1979–1983: Film debut and early roles Hamilton made her professional debut at age 23 with a small part in the 1979 drama
Night-Flowers. Her first major role came the following year when she appeared as Lisa Rogers on the short-lived
CBS soap opera
Secrets of Midland Heights (December 1980–January 1981). She appeared in the TV series "King's Crossing," as Lauren Hollister, immediately afterward in 1982. Hamilton played in supporting roles to actress Marilyn Jones in both of those last two efforts, with Linda Hamilton playing the bad girl in each instance. Hamilton subsequentally appeared in her first starring film role in the low-budget thriller
TAG: The Assassination Game (1982), and co-starred that same year in the made-for-television movie
Country Gold. She was listed as one of twelve "Promising New Actors of 1982" in
John A. Willis'
Screen World, Vol. 34.
1984–1997: The Terminator franchise and television work Hamilton made two prominent film appearances in 1984: firstly, a starring role in
Children of the Corn, a horror film based on the short story by
Stephen King. Hamilton played Vicky Baxter, a motorist who runs into trouble while travelling with her boyfriend through rural Nebraska. The film was financially profitable, making US$14 million at the domestic box office against a budget of US$3 million, but received generally negative reviews. In a more positive assessment by
The New York Times, Hamilton's performance was praised. Her next role was co-starring in
James Cameron's science fiction action film
The Terminator (1984) as
Sarah Connor, a young waitress—and soon-to-be mother of
a valiant resistance leader—who finds herself at the center of a nightmarish ordeal when a soldier travels back in time to help her defeat
the titular cyborg assassin, sent from the future to execute her. The film was a surprise commercial hit, topping the U.S. box office for two weeks. Critics believed it to be a perfect example of its genre, with some attributing its strength to Hamilton's performance;
The Hollywood Reporter wrote that she displayed "tremendous resiliency" as Connor, while
Janet Maslin felt she played the part "engrossingly" in her review for
The New York Times. That same year, she guest-starred in four episodes of the
NBC police drama
Hill Street Blues. Following the success of
The Terminator, Hamilton starred as car thief Nina in the action thriller
Black Moon Rising (1986). Also that year, she guest-starred in an episode of
Murder, She Wrote and headlined the big-budget adventure film
King Kong Lives, a sequel to the
1976 remake of King Kong. The film was a moderate financial success but was universally panned by critics. Hamilton's next major role was that of savvy
district attorney Catherine Chandler in the television series
Beauty and the Beast. A modern re-telling of the classic
fairy tale, the show ran for three seasons on CBS between 1987 and 1990, though Hamilton requested to be written out during its third season when she fell pregnant. For her portrayal of Chandler, she won Austria's
Romy Award for Favorite Actress in a Series in 1990, as well as receiving
Golden Globe and
Emmy Award nominations in 1988 and 1989, respectively. The following year, she re-teamed with James Cameron to star in
Terminator 2: Judgment Day. Reported at the time to be the most expensive motion picture ever made, it went on to gross over US$500 million worldwide; more than any other film that year. Of his decision to present a more troubled version of the Sarah Connor character, Cameron later reflected, "It was all inspired by Linda really. I called her and said, 'Hey, we're [doing] another
Terminator. And she [replied], 'I want to be crazy'. I said, 'I can do that — I'll put you in a mental hospital'. She said, 'Perfect. That's what I want'". Hamilton underwent intense physical training to emphasize the character's transformation during the seven years since the first film. "I hated [my trainer] most of the time", she later said; "He would yell at me and throw tennis balls while I was shooting weapons blindfolded. I'd go off to the bathroom to cry for a minute, then I'd wipe away my tears and go back". with
Derek Malcolm of
The Guardian singling out her "formidable sweaty intensity". She went on to receive two
MTV Movie Awards and the 1991
Saturn Award for Best Actress for her portrayal of Connor, which has since been recognised as one of the most iconic female roles in cinematic history. Following the success of
T2, she was invited to host an episode of
Saturday Night Live on November 16, 1991. Hamilton's subsequent film appearances were in the psychological thrillers
Silent Fall (1994) and
Separate Lives (1995). For her performance in the television movie ''
A Mother's Prayer'' (1995), where she played a widow diagnosed with
AIDS, Hamilton received a
CableACE Award and a
Golden Globe nomination for
Best Actress. On her decision to take the part, she said, "So many people think I'm just this incredibly ferocious, fierce woman. Sarah Connor has sort of etched herself into my psyche and will never go away. So I chose [to play] this woman because she was a great balance of strength and frailty". She put herself on a strict diet in preparation for the role, saying, "I had to know what it was like ... I knew that I had to sort of sink in on myself. So I got very, very thin". Critics were mostly unimpressed by the film's derivative narrative, but some praised the effects and performances, with
Roger Ebert writing in his review for the
Chicago Sun-Times, "In
Brosnan and Hamilton [the filmmakers] have actors who play for realism and don't go over the top". For her portrayal of small-town mayor Rachel Wando, Hamilton was named Best Actress at the following year's
Blockbuster Entertainment Awards. Speaking of her casting, she said, "Police officers, military officers and lesbians. That was pretty much what I [used to get offered] and nothing else. [When I auditioned for director]
Roger Donaldson, he literally said to me: 'You've never played a part like this before' ... And [I said], 'What do you mean?' [He replied] 'Normal.' He thought I couldn't play normal! Jesus! It was just the way people thought [about me]".
1998–2018: Stage, television, and film roles Between 1998 and 1999, Hamilton appeared in a succession of voice roles in episodes of
The New Batman Adventures,
Hercules, and
Batman Beyond. Her next project was the
Lifetime movie
Sex & Mrs. X (2000), where she played a magazine writer who experiences a sexual reawakening when she is assigned to interview an upper-class Parisian
madam. The
Los Angeles Times called it an "[intriguing] character study that passes muster on the strength of good performances by [its leads]", adding that Hamilton was both "tough" and "tender" in the part. Later that year, she received a
Satellite Award for Best Actress for her performance in the television film
The Color of Courage, which
Variety called "excellent". She also headlined a production of
Laura, an adaptation of the
1944 film noir of the same name, at California's
Tiffany Theater in December 2000. Hamilton received praise for her portrayal of the title character, with Jay Reiner of
The Hollywood Reporter commenting: The following year, Hamilton starred in the small-scale mystery thriller
Skeletons in the Closet (2001), subsequently winning a
DVD Exclusive Award for Best Supporting Actress. She then portrayed the real-life
Ethel Rosenberg in
Worse Than Murder: Ethel and Julius Rosenberg, admitting that her decision to "transform myself into a tenement Jew from the
Lower East Side" had been a daunting one: "I'm already prepared for the critics to be unkind to me, like, 'Why is she playing a Jewish character' or 'What's she trying to do, prove she's an actress?' But the fear is just part of the process". Next, she had supporting roles in two films: the post-
Vietnam war drama
Missing in America (2005) and the
Penelope Spheeris-directed comedy
The Kid & I (2005). , 2009 Hamilton's portrayal of Maxine Faulk in the 2006 stage adaptation of
The Night of the Iguana by
Tennessee Williams was met with acclaim. Writing for
Variety, Frank Rizzo said, "[She is] well cast as the recently widowed but hardly mourning proprietress ... She takes over the stage with natural assurance and plays this overripe survivor with lusty humor and cunning". The production ran between August 1–12 at the
Berkshire Theatre in
Stockbridge, Massachusetts. Hamilton reprised the role of Sarah Connor for a second time with a voice cameo in 2009's
Terminator Salvation, which grossed US$371 million at the worldwide box office. In 2010, she joined the cast of NBC's espionage-style comedy series
Chuck, playing the recurring role of
CIA agent
Mary Elizabeth Bartowski. That same year, she guest-starred in three episodes of the
Showtime dark comedy
Weeds—as the marijuana supplier for the series' protagonist—and appeared as a "cartoon American cop" in the poorly received Irish film
Holy Water. In 2011, Hamilton narrated the
Chiller network's
The Future of Fear, a documentary on the history of horror films. She then played a fictional U.S. president in the television miniseries
Air Force One Is Down (2013), and had recurring roles as a bounty hunter on the
Showcase series
Lost Girl (2013) and a mentally ill mother on
Syfy's
Defiance (2014–2015). Her next projects were the television pilot
Shoot Me Nicely (2016), which was later released as a short film,
2019–present: Return to mainstream projects Hamilton returned to the
Terminator franchise and the character of Sarah Connor when she headlined the
Tim Miller–directed
Terminator: Dark Fate (2019), set 25 years after the events of
T2. She admitted to being reluctant to sign on to the project, having spent the previous few years away from the spotlight: "I love my alone time like no one you've ever met ... That was my hesitation: Do I want to trade this lovely, authentic life [that I've built] for that? I didn't want my neighbours looking at me differently. We're neighbors because of who we are, not what we do, and I don't want that to creep into my life again". , 2019 Filming of
Dark Fate took place in Hungary, Spain and the U.S. between May and November 2018. The film was a financial disappointment and was met with mixed reviews, though Hamilton's performance was praised. Writing for
Rolling Stone, David Fear felt that she provided the film's "sinew, heart, and soul", and said of her introduction: Later that year, Hamilton was named Best Actress at the Los Angeles Crime and Horror Film Festival for her portrayal of "King George"—a ruthless crime boss—in
Easy Does It, which
Film Threat described as "excellent ... a throwback to grindhouse adventure films [and westerns]". She began appearing as General McCallister on Syfy's
Resident Alien in 2021, which
IndieWire called a "genre-bending ... spry half-hour comedy [series]". Also that year, she guest-starred as a hippie life coach in six episodes of the
TNT dark comedy
Claws during its final season. In June 2023, it was announced that Hamilton had been cast in an undisclosed role for the
fifth and final season of the
Netflix science fiction horror series
Stranger Things. Her character was later revealed to be Dr. Kay, a villainous military researcher. The season premiered in November 2025. A self-proclaimed fan of the series, she said, "I don't know how to be a fangirl and an actress at the same time. I'm going to work on that." ==Personal life==