Famous Vegans - Linda Blair

Linda Blair, 2007.

Linda Blair

Born Linda Denise Blair, January 22, 1959. She is an American actress and best known for her role as the possessed child Regan in the 1973 movie The Exorcist, for which she was nominated for an Academy Award and two Golden Globes. She also starred in the 1977 movie Exorcist II and has appeared in many other movies and television shows since then. She is a humanitarian and animal rights activist and has her own non-profit organization called the Linda Blair WorldHeart Foundation, that tries to fight pet overpopulation and animal cruelty. She is the co-author of the book Going Vegan!.

Quotes by Linda Blair:

"The time that you put into a child, the time that you put into an animal, you’ll get that back tenfold. And they’ll offer you their unconditional love and friendship that will startle people."

"It is my goal to make changes in this country before I die on behalf of the animals."

"I hope to say I've done things to help make a difference while I'm on this earth. Are animal issues most important to me? Absolutely. I have an affinity with them, but I also care about children and the elderly and always say that the rest of everybody else can fend for themselves because we're in a age where we can. And we're all able to do so."

"a lot of people don’t realize that the animals are in trouble, it’s an American crisis. I saw it coming in 1997 when I started rescuing animals. In 2003, I started the Linda Blair WorldHeart Foundation because I felt that the people who had resources were not stepping up to the plate enough, to get us out of this crisis. Therefore, I started the foundation to speak out, for example, against dog fighting."

"In 1988 I was reading an article on pesticides, acid rain and how we farm animals and that’s what made me go vegetarian. And it’s certainly changed my life. ... You just become much more aware of foods and the atrocities to animals, what we’re doing to the animals, the planet; the fact is that everything goes hand in hand. Environmentally, how we farm animals affects the environment, affects the riverbeds, affects the ocean, affects the air, and that’s what a lot of people don’t realize. So not only is it cruel for the animals because it’s called "factory farming," but it’s also bad for the planet. And of course the children are also suffering with obesity and diabetes; it’s at an all time high. And if there’s a way just to continue to educate people and be an example so they see there’s something to being a vegetarian, to what I’m saying. I’m of course a vegan."

Quotes are from her 2000 interview with IGN Movies, her 2010 interview with Hollywood Chicago and her 2005 interview with The Supreme Master Ching Hai International Association.