Linda Blair

Linda Blair was five years old at the time she became the first child actress to get a role in The Exorcist. She had worked as a model for the previous three years prior to her role as the child-possessed Regan. Linda Blair rose quickly to fame and won her first Golden Globe. She was scheduled to be awarded an Academy Award. But when news broke that some scenes were dubs and that a stunt dummy acted for 8 seconds in the movie, the dream went down the drain. In the following years, she had no trouble securing leads in a wide range of film productions, such as the wildly successful television series Born Innocent (1974) (the most watched TV show that year) as well as Sarah T. - Portrait of a Teenage Alcoholic (1975), as well as the Exorcist sequel Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977). But when she was pressured by peers to buying cocaine when she was just of 18, this led to an arrest and subsequent sentencing to three years ' probation. The much-publicized drug bust caused Linda to be blacklisted by Hollywood which slowed her progress. Her profession was later reduced to B-movies with occasional guest appearances.