s friends on their trip.

Why Linney's Performance is So Good

Linney is brilliant, and her on-screen empathy reverberates around this picture, striking the balance perfectly between light-hearted satire and deep-rooted poignancy as her character, Chrissie, revisits her and her mother's past. Linney taps into several genres with her performance in Thaddeus O'Sullivan's movie, as she effortlessly switches between a woman burdened by her past and a woman enlightened by her present.

Available for Purchase on AppleTV+

6 The Truman Show (1998)

The Truman Show is about a man named Truman Burbank (in a great Jim Carrey performance) whose life, unbeknownst to him in the beginning, is a reality television show. Linney played Truman's wife, Meryl Burbank, who is actually an actress named Hannah Hill portraying his Stepford-esque wife. Truman figures out the lie about his life when he sees his wife in an infomercial. That sighting unraveled Truman's whole life as well as the television show following his life.

Why Linney's Performance is So Good in The Truman Show

Linney is as fantastic as Truman's deeply manipulative wife, Meryl. Tasked with the great responsibility of keeping Truman complicit in this faux, staged life, Linney does a wonderful at being this cold-hearted puppet and is essentially acting-within-acting, which is, ultimately, a skill in itself. Linney has always been known to excell in great supporting performances and this might be one of her best.

Stream on HooplaTV

Related: The Truman Show and Narc TV Series in Development at Paramount

5 John Adams (2008)

John Adams was an award-winning miniseries on HBO that chronicled the life of President John Adams, from the founding of the United States to his political life. The series features an all-star cast, with Paul Giamatti shinning in the titular role and major roles of some of the most beloved character actors in Hollywood, including Tom Wilkinson as Benjamin Franklin, Rufus Swewell as Alexander Hamilton, Sarah Polley as Abigal Adams and Danny Huston as Samuel Adams. Yet it is Laura Linney as Abigal Adams that steals the show.

What Makes It Great

The series received rave reviews for its incredible production design and powerhouse performances by its stars, particularly Linney. Linney won Outstanding Lead Actress in a Miniseries or a Movie for her portrayal of Abigail Adams in the miniseries. Any award-winning performance more than earns its place on this list, but John Adams, in particular, has endured as a must-watch for audiences during major American holidays like The Fourth of July.

Stream on Max

4 Kinsey (2004)

Laura Linney played Clara McMillen, the wife of Alfred Kinsey (played by Liam Neeson) in Kinsey. The couple was at the forefront of the research into the depths of human sexuality. The book Sexual Behavior in the Human Male (1948) was one of the first books to use science to discuss the sexual behavior of people. Directed by Bill Condon (Dreamgirls and Beauty and the Beast), Kinsey was a major awards contender in 2004, and Linney was nominated for Best Supporting Actress for her work in the film.

Why Linney's Performance is So Good

Linney's on-screen chemistry with co-star Liam Neeson is undeniable. McMillen was a woman ahead of her time, comfortable with not just her own sexuality and the exploration of it but also of her husband's sexuality. This translates brilliantly in Linney's display as a confident, self-assured woman whose sexual experimentation and liberality around intimacy are at the film's forefront. Released in 2004, Kinsey was another great film in an impressive run of films by Linney, which cemented her as one of the best actresses working.

Rent on AppleTV+

3 The Squid and the Whale (2005)

Laura Linney and Jeff Daniels starred in the very relatable Noah Baumbach film about a family coming apart at the seams called The Squid and the Whale. They played a couple getting a divorce who force their sons to choose sides in their emotional battle. Linney's Joan finds fulfillment focusing on her career as a successful writer, which bothers her ex-husband, as she is more successful than he is. It also deals with the complex relationships she has with her two children and how they handle the divorce.

Why is Linney's Performance So Good

Baumbach's immense faculty for penning slightly peculiar and often idiosyncratic screenplays lends itself to Linney's strengths as an actor, too. She is marvelous at effortlessly switching between emotionally charged dialogue and sharp, cutting witticisms. She complements co-star and eccentric on-screen husband Jeff Daniels Bernard expertly as the doting mother and the voice of measure and reason, helping to guide the picture with loving warmth and empathy.

Stream on Netflix

Related: Jeff Daniels Gets Newly Discovered Parasitic Worm Named After Him

2 You Can Count On Me (2000)

In You Can Count On Me, Laura Linney and Mark Ruffalo play siblings Sammy and Terry. Their parents died in a car accident when they were children. Now an adult, Terry returns to his childhood home to visit Sammy and her son. He's at a crossroads in his life — he's broke and not loving his relationship with his girlfriend, who is suicidal. He decides to live with Sammy and her son, and the film follows the rebuilding of the adult siblings' relationship with each other.

Why Linney's Performance Is Great

Linney plays the strong, independent female lead whose strength is her son and her maternal instinct. Her portrayal of Sammy is empathetic, warm, and motherly. She has a real relatable dynamic with co-star Mark Ruffalo as the two perfectly portray siblings who seem both at odds but also on the same side. You Can Count on Me is the film that truly cemented Linney as one of the best performers working in Hollywood, bumping her up from supporting roles like in The Truman Show to being the lead of the picture. For many, this was the highlight of her career for years.

Stream on PlutoTV

1 Ozark (2017 - 2022)

With Wendy Byrde, Laura Linney has been given one of the juiciest roles of her long and illustrious career. Wendy, her husband Marty, and their two teenagers move to a small town on the banks of a lake in Ozark. The Byrdes are from Chicago, but after Marty and his business partner get involved in money laundering for a Mexican drug cartel, their slide from upstanding citizens to criminal masterminds is swift. Wendy proves to be much better than her husband at committing crimes without remorse.

Why Linney's Performance Is Great

Linney played Wendy Byrde perfectly, and there is a whole list of reasons why this is, by far and away, her best performance. While, of course, Ozark is spread over several seasons, and as such, Linney gets numerous bites at the cherry to flex her acting prowess, her stern and often ruthless approach to the hand she has been dealt by her husband redefines the role of not just a wife, but female leads in general.

Stream on Netflix