Laura Linney Height, Weight and Body Measurements

Laura Linney is typically listed at about 5 ft 7 in / 170 cm, with an average-to-slim build, and her weight is not published; fan sites guess at 125 to 135 lb (about 57 to 61 kg). As of 2026 she is 62, and her reputation rests on acting, not statistics.

Quick facts

Height and screen presence

At about 5 ft 7 in, Linney is a little taller than average, which gives her a composed, upright presence on stage and screen. She has never been a “numbers” celebrity. Interviews rarely touch on weight or measurements, and her career has been built on the ability to play ordinary people with extraordinary inner lives: tired mothers, uneasy professionals, women caught between duty and desire. Her look is deliberately understated, with simple tailoring, muted colours and very little fuss on the red carpet.

A theatrical family

Linney’s father was the playwright Romulus Linney, and she grew up around the theatre. She studied at Brown University and then trained at Juilliard, building a base in stage acting before screen work took over. That foundation shows in the precision of her line readings.

Stage and screen

She made her Broadway name in Sight Unseen, followed by acclaimed turns in The Crucible, Time Stands Still and The Little Foxes, along with other plays in New York and London. On film, she appeared in The Truman Show (1998), playing Meryl, the wife with the fixed smile, then You Can Count on Me (2000), Mystic River (2003), Love Actually (2003), Kinsey (2004), The Savages (2007) and Sully (2016).

What ties these together is range. She moves from a perky sitcom-style wife to a grieving single mother to a hardened political operative without any obvious seams, and directors tend to cast her when they want a role to feel lived-in.

Awards recognition

Linney has received Academy Award nominations for You Can Count on Me, Kinsey and The Savages. She has also won Emmy and Golden Globe awards for television work, including the HBO miniseries John Adams, in which she played Abigail Adams, and The Big C. Her stage work has earned Tony nominations as well.

Ozark

In the Netflix crime drama Ozark, she played Wendy Byrde opposite Jason Bateman, a role that earned her several award nominations and renewed her prominence among younger audiences. Wendy starts as a mild-mannered partner and evolves into the story’s hardest strategist, and Linney played that shift with a cool, unshowy menace. She also directed episodes of the series, adding another credential to a long career. Before that she appeared in Tales of the City and other television projects.

Off screen

Linney married real estate professional Marc Schauer in 2009. She is known for avoiding red-carpet drama and keeping a measured public profile, and she has said she values privacy and long-form work over celebrity.

What fans ask

Readers searching for her measurements are often really asking how tall she is compared with her co-stars, especially Jason Bateman. On screen the two look well matched, and she is regularly listed as a bit taller than the average American woman.

Others ask where to start with her work. For a quick tour, You Can Count on Me shows her at her most intimate, The Truman Show shows her comic precision and Ozark shows her late-career intensity. If you prefer theatre, her Broadway performances are often cited by critics as career highlights, though few were filmed.

Another common question is whether she was nominated for an Oscar more than three times. As of the most recent coverage, her nominations were for the three films mentioned above, though awards seasons change quickly, so check current listings.

Frequently asked questions