Lar Park Lincoln was one of those faces that just felt like the late '80s and early '90s. Honestly, if you grew up watching prime-time soaps or late-night horror anthologies, you definitely saw her. She had this specific energy—a mix of sweet Texas girl and sharp-as-a-tack manipulator—that made her a staple on the small screen.
When people talk about tv shows with Lar Park Lincoln, the conversation almost always starts with Knots Landing. It has to. But her career was actually this wild mix of high-stakes drama, sci-fi cult classics, and some of the most memorable guest spots of the era. She wasn't just another blonde actress in Hollywood; she was a performer who knew how to lean into being "rotten" because she knew it was fun for the audience.
Why Linda Fairgate Changed Everything on Knots Landing
For about 48 episodes between 1987 and 1991, Lar Park Lincoln played Linda Fairgate. If you don't remember Linda, basically imagine a human whirlwind of chaos entering the Fairgate family. She started out married to Eric Fairgate, but it didn't take long for her character to pivot into a full-blown "meanie."
What’s kind of hilarious is that she initially showed up in a brown wig to look like a young Michele Lee (who played Karen Fairgate). The producers eventually realized they had too many blondes, but Lar’s performance was so magnetic that they brought her back as a series regular. She eventually ditched the wig, embraced the blonde, and started wrecking lives.
She didn't just stay in the Fairgate circle. She had a scandalous affair with Greg Sumner (the legendary William Devane) and spent a good chunk of her time being the perfect foil for Paige Matheson. It’s hard to overstate how much the fans loved her for being terrible. In interviews later in her life, she’d laugh about it, saying Linda was popular specifically because she was so fun to watch.
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The end of her run on the show was brutal. Like, "grisly murder" brutal. When her character was killed off by Brian Johnston in 1991, a lot of critics felt the show lost its last spark of youthful energy. It limped on for a couple more years, but the "Linda Fairgate era" is still cited by die-hard fans as a high point.
Guest Spots and Genre Jumps
If you missed her on the soaps, you probably caught her in the middle of a nightmare—literally. In 1988, she appeared in the anthology series Freddy’s Nightmares. The episode was called "It’s a Miserable Life," and it’s a total trip. She played Karyn, a girl who survives a shooting only to wake up in a hospital where things get surreal and terrifying. There’s a scene where her mouth gets sewn shut that still haunts the dreams of Gen X horror fans.
But her TV resume was surprisingly diverse. She wasn't just doing horror and soaps.
- Highway to Heaven: She worked with Michael Landon in the episode "In with the 'In' Crowd."
- Hunter: She played Angela Holly Hobarts in a 1987 episode titled "Bad Company."
- Murder, She Wrote: She eventually made it to the ultimate guest-star destination, playing Caroline Pryce in "Incident in Lot 7" alongside Angela Lansbury.
- Beverly Hills, 90210: In 1995, she popped up as Tammy Kane. It was a short stint, but it cemented her status as someone who could fit into any major TV landscape.
The Sci-Fi Pivot: Space: Above and Beyond
One of the deeper cuts in the list of tv shows with Lar Park Lincoln is the cult sci-fi series Space: Above and Beyond. In 1995, she appeared in the episode "Ray Butts." While it was only a guest role, it showed her versatility. Going from the glitz of a Dallas-adjacent soap opera to a gritty military sci-fi show isn't an easy transition for everyone, but Lar had this groundedness that worked.
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She also did a guest spot on Tour of Duty, a Vietnam War drama. Looking back at her credits, it’s clear she was a "working actress" in the truest sense. She went where the scripts were, whether that meant carrying a heavy dramatic arc on a soap or getting covered in fake blood for a horror anthology.
Life After the Limelight
By the 2000s, Lar shifted her focus. She moved back to Texas and founded the Actors Audition Studios in Dallas. She became a mentor. She wrote a book called Get Started, Not Scammed, which was basically a survival guide for young actors to avoid the traps of the industry.
Interestingly, she also spent a lot of time on QVC. If you were flipping channels at 2 a.m. in the late 2000s, you might have seen her presenting beauty and travel products. She had that same approachable, "best friend" vibe that she’d honed years earlier, even when she was playing the villain.
The Tragic End and Her Lasting Legacy
Lar Park Lincoln passed away on April 22, 2025, at the age of 63. She had been privately battling breast cancer for years, a fight that started back in 2008. Her passing was a huge blow to the horror and soap communities, both of which had embraced her as a "Final Girl" and a "Prime Time Queen."
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Her final on-screen credit was the 2023 film Young Bolsheviks, but for most of us, she will always be Tina Shepard from Friday the 13th Part VII or the devious Linda Fairgate. She understood the assignment every single time.
If you're looking to revisit her work, the best way to start is honestly by tracking down the Season 11-13 episodes of Knots Landing. You get to see her evolve from a sweet daughter-in-law into a powerhouse antagonist. It's a masterclass in how to play a soap villain without becoming a caricature.
For those who want to see her range beyond the drama, keep an eye out for her guest spots on Hunter or Freddy’s Nightmares. They show a different side of her—someone who could handle high-tension action and surreal horror with equal ease. Lar Park Lincoln may be gone, but her contribution to the golden age of television is permanent.
How to Explore the Lar Park Lincoln Catalog
If you're ready to dive into her filmography, here are the best ways to find her work today:
- Streaming services: Check platforms like Amazon Prime or Pluto TV, which often carry classic '80s and '90s series like Hunter and Highway to Heaven.
- Physical Media: Knots Landing can be tricky to find on streaming due to music licensing issues, so looking for DVD box sets of the later seasons is your best bet for the full Linda Fairgate experience.
- Horror Archives: Freddy's Nightmares remains a bit of a "lost" series, but episodes often surface on boutique horror streaming sites or at specialized conventions.