Gazing up affectionately at Roger Kern, 21-year-old Linda Purl brought a warm, dewy charm to the December 17, 1976 holiday television movie “The Young Pioneers’ Christmas”. Dressed in a rustic, button-front rust blouse and plaid skirt, her face retained its rounded, youthful softness, accentuated by a sweet half-up hairstyle that allowed her straight brown locks to tumble down her back. | Source: Getty Images
Her determination to keep learning received an unforgettable jolt when she arrived for an interview with Robert and saw Anne Bancroft leaving the room ahead of her. Robert told Linda that he had asked the accomplished actress why she still wanted to study. Anne had answered, “I am just beginning to learn about the craft.”
Linda never forgot it. If an actress of Anne’s stature still considered herself a student, there could never be a point at which Linda had learned enough.
Harsh desert sunlight highlighted 22-year-old Linda Purl’s smooth complexion and gentle features while filming the ABC television series “The Young Pioneers” at Empire Ranch in Sonoita, Arizona, in 1978. Bundled in a rustic crimson coat layered over a black high-neck collar, her soft jawline and wind-swept light-brown hair preserved the delicate innocence of her early-career screen presence. | Source: Getty Images
That hunger carried her into an astonishingly varied career. Her screen workwould eventually include “The Last Days of Pompeii,” “Matlock,” “True Blood,” “Homeland,” “The
Office,” and the beloved sitcom that remains inseparable from her name.
The theater continued calling, too. Linda appeared on Broadway as Victoria Phillips in “Getting and Spending” at the Helen Hayes Theatre and later played Aunt Polly in “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer” at the Minskoff Theatre.
