Linden Ashby

Clarence Linden Garnett Ashby III (born May 23, 1960) is an American actor and martial artist. On television, he portrayed Brett Cooper on the final two seasons of the Fox soap opera Melrose Place (1997–1999) and Sheriff Noah Stilinski on all six seasons of the MTV supernatural drama Teen Wolf (2011–2017). He is also known for portraying Johnny Cage in the 1995 film Mortal Kombat, an adaptation of the video game franchise of the same name.

Ashby is married to actress Susan Walters. The couple met on the set of Loving in 1983, where she was a regular and he was filming a guest appearance (he would later become a regular cast member in 1985). They have two daughters, Frances Grace (born 1991) and Savannah Elizabeth (born 1992). Ashby has been a student of martial arts on and off since he was 21 and studied Karate, Tae Kwon Do and Kung Fu.Linden has admitted to previously suffering panic attacks before auditions which threatened to shorten his career.

Ashby was born in Atlantic Beach, Florida, the son of Eleanor (Johnson), a civic organizer, and Clarence Linden Garnett Ashby Jr., a pharmaceuticals manufacturer. Ashby graduated from The Bolles School, a private school located in Jacksonville, Florida. He attended Fort Lewis College in Durango, Colorado, but dropped out his junior year to pursue an acting career. Ashby studied acting at Neighborhood Playhouse in New York City.