Linda Haynes, ‘Rolling Thunder’, ‘Brubaker’ Dies at 75

Linda Haynes is no more.

Linda Lee Sylvander, formerly known as Linda Haynes during her acting career, passed away on July 17 in Summerville, South Carolina, at the age of 75. Her relatives stated that she passed away "peacefully" but did not provide a cause.

She was born on November 4th, 1947, in Miami, Florida, and worked in show business from 1969 through the beginning of the 1980s. Haynes, a lifetime member of The Actor's Studio, made her acting debut in the 1969 Japanese sci-fi monster movie Latitude Zero as Dr Anne Barton.

Guyana Tragedy: The Story of Jim Jones (1980), a made-for-TV film, marked the end of her acting career.

She then turned left and entered the office of a Florida law company where she worked as a legal secretary.

Haynes' performance in Rolling Thunder was lauded by none other than filmmaker Quentin Tarantino.

He said, “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 favourite 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.”

Her grandkids, James Riley Sylvander and Amelia Grace Sylvander, as well as her son Gregory Leif Sylvander and daughter-in-law Courtney Lynn Sylvander, survive her. Her dogs Rex, Biggie, and Raya, as well as the cats Bingo and Bluey, are still alive.