Everyone Completely Forgot About Linda Cardellini's Most Iconic TV Role of All Time

Linda Cardellini’s character Judy has been blowing our minds on the new Netflix show Dead to Me. And as we anxiously await (and hope for) season 2, we did a deep dive and realized Linda has been in so many of our favorite movies and TV shows. Here’s what we found in our investigation of Linda Cardellini’s career, and it all starts back in the '90s.

Before she was Christina Applegate and James Marsden’s co-star, she acted alongside near-countless celebs. From James Franco to Jon Hamm, there are plenty of fictional friends, romances, and enemies that’ll surprise you.

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Before she landed her iconic role as Lindsay Weir on Freaks and Geeks, she almost tore one of our most beloved fictional couples apart. Remember Lauren, the ski lodge employee who Cory fell for briefly. They talked all night, flirted, and even went on a little date before she kissed him. Though they ultimately reunited, Topanga broke up with Cory after he admitted his feelings for Lauren.

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Though it only lasted for a season, Freaks and Geeks developed a cult following that boosted the cast members’ popularity. Linda played the role of nerd Lindsay Weir, and her co-stars included James Franco, Seth Rogen, Busy Phillips, and Jason Segel.

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If it hadn’t been for Linda’s recent Instagram, we honestly don’t think we would have figured out that she was Chutney. We could hardly recognize her face behind all the curls! As the daughter who lied about taking a shower after getting a perm, we see her shake, sweat, and confess to murdering her father.

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Many of us likely remember Linda as Velma in Scooby-Doo and 2004's Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed. The mystery comedy made her even more of a household name. Like her character Lindsay, Velma was also a super-nerd, who shared her knowledge to save her pals.

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We were introduced to the one and only Samantha Taggart when she famously saved the day and injected a patient when no one else could. Linda played the nurse until the show’s final episode in April 2009.

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We were mainly focused on Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal, but who can forget when Cassie demanded that Heath’s character Ennis give her a foot massage?

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Even though she was married and friends with Don Draper’s wife Megan, that didn’t stop Sylvia Rosen from having an illicit affair with the main character. Her role as a religious, guilty, and impulsive '60s housewife is one few people can forget.

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For three episodes, Linda lit up the screen as Jess Day’s wild older sister Abby. She made such a statement that the episodes were titled, “Sister,” “Sister II,” and “Sister III.” If you can’t recall, just think of the one woman who tied up Schmidt and put an apple in his mouth …

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In the role that likely helped her become a part of the Dead to Me cast, Linda played Will Ferrell’s wife. (Will is the executive producer of Dead to Me). As Sara, she’s trying to help her husband Brad feel more comfortable around his stepkids. But then her ex Dusty (Mark Wahlberg) shows up, and threatens the harmony they were working toward. She reprised the role in the second film, Daddy’s Home Two, in 2017.

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Linda surprised fans once again when she appeared as Jeremy Renner’s wife Laura Barton. She’s busy holding down the fort and taking care of their two kids (and one on the way). Clinton Barton, better known to the public as Hawkeye, shocks his superhero friends, who didn’t know he lived such a normal life. She returned as the same character in 2019’s epic Avengers: Endgame. In a hilarious interview, her Dead to Me co-star Christina Applegate said she didn’t even know she was in the movie.

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Netflix’s popular show brought Linda a gig alongside Friday Night Lights’ Kyle Chandler. The thriller series lasted for three seasons, and she starred in all of them.

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You might not have recognized her in the film about how McDonald’s was founded, as she swapped her brown hair from platinum blonde locks. In one of the more memorable scenes, she shows Michael Keaton’s character Ray Kroc how to make milkshakes for less money and in less time.

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Blake Lively and Anna Kendrick were the stars, but Linda made a statement as the artist who fell for Lively’s character Emily. She calls her former flame out for being a con artist and says she ruined her career (Luckily, life did not imitate art there).

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The Oscar winner for Best Picture featured Linda as an Italian-American bouncer’s wife Dolores. She isn’t shown often, but her character portrays a unique, accepting housewife living in the 1960s.