Actress Linda Manz died on Friday at age 58. She was best known for her role as “Peewee” in the film The Wanderers, as well as featuring in Terrence Malick’s Days of Heaven and Dennis Hopper’s Out of the Blue.
Her son Michael Guthrie reported the death. He started a GoFundMe fundraiser, revealing that Manz died from her battle with lung cancer and pneumonia. He wrote: “Linda passed away August 14 after battling with lung cancer and pneumonia. She leaves behind a husband, two sons and three grand-children who all love and miss her tremendously. Linda was a loving wife, a caring mom, a wonderful grandma and a great friend who was loved by many. Thank you and God bless. Rest in peace. We love you, Mom.”
Manz’s film career began at age 15 when she first appeared in 1978’s Days of Heaven as Linda, the younger sister of Richard Gere’s lead character Bill, who flees with him and his girlfriend from Chicago to Texas after Bill kills his foreman. Along with her acting role in the film, she also provided the groundbreaking, improvised narration for the movie, which went on to win an Academy Award for Best Cinematography and the Best Director award for Malick at the Cannes Film Festival.
In Out of the Blue, she played Cebe, a rebellious teen who had punk rock music and Elvis Presley always on her mind. She also appeared in 1997’s The Game, starring Michael Douglas and Sean Penn, and also was credited for the television shows Dorothy, Orphan Train, and Faerie Tale Theater.
In The Wanderers, Ken Wahl starred alongside Manz. He gave a tribute to his costar in a Facebook post. Sharing pictures from the film, he captioned “She was great to work with and I am grateful that I got to speak with her before she passed this morning. RIP Peewee.”
Here are some tributes of Manz below:
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