Linda Hamilton - Early Life

Early Life

Hamilton was born in Salisbury, Maryland. Her mother was a Mayflower descendant and her father, Carroll Stanford Hamilton, was a physician. Hamilton's father died when she was five, and her mother remarried to a police chief. Hamilton has an identical twin sister (Leslie Hamilton), one older sister and one younger brother. She has said that she was raised in a "very boring, white Anglo-Saxon" family, and "voraciously read books" during her spare time. Hamilton went to Wicomico Junior High (now Wicomico Middle School) and Wicomico High School in Salisbury, with her twin sister, Leslie. She studied for two years at Washington College in Chestertown, Maryland, before moving on to acting studies in New York City. While attending Washington College, Hamilton states her acting professor told her she had no hope of earning a living as an actress. In New York, she attended acting workshops given by Lee Strasberg.