Quick Facts
Biography
Leland Palmer (born June 16, 1945, Port Washington, New York) is an American actress, dancer, and singer who has appeared on stage, in motion pictures, and on television. She appeared on Broadway in Bajour, A Joyful Noise, Hello, Dolly!, Applause, and Pippin. Palmer received two Tony Award nominations: in 1967 for featured actress in a musical (Miss Jimmie in A Joyful Noise), and in 1973 for actress in a musical (Fastrada in Pippin). She appeared as Viola in the rock musical "Your Own Thing" during a highly regarded run at the Huntington Hartford Theater in Los Angeles in August 1968.
Her U.S. television appearances include guest roles on Love, American Style; Laverne & Shirley; and Rhoda. She was also a regular on Dinah Shore's summer variety television show, Dinah and Her New Best Friends in 1976. She played Aŕlene in the 1976 television movie "James Dean". To motion-picture audiences, Palmer is known best for Bob Fosse's All That Jazz (1979), in which she played Audrey Paris, a character believed to be modeled on Fosse's wife, Gwen Verdon.
Palmer is known now as "Linda Posner." She was born Linda Palmer, and discovered many years later that the family name was really "Posner." Although she no longer performs, she occasionally works with theaters in California. She most recently served as choreographer of 42nd Street Moon-San Francisco's production of Irma La Douce.
Cultural references
In 1990 and 1991, the U.S. television series Twin Peaks featured a fictional, male character named Leland Palmer who was played by Ray Wise.