Biographie
Linda Collins was born in St. Louis, Missouri to Olivia Watson Beaty, a pianist, vocalist, and Sacred Music Director and father Gaylon Patterson, a Lt. Colonial in the Air Force reserves, and Production Manager at McDonald-Douglas Aircraft. Her heritage includes Scottish, Irish and Native American on both sides. She moved to Tuscaloosa, Alabama with her mother and siblings Jannyne Ray, Lloyd Patterson, and Stephanie Babbitt at age 9 after her parents divorced. Linda exhibited an early aptitude for acting and music. Linda and her siblings often created and performed plays for their parents while in grade school. Her earliest at home role was as Cupid in the family Valentine's play. She was in the Thespians Club in high school, performing in school productions, and her talents subsequently won her scholarships to the University of Alabama, Duquesne University (BM, summa cum laude), and Northern Illinois University (Master of Music degree), and was inducted into Phi Kappa Phi honor society. After performing several years as a professional musician in the US and Canada, Linda moved to NYC, and in 2010 began pursuing in earnest her other love-acting. While studying in NYC with the Catherine Gaffigan , she began booking film and television work. She continues to book leading roles in episodes of several television series including I'd Kill for You; Stalked; Redrum, co-starring as Lt. Detective Penny Kimball; Evil I; Monsters Inside Me, co-starring as Patricia Nash; and the co-lead role in an episode of True Crime with Aphrodite Jones. She has also appeared in the Feature films Burning Blue (featured as the on-screen mother to William Lee Scott's character); Contest (as a Cooking Contest Judge); and in the leading role of Edna in Ashley Cintron's production of Chef's House. As a musician, Linda has played Principal Horn in several orchestras including the Huntsville Symphony , Winnipeg Symphony (CA), and Naples Philharmonic (FL) Orchestras, as well as in theatre orchestras for Fiddler on the Roof (Herschel Bernardi); Showboat (Elaine Stritch and Robert Morse); and the Phantom of the Opera in Toronto. She also was pianist with many groups including the American Wind Symphony Orchestra, Milwaukee Ballet, Chicago City Ballet and Paul Taylor Dance Company, and has performed in numerous national broadcasts for CBC Radio. Always an activist for the arts, Linda received the honor of a national appointment by Canadian Minister of Heritage Flora McDonald to serve for three years as a member of the Canadian Advisory Committee on the Status of the Artist ( Ottawa, CA) and later was appointed by AFM International President Tom Lee as Assistant to the International President of the American Federation of Musicians in NYC, where she served the international music community in NYC for six years. She has continued to hone her acting skills at the T. Schreiber Studio in NYC with coach Terry Schreiber and Peter Miner, while being booked regularly for various television and film work .
