Happy Birthday, Linda Kozlowski, AWHS Class of 1976 Celebrity Movie Star

Let the party begin!

Most of the members of Andrew Warde High School's Class of 1976 will turn 50 years of age this year, and a gala birthday party is being planned to mark the occasion. The idea was the brainchild of the Class of 1975, which celebrated such an event last year.

One of the first to reach the "golden" birthday milestone is perhaps the most famous graduate of the AWHS Class of 1976. Linda Kozlowski turns 50 years of age on Monday, January 7. Happy birthday to our very own star of the movie Crocodile Dundee.

The actress made a splash with her first screen role as the photo-journalist who does a story on Crocodile Dundee (1986) and then falls in love with him. Kozlowski was nominated for a Golden Globe award as Best Supporting Actress for her role in the movie.

In a case of life imitating art, Kozlowski married her leading man, Paul Hogan, on May 5, 1990, after appearing in the sequel Crocodile Dundee 2 (1988). She seemingly fell out off the radar screens in the late 1980s, however, only to reappear in the mid-90s.

The Juilliard-trained, Fairfield-born actress began her career on the stage at the New York Shakespeare Festival. In 1985, while still attending Andrew Warde High School (yearbook photo at left), Kozlowski was selected to appear in the small role of Miss Forsyth in the revival of Arthur Miller's classic Death of a Salesman, starring Dustin Hoffman, a role she reprised in the TV production.

Nevertheless, she was a virtual unknown when she landed the role of Sue Charlton in Crocodile Dundee. Despite the film's box office success, Kozlowski did not have Hollywood contracts thrown at her, perhaps because the success of the film was almost entirely heaped on Hogan.

Her next effort, Pass the Ammo (1987), had her playing Bill Paxton's girlfriend as they tried to steal back money televangelists conned out of her grandmother. After the inevitable Crocodile Dundee 2 and the NBC miniseries Favorite Son (1988), she was again teamed with Hogan in the less than stellar Almost and Angel (1990). It was three years before she graced the screen in the modest The Neighbor (1993), in which she thinks Rod Steiger wants to kill her unborn baby.

The following year, Kozlowski appeared in Backstreet Justice with Hector Elizondo, and then traveled to Sweden to appear in Zorn, which was never distributed in the USA. She next was seen in the John Carpenter's well-packaged remake of Village of the Damned (1995). After time off for motherhood following the birth of her son, Chance, Kozlowski returned to the screen opposite her husband in the belated, third installment in the series Crocodile Dundee in Los Angeles (2001).

The AWHS Class of 1976 shares its pride and congratulates Linda on her professional success and achievements. We had a special class and a truly wonderful high school. Happy Birthday, Linda, and to the other members of the AWHS Class of 1976 who celebrate their milestone birthdays this month. Can it really be 50 candles on the cake already?

Paul

Please sign the AWHS Guest Book.

Visit the Andrew Warde High School Gift Shop.

Watch the AWHS 1976 vintage "film."