, Dublin) Linehan was born in
Dublin. She attended
University College Dublin and graduated in 1957 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics and Politics. She joined UCD Dramsoc on her first day of college and started acting professionally within two years of leaving the university. She has appeared in many comedy revues written by her husband, Fergus. She has appeared on stage in, among other plays,
Blithe Spirit,
The House of Bernarda Alba, and
Twelfth Night. She was nominated for Best Featured Actress in a Play for her role as Kate in
Brian Friel's
Dancing at Lughnasa at the 1992 Tony Awards. She starred as Winnie in
Samuel Beckett's
Happy Days on stage and on screen as part of the
Beckett on Film project, having already played the role in a 1996 production at the
Gate Theatre opposite
Barry McGovern. In 1972, Linehan won a
Jacob's Award for her
RTÉ Radio comedy series
Get an Earful of This. She was the recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Irish Theatre Awards in 2008. In film, she has appeared as Nurse Callan in
Ulysses, May Dedalus in
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (1977), Aunt Fitzeustace in
Fools of Fortune, Mrs. Canning in
The Butcher Boy, Peggy Owens in
About Adam, Mrs Matson in
The Hi-Lo Country, and Millie O'Dowd in
The Matchmaker. In television, she played Bess Nugent in 'Sharpe's Gold' (1995), a voice artist on the
Irish language children's TV series
Inis Cúil in 2005 and appeared in
Hugh Leonard's BBC sitcom
Me Mammy. More recently, she played Deirdre O'Kane's mother in
Bitter Sweet. In 2014, she was awarded the UCD Alumni Award for Arts. ==Family==