Oscar Profile #163: Glenn Close

Born March 19, 1947 in Greenwich, Connecticut to Bettine (née Moore) and William Taliaferro Close, a doctor who ran a clinic in the Belgian Congo and served as personal physician to the Congo’s president, Glenn Close is considered one of the greatest actresses of our time. Her paternal grandfather was first married to cereal heiress Marjorie Merriweather Post. Her maternal grandmother’s sister was actress Brooke Shields’ great-grandmother.

Raised from the age of 7 as part of the Moral Re-Armament sect, Close broke away at 22 to attend the College of William and Mary where she majored in drama and anthropology. She made her Broadway debut in 1974 and earnest the first of four Tony nominations in 1980 for Barnum. Subsequent Tony nods for The Real Thing; Death and the Maiden and Sunset Boulevard would all result in wins.

Close made her film debut as a feminist author in 1982’s The World According to Garp for which she received an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress. It would prove to be the first of six Oscar nominations to date, tying her with Deborah Kerr and Thelma Ritter as the most nominated actress never to have won an Oscar. Her next two films, 1983’s The Big Chill and 1984’s The Natural also brought her nominations for Best Supporting Actress. Starring roles in 1985’s Maxie and Jagged Edge kept her profile high, but it was 1987’s box office smash, Fatal Attraction that would make her a major film star. That and 188’s Dangerous Liaisons brought her back-to-back Oscar nominations for Best Actress.

Although she kept busy on screen as well as stage over the next eight years, only her Sunny von Bulow in 1990’s Reversal of Fortune brought any awards talk. Then in 1996, she had another megahit as Cruella de Vil in Disney’s live-action version of the classic 101 Dalmatians and its 2000 sequel. She also scored a hit as the Vice President in 1997’s Ait Force One and garnered excellent reviews for 1999’s Cookie’s Fortune. Her starring role in a 2001 TV production of South Pacific was also highly successful.

Since 2005, Close’s TV career has overshadowed her film and TV work. She earned an Emmy nomination as the no nonsense police captain in The Shield, a show she left after two seasons to headline her own series, Damages for which she won an Emmy in 2009.

Close received her sixth Oscar nomination for 2011’s Albert Nobbs, a labor of love for which she was also nominated for a Golden Globe. The Globes gave her a second nomination as lyricist for “Lay Your Head Down”, the film’s theme song. In all, Close has two Golden Globes and three Emmys to sit beside those three Tonys on her mantle. She has also been nominated three times for a Grammy and once for a BAFTA.

Married twice before and in several highly publicized long term relationships between marriages, Close has been married since 2006 to venture capitalist David Shaw.
At 66, Glenn Close shows no signs of slowing down and has several films in the works.

ESSENTIAL FILMS

FATAL ATTRACTION (1987), directed by Adrian Lyne

Close’s Alex Forrest is a stalker who won’t leave Dan Gallagher, the married man she had a one night stand with, alone. An enormous success in its day, the film’s title has ever since been a euphemism for similar incidents in real life.

The film’s six Oscar nominations were a tribute to its enormous success rather than its quality, but the one nomination that was indisputable was Close for her fierce performance, one of the best of her extraordinary career. Her co-star Michael Douglas was nominated and won the year’s Best Actor prize for Wall Street.

DANGEROUS LIAISONS (1988), directed by Stephen Frears

Close’s tough-as-nails portrayal of Marquise Isabelle de Merteuil in the first English language film of Chodelos de Vaclos’ >Les Liaisons Dangerouse may be the best thing she’s done on screen. Although it earned her the fifth of her six Oscar nominations to date, it’s the only film for which she received a BAFTA nod. Close stands out as the bored, troublesome and eventually shunned aristocrat in an exceptional cast that also includes fine performances from John Malkovich, Michelle Pheiffer, Uma Thurman, Keanu Reeves and Mildred Natwick in her final film.

101 DALMATIANS (1996), directed by Stephen Herek

It isn’t easy bringing to life one of the definitive cartoon villains of all time, but Close manages to do just that with the evil Cruella de Vil in this life action remake of Disney’s animated feature of thirty-five years earlier.

Who else but Close could be such fun playing a deliciously evil woman intent on killing puppies for their fur? Even with an outstanding supporting cast led by Jeff Daniels, Joley Richardson and Joan Plowright, you can’t keep your eyes off of her.

ALBERT NOBBS (2011), directed by Rodrigo Garcia

Close waited for decades to recreate a role she once played on stage, that of a turn of the last century woman who lives a man in order to succeed in life even in the smallest of ways. Close’s perfect performance, though, is quite possibly for the first tiem in her career upstaged by another actor the great Janet McTeer who turns in an even more astounding performance as a woman pretending to be a man.

The film features exquisite period detail and an outstanding supporting cast that also includes Mia Wasikowska, Aaron Taylor and Pauline Collins.

DAMAGES (2007-2012), created by Glenn Kessler, Todd A. Kessler, Daniel Zelman

Close’s personal favorite of all her roles was the landmark TV character Patty Hewes for which she won two Emmys and a Golden Globe. Although Close has never shied away from playing bad girls, she has never played one quite as bad as Patty, a rich and successful lawyer who wins cases no matter the cost. She’s backed by a powerful supporting cast led by Rose Byrne as her protégée; Tate Donovan as her eventual partner; Zachary Booth as her estranged son and Ted Danson, William Hurt, Martin Short, Campbell Scott and Lily Tomlin among the many guest stars playing villains even more vile than Patty.