Who Is Laura Linney’s Husband? All About Marc Schauer

For ‘Ozark’ actress Laura Linney and her husband, it was almost love at first sight

 

Kinsey actress Laura Linney and her longtime husband, Marc Schauer, met while she was on the job.

Linney and Schauer met at the Telluride Film Festival in 2004 when he was paired with Linney as a festival liaison.

“He was the guy who said, ‘Hi, welcome to Telluride,’ ” Linney told The New York Times in 2010. “He was a V.I.P. host, a liaison between the town and the festival. He was assigned to me for the weekend.”

Sparks immediately flew, Linney and Schauer started an email correspondence and soon began dating. Five years later, the two married in a private backyard ceremony. Linney gave birth to her and Schauer’s son, Bennett Armistead, in 2014.

So, who is Laura Linney’s husband? Here is everything to know about Marc Schauer and his relationship with the actress.

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They bonded over email

Linney recalled her connection with Schauer as nearly instant, telling The New York Times, “I remember looking at him at one point and going: ‘Am I attracted to this man? Am I attracted to my handler? What is going on?’ ”

The pair got along well during the Telluride weekend, so Linney sent him a thank-you email, and he wrote back.

The Oscar nominee was caught off guard by their compatibility. “It was a big surprise: ‘Oh, I’m feeling something. That’s nice. I’m feeling something.’ ” she told The New York Times, “‘Just chill. Just chill. How nice to be feeling something. Something’s waking up. How great.’ ”

The two continued their correspondence. In one of their emails, Schauer asked Linney what they should do about their chemistry. “The only thing I know is that I don’t want to let it go,” she told him. “We need to find a way to spend time together.”

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Linney and Schauer fell in love quickly

After Schauer asked Linney via email, “Well, where are you going to be?” the actress gave him a list of the cities she’d be traveling to during the promotion of her movie Kinsey. Schauer ended up meeting Linney in Chicago, in the lobby of the Four Seasons.

Linney was nervous. “It was so unlike me,” she told The New York Times. The actress recalled her thoughts during the elevator ride when she realized how little she really knew about Schauer. “But at that point, I had nothing to lose,” she added.

“I got out of the elevator and I turned and I looked at him and every anxiety just vanished,” Linney said. “And I thought, ‘Oh, this is going to be fine.’ And we fell very hard for each other very quickly.”

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They got married in 2009 — and Liam Neeson walked her down the aisle

Linney and Schauer made things official in May 2009 in an outdoor ceremony at her Connecticut home.

In a touching gesture, Linney’s close friend and frequent costar, Liam Neeson, walked her down the aisle just two months after the tragic death of his wife, Natasha Richardson.

“It was an astonishing moment, a celebration of love and loss, being given equal treatment,” writer and friend Armistead Maupin, told The New York Times.

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Linney and Schauer share a son

Linney gave birth to the couple’s child, son Bennett Armistead, in 2014. His middle name, Armistead, is a sweet nod to author Maupin, who wrote the Tales of the City book series that was adapted into Linney’s first starring TV role in the 1990s.

“I wanted my child to have as much of his spirit around him as possible,” Linney told The New York Times in 2019 of the choice to honor Maupin, who she called “the greatest man I’ve ever known.”

Linney is a proud mother to Bennett. “Well, I was an older mother-to-be and it had taken me a very long time to have a child,” she said on a 2016 episode of Live with Kelly while describing her decision to keep her pregnancy private. “I wanted to make sure that my child actually arrived, and was safe and healthy.”

The Ozark star has spoken glowingly of becoming a mother. “In the first year of being a mom, I realized there were muscles in my face that had never been used before. When looking at my son, I was smiling in a way I never had before. My face was sore all the time,” she told PEOPLE in 2021.

Linney also described how Schauer helps her avoid “mom-brain” fashion faux-pas involving clashing patterns. Linney told PEOPLE in 2023, “My husband will look at me as I’m about to walk out the door and go, ‘Really?’ ”

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Schauer attends events with Linney

Despite Linney’s acclaimed career, the couple have managed to maintain relatively private lives over the years. Schauer has worked as both a real estate agent and a drug and alcohol counselor, per The New York Times.

While he has supported Linney by attending several awards ceremonies and events over the course of their relationship, he’s still a Hollywood outsider.

Schauer joked with The New York Times about his experiences being surrounded by Hollywood’s leading men. “The worst I ever felt was at the Oscar luncheon when Javier Bardem and George Clooney walked by,” he said. “It was like: ‘I’m not even here.’ ”

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He is a big fan of his wife

Schauer is in awe of his talented wife.

Maupin told The New York Times that when Showtime revived episodes of More Tales of the City in which Linney appeared, Schauer noted on his Facebook page, “[I] see why grown men get red-faced, cry and generally get apoplectic when they see her.”

In the same interview, the writer remarked that Linney and Schauer shared such a warm parting embrace that Schauer had to remind her there was someone else present.

The former real estate agent has supported Linney throughout her career, proudly accompanying her to the Academy Awards in 2005 and 2008 when she was nominated for Best Supporting Actress and Best Actress, respectively. Even during the COVID-19 pandemic, he made sure to be by her side virtually, appearing on-screen with her when she was nominated for best actress for her standout performance in Ozark at the 2021 Golden Globes.