| Glenn Close |
Glenn Close, 2009 |
| Born |
March 19, 1947 (1947-03-19) (age 62)
Greenwich, Connecticut, United States |
| Occupation |
Actress, producer, singer |
| Years active |
1975–present |
| Spouse(s) |
Cabot Wade (1969-1971)
James Marlas (1984-1987)
David Shaw (2006-) |
| Domestic partner(s) |
Len Cariou (1979-1983) |
Glenn Close (born March 19, 1947) is an American actress and singer of stage and screen, perhaps best known for her role as deranged stalker Alex Forrest in Fatal Attraction (1987). She has been nominated five times for an Oscar, and has won three Tonys, an Obie, four Emmys, two Golden Globes, and a Screen Actors Guild Award.
Biography
Early life and family
Close was born in Greenwich, Connecticut, the daughter of Bettine (née Moore) and William Taliaferro Close,1 a doctor who operated a clinic in the Belgian Congo and served as a personal physician to President Mobutu Sese Seko.2 Her parents came from prominent families; her paternal grandfather, Edward Bennett Close, a stockbroker and director of the American Hospital Association,3 was first married to Post Cereals' heiress Marjorie Merriweather Post, making Glenn Close a relative of screenwriter/director Preston Sturges and actress Dina Merrill. Close is also a second-cousin once-removed of Brooke Shields. Shields's great-grandmother Mary Elsie Moore (wife of Don Marino Torlonia, 4th Prince di Civitella-Cesi) was Close's great-aunt, a sister of Close's maternal grandfather, Charles Arthur Moore.
In a speech at Princeton University on February 19, 2009, Close credited her early years for her acting abilities: "I have no doubt that the days I spent running free in the evocative Connecticut countryside with an unfettered imagination, playing whatever character our games demanded, is one of the reasons that acting has always seemed so natural to me." However, when she was seven years old, her parents "were seduced into a cult group called Moral Re-Armament.... Our family was swallowed up by MRA for 15 years. We moved into a series of communal centers, and.... struggled to survive the pressures of a culture that dictated everything about how we lived our lives." Close traveled for several years in the mid-to-late 1960s with an MRA singing group called "Up With People" and attended Rosemary Hall, a boarding school in Connecticut. When she was 22, Close broke away from MRA. "I rebelled and said I wanted to go to college.... Until then, my life was completely out of my control. I didn't have the tools to reclaim it. That reclamation began when I entered The College of William and Mary." It was there in the theater department that she began to train as a serious actor under Dr. Howard Scammon.4 She was elected to membership in the honor society of Phi Beta Kappa.
Career
Close, who started her professional stage work in 1974 and her film work in 1982, has had a lengthy career as a versatile actress and performer. She is remembered for her chilling roles as the scheming aristocrat The Marquise de Merteuil in Dangerous Liaisons and as the psychotic book editor Alex in Fatal Attraction. She has been nominated for five Academy Awards, for Best Actress in Dangerous Liaisons and Fatal Attraction, and for Best Supporting Actress in The Natural, The Big Chill, and The World According to Garp, her first film. In 1984, Close starred in the critically acclaimed drama Something about Amelia, a Golden Globe winning television movie about a family destroyed by sexual abuse. She played the role of Sunny von Bülow in the 1990 film Reversal of Fortune to critical acclaim.
In the 1990s, Close took on challenging roles on television as well. She starred in the highly rated presentation of the 1991 Hallmark Hall of Fame drama Sarah, Plain and Tall (and its two sequels) and also in the made-for-TV movie Serving in Silence: The Margarethe Cammermeyer Story (1995); from these roles she was nominated for 8 Emmys (winning one) and 9 Golden Globes (winning one in 2005 and 2007). She also appeared in the newsroom comedy-drama The Paper (1994), the alien invasion satire Mars Attacks! (1996, as The First Lady), the Disney hit 101 Dalmatians (1996, as the sinister Cruella de Vil) and it sequel 102 Dalmatians (2000) and the blockbuster Air Force One (1997), as the trustworthy vice-president to Harrison Ford's president. In 2001, she starred in an elaborate production of Rodgers and Hammerstein's classic musical South Pacific. In 2005, Close joined the FX crime series The Shield, in which she played a no-nonsense precinct captain. Her appearance on the cop drama was such a success that she is now starring in a new hit series of her own for 2007, Damages (also on FX) instead of continuing her character on The Shield. So far the Academy's Oscar has eluded her, being nominated several times during the 1980s, but never being named the winner.
Close has had an extensive career performing in many Broadway musicals. One of her most notable roles on stage was Norma Desmond in the Andrew Lloyd Webber production of Sunset Boulevard, for which Close won a Tony award playing the role on Broadway in 1994. Close was also a guest star, at the Andrew Lloyd Webber fiftieth birthday party celebration, in the Royal Albert Hall in 1998. She appeared as Norma Desmond and performed songs from Sunset Boulevard. Close is being considered to reprise the role of Norma Desmond in the long talked- about film of Sunset Boulevard, based on the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical. The film and cast have not officially been announced.56 In addition to Sunset Boulevard, Close also won Tony Awards in 1984 for The Real Thing and in 1992 for Death and the Maiden.
Recently, Close performed at Carnegie Hall narrating the violin concerto The Runaway Bunny, a concerto for reader, violin and orchestra, composed and conducted by Glen Roven.
Close won the 2009 Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama series for her role in Damages.7
Personal life
In February 2006, Close married her longtime boyfriend David E. (Evans) Shaw. They reside in Scarborough, Maine. The actress was previously married to Cabot Wade (1969–1973) and James Marlas (1984–1987). She has a daughter, Annie Maude Starke, from her previous relationship with John Starke that ended in 1991. Close is an avid New York Mets fan. She has donated money to election campaigns of many Democratic politicians, including Hillary Rodham Clinton, Howard Dean, John Edwards and Barack Obama.8
Close is a dog lover and writes a blog for Fetchdog.com, where she interviews other famous people about their relationships with their dogs.9
Stage productions
Broadway and Off-Broadway musicals
- Rex (Broadway, 1976), Richard Rodgers-Sheldon Harnick musical about Henry VIII
- Barnum (Charity Barnum, Broadway, 1980), Cy Coleman musical about Phineas T. Barnum
- Sunset Boulevard (Norma Desmond, Broadway, 1994), Andrew Lloyd Webber musical based on the classic 1950 motion picture Sunset Boulevard
- Busker Alley (Off-Broadway, 2006, one-performance benefit concert), Sherman Brothers musical based on the 1938 movie St. Martin's Lane, directed by Tony Walton
Broadway plays
Off-Broadway
Tony Awards
Obie Awards
- 1982: Best Actress in a Play - The Singular Life of Albert Nobbs (WIN)
Filmography
| Documentary |
| Year |
Film |
Role |
Notes |
| 1990 |
Divine Garbo |
Herself |
Greta Garbo documentary |
| 1999 |
The Lady with the Torch |
Herself-host |
The 75th Anniversary of Columbia Pictures |
| 2001 |
Welcome To Hollywood |
Herself |
|
| 2003 |
What I Want My Words To Do To You: Voices From Inside A Women's Maximum Security Prison |
Herself |
|
| A Closer Walk |
Narrator |
Robert Bilheimer film. AIDS epidemic. |
| 2007 |
Broadway: Beyond the Golden Age |
Herself |
|
| 2009 |
Home |
Narrator |
Yann Arthus-Bertrand film. |
Other awards
Notes
References
External links
