Linda Thorson

Linda Thorson, born Linda Robinson on June 18, 1947, in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, is a Canadian actress whose career has spanned stage, television, and film across multiple decades. She attended Bishop Strachan School in Toronto before relocating to the United Kingdom in 1965 to pursue formal actor training. On July 1, 1967, she graduated from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art with an Honours Diploma that included distinctions in speaking and singing, the latter as a soprano. Her professional surname derives from Bergthorson, the family name of her first husband, Barry Bergthorson, whom she married in 1964 and divorced in 1970.

Thorson first gained widespread recognition playing Tara King in the final series of the British television adventure program The Avengers, a role she held from 1968 to 1969. She succeeded Diana Rigg in the series and appeared opposite original star Patrick Macnee. In the mid-1970s, Thorson and Macnee reunited for a Laurent-Perrier champagne commercial, a collaboration that contributed to the franchise's continuation as The New Avengers, though Thorson did not return to the cast in that iteration.

Her Broadway career ran from 1982 to 1993 and encompassed several productions. She starred in Getting Married, Zoya's Apartment, and Michael Frayn's Noises Off, and also appeared in City of Angels, Nell Dunn's Steaming, and additional productions during that period. Her stage work earned her a Theatre World Award in 1983 and a Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Ensemble Work in 1984.

Beyond Broadway, Thorson built a substantial stage résumé in the United Kingdom. In 1971, she starred alongside Michael Crawford and Anthony Valentine in the London West End production No Sex Please, We're British. She later appeared as Titania in A Midsummer Night's Dream at the Open Air Theatre in Regent's Park, London, and played Hester Salomon in a UK touring production of Equus opposite Simon Callow. In the summer of 2008, she returned to the Open Air Theatre, Regent's Park, for the Lerner and Loewe musical Gigi. In 2013, she appeared in Tracy Letts's August: Osage County, and the following year she was scheduled to perform in Jon Robin Baitz's Other Desert Cities. That same year, Thorson produced a new stage play, The Goodbye Bird, written by Colleen Murphy.

Her television work has been equally varied. From 1989 to 1992, she played Julia Wheaton Medina on the daytime drama One Life to Live. In 1993, she appeared in the sixth-season Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "The Chase," portraying Gul Ocett, a female Cardassian starship commander. Between 1998 and 2000, she played Isabel in the Canadian series Emily of New Moon. From 2006 to 2007, she took on the role of the villainous Rosemary King in the ITV series Emmerdale. Her additional television credits include Thriller, Return of the Saint, Blind Justice, and Marblehead Manor.

Thorson's film appearances include Valentino, The Greek Tycoon, the horror film Curtains, Alan Alda's Sweet Liberty, and the 2002 film Half Past Dead, in which she portrayed a Supreme Court Justice alongside Steven Seagal and Ja Rule. She also appeared in the 2006 action film Max Havoc: Ring of Fire.

In her personal life, Thorson married Cyril Jeffrey Smith Jr. in 1979, and they divorced two years later. In 1984, she married American news anchorman and producer Bill Boggs, with whom she has a son; that marriage also ended in divorce. She subsequently married production designer Gavin Mitchell in November 2005, and they divorced in 2011.