--- name: "Lynn Carlin" canonical: "https://film.one/person/lynn-carlin" fi1m_id: "lynn-carlin" imdb_id: "nm0137524" tmdb_id: 11140 wikidata_id: "Q456228" roles: ["Actor"] born: "31 January 1938" reviewed_on_fi1m: 1 average_as: "actor" average_over: 1 updated: "2026-09-26T16:37:15.050517+00:00" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Lynn Carlin ## Identity Lynn Carlin - **Canonical:** https://film.one/person/lynn-carlin - **Type:** Person - **Fi1m ID:** lynn-carlin - **IMDb ID:** nm0137524 - **TMDB ID:** 11140 - **Wikidata ID:** Q456228 - **Same entity:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lynn_Carlin, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q456228, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0137524/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/11140 Actor. Born 31 January 1938 in Los Angeles, California, USA. ## Details - **Work:** Actor - **Born:** 31 January 1938, Los Angeles, California, USA - **Academy Awards:** 1 Oscar nomination - **Elsewhere:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lynn_Carlin, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q456228, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0137524/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/11140 ## Streaming the US now - **HBO Max:** [*Faces*](https://film.one/film/faces.md) (76) For United States; add `?region=XX` for another country. ## Fi1m on Lynn Carlin > Lynn Carlin makes domestic unhappiness difficult to dismiss in *Faces*, allowing hurt and unreasonable behaviour to remain equally convincing. Her later casting as wives and mothers should not obscure how demanding that performance is. In *Faces* (1968), Lynn Carlin's Maria Forst is angry, but the anger does not tell us what she wants to happen next. Opposite John Marley as Richard, she gives us little chance to settle into comfortable sympathy for either spouse. We found their exchanges wearing, because both actors make the need to be understood clear while making the couple difficult to listen to. That discomfort is worth sitting through, though some of the arguments go on too long. Carlin lets Maria be unpleasant without making her hurt seem less real. This was Carlin's film debut, directed by John Cassavetes, and we would start with the assurance of the acting rather than the novelty of a newcomer. She learnt her lines and worked through repeated takes for Cassavetes, details worth remembering when the exchanges seem to happen without preparation. She does not offer a neat explanation for Maria's behaviour. Nor does she make it easy to dismiss her as unreasonable and stop paying attention. The frustration remains, but so does our interest in the woman causing it. The later films kept returning her to wives and mothers, often under emotional strain. In Miloš Forman's *Taking Off* (1971), she plays Lynn Tyne, a mother searching for her runaway daughter. Forman worked through on-set direction without a script, a different approach from the learned lines and repeated takes of *Faces*. *Deathdream* (1974) pairs her with Marley again, as his wife in Bob Clark's horror film. The change of genre still left her in a familiar domestic role. By *Battle Beyond the Stars* (1980), she was voicing Nell, a maternal starship computer, so even science fiction found a use for her as a mother. It is a peculiar extension of a persistent casting habit. We would be wary of letting that habit decide what her acting amounts to. Start with *Faces*, with some patience for arguments we would have walked away from in life. ## Biography Lynn Carlin is an American actress. Born Mary Lynn Reynolds on 31 January 1938 in Los Angeles, California, she made her stage debut in *The Women* at the Laguna Beach Playhouse. She began her film career after working as a secretary for Robert Altman. Carlin received an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress for her debut feature role as Maria Forst in John Cassavetes's *Faces* (1968), becoming the first nonprofessional performer to earn such a nomination. She later received a BAFTA nomination for Best Actress in a Leading Role for her performance in Miloš Forman's *Taking Off* (1971). She appeared in films including *...tick...tick...tick...* (1970) and *Battle Beyond the Stars* (1980), and in television series such as *The Incredible Hulk* (1977), *Charlie's Angels* (1976) and *Murder, She Wrote* (1984). Carlin retired from acting in 1987. *Sources: en.wikipedia.org, imdb.com.* ## On Fi1m (1) - *Faces* (1968), Fi1m 76, as Maria Forst — [page](https://film.one/film/faces.md) ## Complete filmography (50) Every credit, newest first. Titles without a page can be requested for review on the HTML page. - *Faces* (2011), as Maria Forst (archive footage) - *Murder, She Wrote* (1984), series, as Nicole - *A Killer in the Family* (1983), as Dorothy Tison - *Forbidden Love* (1982), as Ella Wagner - *Superstition* (1982), as Melinda Leahy - *The Kid From Nowhere* (1982), as Molly Edward - *Darkroom* (1981), series, as Mrs. Shires - *The Girl on the Edge of Town* (1981), as Selma Mantley - *Battle Beyond the Stars* (1980), as Nell - *Tenspeed and Brown Shoe* (1980), series, Actor - *French Postcards* (1979), as Mrs. Weber - *California Fever* (1979), series, Actor - *Trapper John, M.D.* (1979), series, Actor - *Mrs. Columbo* (1979), series, Actor - *The Incredible Hulk* (1977), series, Actor - *Lou Grant* (1977), series, Actor - *James at 16* (1977), series, as Meg Hunter - *James at 15* (1977), as Meg Hunter - *Dawn: Portrait of a Teenage Runaway* (1976), as Dawn's Mother - *Charlie's Angels* (1976), series, as Warden Ingram - *Rich Man, Poor Man - Book II* (1976), series, as Sarah Hunt - *The Tenth Level* (1976), as Barbara - *City of Angels* (1976), series, Actor - *The Bionic Woman* (1976), series, Actor - *The Lives of Jenny Dolan* (1975), as Nancy Royce - *Iron and Horse* (1975), as Meridel York - *Terror on the 40th Floor* (1974), as Lee Parker - *Paper Moon* (1974), series, Actor - *Petrocelli* (1974), series, as Audrey North - *Dead of Night* (1974), as Christine Brooks - *The Last Angry Man* (1974), as Sarah Abelman - *The Morning After* (1974), as Fran Lester - *Baxter!* (1973), as Mrs. Baxter - *The Waltons* (1972), series, as Sara Griffith Bridges, Eula Mae - *Emergency!* (1972), series, as Mrs. Patterson - *Mr. and Mrs. Bo Jo Jones* (1971), as Mrs. Jones - *Young Dr. Kildare* (1971), series, as Laura Henderson - *Cannon* (1971), series, Actor - *Wild Rovers* (1971), as Sada Billings - *Taking Off* (1971), as Lynn Tyne - *A Step Out of Line* (1971), as Linda Connors - *… tick… tick… tick…* (1970), as Julia Little - *Silent Night, Lonely Night* (1969), as Jennifer Sparrow - *Medical Center* (1969), series, Actor - *Marcus Welby, M.D.* (1969), series, as Helen Stewart - *Hawaii Five-O* (1969), series, as Maxine Taylor - *Faces* (1968), as Maria Forst — Fi1m 76, [page](https://film.one/film/faces.md) - *Mannix* (1967), series, as Nancy Traherne - *Ironside* (1967), series, Actor - *Gunsmoke* (1955), series, as Janet Milligan ## Gallery - ![Lynn Carlin](https://film.one/media/person/3914206/gallery-c5126d62a08a.jpg) Lynn Carlin — Photographer unknown. Distributed by Walter Reade's Continental Distributing., Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d8/Lynn_Carlin_%281968%2C_Faces%29.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled) - ![A promotional photo of David Birney and Lynn Carlin for the episode "A Secret Place" of the 1976 series Serpico.](https://film.one/media/person/3914206/gallery-f9277ca6728b.jpg) A promotional photo of David Birney and Lynn Carlin for the episode "A Secret Place" of the 1976 series Serpico. — NBC, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d3/David_Birney_and_Lynn_Carlin_in_Serpico_1976.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled) - ![Lynn Carlin](https://film.one/media/person/3914206/gallery-bb83e7bf8ba8.jpg) Lynn Carlin — Image via TMDB ## Awards ### Academy Awards — 0 won, 1 nominated - 1969: Best Supporting Actress (nominated), for *Faces* *From Wikidata, which records wins more completely than nominations.* --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/person/lynn-carlin