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Glenn Close

Glenn Close first crossed over from theatre to the big screen in 1982 as Jenny Fields in George Roy Hill's The World According to Garp, a performance which not only won her wide acclaim, but an Academy Award® nomination as Best Supporting Actress. This auspicious feature film debut was followed in quick succession with further Best Supporting Actress Academy Award® nominations for her performance in Larry Kasdan's The Big Chill and Barry Levinson's The Natural. She then starred with Jeff Bridges as the attorney who falls in love with her client, in Richard Marquand's acclaimed thriller Jagged Edge.

Two years later in 1987 she sent shivers down the spines of philandering husbands everywhere when she starred as Alex Forrest in Adrian Lyne's Fatal Attraction, a role which gave her a fourth Academy Award® nomination as Best Actress. The following year she garnered her fifth nomination, also for Best Actress, opposite John Malkovich in Stephen Frears' Dangerous Liaisons.

Close has played opposite Mel Gibson in Franco Zeffirelli's Hamlet, with Jeremy Irons in Reversal of Fortune and with Irons again and Meryl Streep in The House of the Spirits. Close has also starred in: The Stone Boy, Maxie, Immediate Family, Meeting Venus, The Paper, Steven Spielberg's Hook, Mary Reilly, Mars Attacks!, Paradise Road, Air Force One and Robert Altman's Cookie's Fortune.

Most recently Close starred in Rodrigo Garcia's Things You Can Tell Just by Looking at Her, as well as working with Kevin Lima and voicing the role of Kala in Walt Disney Pictures' animated hit Tarzan.

Close's career began on stage in New York in 1974 when she appeared for a season with the Phoenix Repertory Company. She went on to appear extensively in regional theatre as well as productions on and off-Broadway. In 1980 she was nominated for a Tony Award for her leading role in the Broadway musical Barnum and four years later went on to win a Tony playing opposite Jeremy Irons in Tom Stoppard's The Real Thing. She won her second Tony Award for Mike Nichols' production of Death and the Maiden. Close then achieved critical and public acclaim, an Award for Outstanding Performance from the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle, a third Tony Award and a Drama-Logue Award for Lead Actress, for her performance as Norma Desmond, first in the American premiere and then on Broadway in Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical hit Sunset Boulevard.

For television, Close won accolades and a 1984 Emmy nomination as Best Actress for her role in Randa Haines' highly acclaimed Something About Amelia. Close starred with Keith Carradine in Hallmark Hall of Fame's Stones For Ibarra in 1988.

She won a Best Actress nomination and Golden Globe nomination for her work in the title role of the Hallmark Hall of Fame presentation, Sarah, Plain and Tall. As an executive producer of Sarah she also received both a Golden Globe and Emmy nomination for Best Made-for-Television Movie.

Close reprised her roles as actress and executive producer for Hallmark on Skylark, the sequel to Sarah, Plain and Tall, with co-stars Christopher Walken. She received an Emmy nomination as Best Actress for Skylark. Close acted as an executive producer and starred as Col. Margarethe Cammermeyer in the critically praised NBC film Serving in Silence. For her performance she won an Emmy, and was nominated for a Golden Globe Award. She also served as executive producer for Hallmark's Journey. Close earned a Screen Actors Guild Award nomination and a CableACE Award for her starring role, opposite Robert Sean Leonard, in In the Gloaming, which Christopher Reeve directed for HBO.

Close reprised her role last November as both executive producer and star of Sarah, Plain and Tall: Winter's End for Hallmark Hall of Fame and CBS. In this moving story, which marks the third part of a highly acclaimed trilogy for television, Glenn reunited with original cast member Chris Walken and original director Glenn Jordan, along with new cast member Jack Palance. She also completed production as both an executive producer and star, along with a distinguished cast that includes Jena Malone, Robert Pastorelli and Wilford Brimley, in The Ballad of Lucy Whipple, for CBS TV, and is an executive producer on Baby, starring Farrah Fawcett, airing on TNT.

Close served as associate producer on the documentary Do You Mean There Are Still Real Cowboys? which aired in 1988 on the PBS American Experience series. Struck by the dignity and struggle of the ranchers and cowhands in rural Wyoming, now home to her parents, Close teamed with British director, Jon Blair, to document their way of life, fast fading from the American landscape. She was an executive producer and host for Broken Hearts, Broken Homes, an hour-long documentary on the United States foster care system, for the Lifetime Cable Network series, Your Family Matters. She participated in the critically acclaimed documentaries Anne Frank Remembered, in which she read excerpts from the diary, and TNT's The Good, The Bad, and The Beautiful.

In the recording field, the soundtracks of The Emperor and the Nightingale and The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, beautifully crafted animated videos narrated by Close for Rabbit Ears Productions were both nominated for Grammys. Close's recording from the Broadway drama The Real Thing also earned a Grammy nomination. Most recently, Close teamed with Placido Domingo to record a Christmas album for Hallmark.

Close proudly lays claim to having sung the National Anthem eight times at Shea Stadium for the New York Mets.

Close recently filmed the Rodgers & Hammerstein classic musical South Pacific for ABC-TV. As well as starring in the musical, Close is also executive producer. The show, which is directed by Richard Pearce, also stars Harry Connick Jr. and Rade Sherbedgia.


Note: This profile was written in or before 2002.

Glenn Close Facts

OccupationActress
BirthdayMarch 19, 1947 (77)
SignPisces
BirthplaceGreenwich, Connecticut, USA
Height5' 7" (1m70)  How tall is Glenn Close compared to you?
Awards2009 Emmy Awards: Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama (for Damages)
2008 Golden Globe Awards: Best Actress in a Television Series - Drama (for Damages)
2008 Emmy Awards: Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama (for Damages)
2005 Golden Globe Awards: Best Actress in a Mini-Series or TV Movie (for The Lion In Winter)
2005 Screen Actors Guild Awards: Best Female Actor in a Television Movie or Miniseries (for The Lion in Winter)

Selected Filmography

Hoodwinked
Guardians of the Galaxy
The Girl With All the Gifts
Home
101 Dalmatians
Fatal Attraction
102 Dalmatians
Tarzan
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