Gene Page/AMC
For 11 seasons, AMC’s “The Walking Dead” featured an expansive cast of actors playing diverse characters, from the original group out of Atlanta, to Alexandria, the Saviors, Whisperers, and more. Andrew Lincoln led the hit zombie show for nine seasons as main protagonist Rick Grimes, but the series was always an ensemble effort. One of the unique aspects of its early seasons was the inclusion of performers who regularly appeared in initial showrunner Frank Darabont’s films. The roster included Melissa McBride (Carol Peletier), Jeffrey DeMunn (Dale Horvath), and Juan Gabriel Pareja (Morales).
Another Darabont veteran who appeared in the first three seasons of the series is Laurie Holden. She took on the role of Andrea, who, along with her sister Amy, is one of the survivors from Georgia. She may look familiar to you thanks to her prolific career in both film and television since the 1980s. Here is where you have likely seen her before.
Holden played an informant in The X-Files
FOX
Laurie Holden started acting in small TV and movie parts in the 1980s. She got her big break the following decade when she made her debut as the mysterious and worldly Marita Covarrubias in Season 4 of “The X-Files.” The character presented herself to Special Agent Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) as a representative for the United Nations and Mulder’s newest confidential informant. Covarrubias filled this role after Deep Throat (Jerry Hardin) and X (Steven Williams), and, like both of them, she also worked closely with the secret governmental power base The Syndicate.
Although she was only in 10 episodes across five seasons (her final appearance came in Season 9’s “The Truth”), working on “The X-Files” was huge for Holden. In an interview with YouTube channel The X-Files Fan Retrospective, the actor reflected on her experience with the show. “It was my first big job when I graduated out of university, and they kept bringing me back for years, and it was just so wonderful to be part of something so special,” she said. “It just all felt magical.”
Holden starred as a doomed cop in Silent Hill
Alliance Atlantis
Laurie Holden continued to work steadily in television throughout the late-1990s and early-2000s, most notably playing the part of Mary Travis in the small screen adaptation of “The Magnificent Seven.” By the mid-2000s she was starting to score roles in movie projects like the rom-com “Meet Market” and Tim Story’s “Fantastic Four” — she played Debbie McIlvane, the former fiancée of Ben Grimm (Michael Chiklis), in the Marvel movie. In 2006, she jumped from supporting roles to main ones, first with the part of police office Cybil Bennett in the horror movie “Silent Hill.”
Considered one of the best video game adaptations to ever come out of Hollywood, “Silent Hill” follows a mother as she searches for her daughter in the titular town. Rose Da Silva (Radha Mitchell) gets a helping hand from Holden’s Officer Bennett, but they soon discover that something supernatural is going on when all roads out of town lead to a strange cliff. Although her character meets a disturbing end in the movie, Holden spoke positively about it during an interview with Media Mikes. “That was a really amazing experience, I shot that in Toronto,” she said, adding that director Christophe Gans “was such a visually stunning creative.”
Holden portrayed a teacher in Frank Darabont’s The Mist
Frank Darabont has done plenty of Stephen King adaptations over the years, including “The Woman in the Room,” “The Shawshank Redemption,” and “The Green Mile.” In 2007, he added another one to his resume: “The Mist.” The film, which marked Holden’s second collaboration with Darabont after 2001’s “The Majestic,” tells the story of a band of survivors trapped inside a grocery store. They’re trying to escape a mysterious mist that contains a range of blood-thirsty monsters. Holden stars as Amanda Dunfrey, a school teacher who befriends David Drayton (Thomas Jane) and his young son Billy (Nathan Gamble).
“The Mist” blends practical and CGI effects expertly, and while speaking to Fangoria in 2007, Holden praised the film’s realism regarding practical creature designs. “The animators demonstrated how every single creature moved — their teeth, their tails, their wings, what color they were, the hair — with such detail that it gave us a wonderful point of reference when we had to look at an X on the window or a tennis ball on a stick,” she said. “We all knew exactly what we were looking at, which was very helpful.”
Holden kept audiences guessing in The Americans
FX
Following Andrea’s death in Season 3 of “The Walking Dead,” Holden’s next big role was that of Renee Beeman — FBI counterintelligence agent Stan Beeman’s second wife — in the hit spy show “The Americans.” Set during the waning years of the Cold War, this intense drama always kept audiences guessing when new characters were introduced. One of the more exciting details about Renee, and a credit to Holden’s acting, is that we still don’t know whether or not the character was indeed a Russian spy like series protagonists Philip and Elizabeth Jennings (Matthew Rhys and Keri Russell).
Speaking to IndieWire in 2018, series creator Joe Weisberg revealed that he asked a crowd of Emmys voters if they thought Renee was a Russian spy after a special screening of the series finale. According to Weisberg, about “80 percent” of people said that they believed she was indeed working for the Soviet Union. Responding to the rumors, Holden tweeted: “So much speculation! Only way to find out is to rewatch and follow the trail of breadcrumbs…Perfect wife or Russian spy?”
Holden suited up as Crimson Countess for The Boys
Amazon Prime Video
Laurie Holden joined the cast of Amazon’s hit superhero satire “The Boys” for Season 3, taking on the role of Crimson Countess, who is basically the show’s version of Marvel’s Scarlet Witch. Crimson Countess was a member of Payback, a superhero group who were active during the 1980s. She was also a reluctant romantic partner of Soldier Boy (Jensen Ackles), who she betrayed because of his abusive behavior towards her and the rest of the group.
Unfortunately, things didn’t get much better for her once Soldier Boy was out of the way, with the superhero entertainment conglomerate Vought turning her into a living attraction at its theme park Vought Land. “I think as time passed and she got a little older, Vought cast her aside,” Holden told CBR. “It’s really a satire of celebrity culture and what we do to our heroes, what we do to our icons, for no apparent reason except for what’s new and what’s in fashion.”
