Actress Linda Haynes is probably best known for her role in the 1977 film “Rolling Thunder” which also stared actor Tommy Lee Jones. Another one of her best known films is the 1979 psychological thriller she stared in called “Human Experiments.”
Haynes quit acting in the 1980s to turn her attention to her family and to raise her son outside of the entertainment industry. Now, her only child, a son named Greg Sylvander, is sharing the sad news of the death of his mother.
On Facebook, Sylvander wrote, “It is with great sadness that I report that my mother, Linda Haynes Sylvander has passed away, peacefully at home.” She was 75 years old. Sylvander did not share a cause of death, but IMDB has listed her cause of death as “natural causes.”
Sylvander continued his message by sharing that his mother lived with him and his family for the past three years. He wrote, “My mom moved up to South Carolina to live with us over three years ago and it was some of our very best times together.”
While Sylvander described his mother’s death as something he has “dreaded” his whole life, he added, “I find peace in the knowing that my mother was at peace and had the most beautiful life these final years together with her grandchildren, Courtney Sylvander and I.”
Haynes was born in Miami, Florida, in 1947. She died in Summerville, South Carolina, on July 17, 2023. She worked in the film industry in the 1970s and 1980s before deciding to step away to raise a family. She changed careers to work as a legal secretary and focus on her art, especially paintings of nature and the sea.
Haynes’ obituary includes a quote from director Quentin Tarantino, praising Haynes for her performance in “Rolling Thunder.” An excerpt from the quote reads, “THE performance of the film for me is Linda Haynes as Linda Forchet!…Linda Forchet is my favorite female character in a Paul Schrader movie…….She has that look that Ava Gardner got, you know blousey, but it took Ava years to do it, and Linda Haynes just did it naturally. And I mean that in a good way.”
Haynes is survived by her son, her daughter-in-law, Courtney, and her grandchildren, James Riley Sylvander and Amelia Grace Sylvander.
Rest in peace.
