Linda Davidson

Former British actress

Linda Davidson (born 18 June 1964) is a Canadian British former actress and writer. She played the wayward punk Mary Smith in the BBC soap opera, EastEnders. Mary was one of the serial's original characters; Davidson played her from March 1985 to May 1988 and again for one episode in 2019. Away from EastEnders, Davidson appeared in various television programmes and on stage. However, she stopped performing in the late 1990s. She went on to work in digital media for the BBC and Channel 4, and later joined Discovery Communications.

Davidson began as an actress and dancer. She attended drama school, the Italia Conti Academy in London, and moved into television acting. Her big television break came in 1984, when she secured the role of Mary Smith, in the fledgling BBC serial drama, EastEnders; she first appeared on screen as Mary in March 1985. During Davidson's time on the show her character was involved in storylines about prostitution, unemployment, drugs and the taking into care of her child, Annie, by social services. She quit EastEnders in 1988, when she was offered a Steven Berkoff play. Davidson went on to act in First of the Summer Wine (1988); Bulman; Casualty (1990); The House of Eliott (1992); Maria's Child (1992); The Bill (1993); and 10 x 10: The Guinea Pig (1998). She also appeared in various theatre productions; notably, she played the role of Columbia in the first West End revival of The Rocky Horror Show (1990). Despite retiring from acting, Davidson agreed to reprise her role of Mary Smith in EastEnders for a single episode in 2019, and then for the funeral of Dot Branning (June Brown) in 2022.

Davidson developed an interest in writing and worked as a TV sit com writer, director and voiceover actress. Some of her stories were published and she had several scripts for film and television optioned, but ultimately the projects did not go ahead.

Davidson emigrated from Canada to Southport, Lancashire, England as a child. She now resides in London. During the 1980s, she dated Nejdet Salih/Adamson, her co star on EastEnders who played Ali Osman. She now has a partner with whom she has a son.