Meet The Terrific Cult Movie Queen Linda Haynes!
My “2022 Sex Kitten Countdown” has featured great stars from around the world, but here is one who mixed exploitation with critically-acclaimed films as well!
Linda Haynes was born in Florida in 1947…
Linda Haynes appeared in a number of great films in her short career – making her film debut in 1969 in the Japanese sci-fi monster flick “Latitude Zero”.
She broke into the 70’s exploitation genre as prostitute Meg in Director Jack Hill’s 1973 blaxploitation gem “Coffy.”
Here is the trailer:
That’s Haynes sitting on the couch armrest on the right. “Coffy” star Pam Grier went on to a great career in exploitation – check out her films here:
Linda co-starred with a lot of the biggest stars at the time, like Paul Newman in “The Drowning Pool.”
Haynes gave her most impressive performance as the tough, world-weary barmaid who falls for Vet William Devane in the 1977 revenge thriller “Rolling Thunder”.
Here is the trailer, which you will see also includes a very young Tommy Lee Jones:
“Rolling thunder” is a terrific film, and Linda does a great job.
Up to this point in her career, Haynes crossed over between terrific exploitation films and gritty dramas as well….next up was one of her most shocking films:
In 1979, Linda starred as country singer Rachel Foster in the classic women-in-prison shocker “Human Experiments.”
Here is the terrific exploitation trailer:
There were a number of films like this at the time: innocent young women thrown in jail and abused – well, until they exacted their revenge!
Haynes bared all for the role – this being the 70’s, prisoners always seemed to meet with the Warden while completely nude!
She also appeared in the Robert Redford prison picture “Brubaker” in 1980:
Next, after appearing in the acclaimed made-for-TV film “Guyana Tragedy: The Story of Jim Jones” the same year, Haynes dropped out of Hollywood, and report’s says she went on to work as a legal assistant in a law firm in Florida.
Author Tom Graves included Haynes in his book about some of the forgotten stars of Hollywood…I just bought it on Amazon!
Haynes quite the business in the early 80’s – and as she said at the time:
“I didn’t like the path that I was going down. I had acted for about 15 years, and there was a lot of booze and drugs around. I wanted to have a baby; I didn’t want to go on like that.”
Bravo to Linda are getting out and moving on before the business consumed her.
I’ve been looking at some of cult cinema’s great movie Queens like Haynes, who gave us great performances but haven’t gotten the respect they deserve:
Yes, that includes Maria Arnold, who gave it her all for Director Ed Wood – did you see “Necromania?” If not, check it out here:
I’ve also covered Cult Movie Queens who never got a lead role, but still showed up in dozens of films:
Sandy Dempsey was a very busy Actress across soft and harder core films…see her revealing career highlights and mysterious “death” by clicking on my story here:
If you like these stories, and don’t want to miss any of my “2020 Sex Kitten Countdown”, then go to my website’s front page and sign on to follow me – there are NO ads at all, just lots of stories to come about the wild world of exploitation and cult films!
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Leave me a comment with your thoughts on my “2020 Sex Kitten Countdown!”
Categories: 70's Films, Blaxploitation, Camp Cult Classics, Classic Action Films, Cult Classics, Exploitation Films, Extreme Cinema, Grindhouse, JRsploitation, Nudity, sex kittens, Talent / Celebrites
JR-Sploitation! 
I always wondered whatever happened to Linda Haynes? Glad to see she got out of the biz before she became a statistic.
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Agree! Thanks for the comment!
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Ah, Louise Brooks. Now you’re talking, John! My bob-haired dream girl! 🙂
Best wishes, Pete.
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