Linda Purl is an American actress and singer, known for her roles as Ashley Pfister on Happy Days, Sheila Munroe in the 1982 horror film Visiting Hours, Pam Beesly’s mother Helene in The Office, and Ben Matlock’s daughter Charlene Matlock for the first season of the television series Matlock.
Linda Purl has played several roles in television series, starting with The Secret Storm – a daytime “soap opera” drama (1973–1974).
In 1978, she appeared as newlywed Molly Beaton in the ABC western drama series The Young Pioneers, set in the Dakota Territory of the 1870s and based on the novels of Rose Wilder Lane.
Purl has been a regular performer (and was in the original cast) of the international touring play Seven Deadly Sins Four Deadly Sinners. In November 2007, she appeared at the Théâtre Princesse Grace, Monte Carlo, directed by Marc Sinden, as part of Sinden’s British Theatre Season, Monaco.
In 2008, Purl opened at the Cleveland Play House in Cleveland, Ohio in a production of The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams, playing Amanda. Purl launched a jazz music career after leaving Matlock and has released several albums of music, including Out of This World – Live.
Linda Purl Age: How old is Linda Purl?
Linda Purl is 67 years. Purl was born on September 2, 1955, in Greenwich, Connecticut.
Purl was born on September 2, 1955, in Greenwich, Connecticut, to Jewish parents, chemical-industry executive Raymond Charles Arthur Purl and Marshelline “Marshie” Purl.
She has a sister, Mara. The girls’ grandmother, Beatrice Saville, was a founder of the Actors’ Equity Association.
At age five, Purl moved with her family to Japan, where her father worked for Nippon Unicar. She spent her childhood there and trained in acting at the Toho Geino Academy.
At age 15, Purl returned to the United States. She attended high school at Wykeham Rise School, a private boarding school for girls, specializing in creative and performing arts, in Washington, Connecticut. While still in high school, she had a role in the soap opera The Secret Storm.
After attending Finch College, Purl went to England to study under Marguerite Beale before returning to the United States to study at the Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute and later with Robert Lewis.