GLENN CLOSE, ONE OF THE GREATEST ACTRESSES EVER

Today, The Grandma has received the wonderful visit of Tina Picotes, one of her closest friends. They love cinema, and they have been talking about Glenn Close, the American actress and producer considered one of the great actresses of our time, who was born on a day like today in 1947.

Glenn Close (born March 19, 1947) is an American actress and producer. Long considered one of the great actresses of our time, according to Vanity Fair, she is the recipient of numerous awards, including three Primetime Emmy Awards, three Tony Awards, and three Golden Globe Awards.

She has also been nominated eight times for an Academy Award, holding the record for the most acting nominations without a win, tied with Peter O'Toole. With her eighth nomination in 2021, she became one of the five most nominated actresses in academy history.

In 2016, she was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame, and in 2019, Time magazine named her one of the 100 most influential people in the world.

Born to affluent and progressive parents, Close majored in theatre and anthropology at the College of William & Mary.

She began her professional career on stage in 1974 with Love for Love and was mostly a New York stage actress until the early 1980s. Her work included Broadway productions of Barnum in 1980 and The Real Thing in 1983, for which she won the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play. Her film debut came in The World According to Garp (1982), which was followed by supporting roles in the films The Big Chill (1983) and The Natural (1984); all three earned her nominations for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.

More information: The Guardian

Close went on to establish herself as a Hollywood leading lady with roles in Fatal Attraction (1987) and Dangerous Liaisons (1988), both of which earned her nominations for the Academy Award for Best Actress.

Close won two more Tony Awards for Death and the Maiden in 1992 and Sunset Boulevard in 1995. She won her first Primetime Emmy Award for the 1995 television drama film Serving in Silence: The Margarethe Cammermeyer Story, and she continued a successful film career with starring roles in Reversal of Fortune (1990), 101 Dalmatians (1996), and Air Force One (1997), among others.

Further television work came for Close in the 2000s, with her portrayal of Eleanor of Aquitaine in the 2003 television film The Lion in Winter earning her a Golden Globe Award.

From 2007 to 2012, Close starred as Patty Hewes in the drama series Damages, which won her a Golden Globe Award and two Primetime Emmy Awards. She returned to the Broadway stage in a 2014 revival of A Delicate Balance. During this period, she received two additional Best Actress Academy Award nominations for Albert Nobbs (2011) and The Wife (2017), winning a third Golden Globe for the latter.

In 2020, she starred in Hillbilly Elegy and received an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress.

Close has been married three times, and she has a daughter from her relationship with producer John Starke. She is the president of Trillium Productions and has co-founded the website FetchDog. She has made political donations in support of Democratic politicians, and is vocal on issues such as gay marriage, women's rights, and mental health.

Glenn Close was born on March 19, 1947, in Greenwich, Connecticut, to socialite Elizabeth Mary Hester Bettine (Moore) and William Taliaferro Close, a doctor who operated a clinic in the Belgian Congo and served as a personal physician to its dictator Mobutu Sese Seko.

Close started her professional stage career in 1974 at age 27.

In 1980, director George Roy Hill discovered Close on Broadway and asked her to audition with Robin Williams for a role in The World According to Garp, which would become her first film role.

More information: NPR

The 1980s proved to be Close's most successful decade in Hollywood. She made her debut film performance in The World According to Garp which earned Close her first Oscar nomination. She played Robin Williams's mother, despite being just four years older. The following year she played Sarah Cooper in The Big Chill, a character that director Lawrence Kasdan said he specifically wrote for her.

In 1984 Close was given a part in Robert Redford's baseball drama The Natural, and although it was a small supporting role she earned a third consecutive Oscar nomination.

In 1987, Close played the disturbed book editor Alex Forrest in Fatal Attraction.

In 1990, Close went on to play the role of Sunny von Bülow opposite Jeremy Irons in Reversal of Fortune to critical acclaim.

Close played Gertrude in Franco Zeffirelli's film adaption of Hamlet. It was the first Shakespeare role that Close had ever attempted on screen, she appeared in 1975 in a stage production of King Lear in Milwaukee.

Close would later go on to join the cast of The House of the Spirits, reuniting her with Jeremy Irons. She also had a cameo appearance in Steven Spielberg's Hook (1991) as a pirate.

In 1992, Close starred in Meeting Venus for which she received critical acclaim and won Best Actress (Golden Ciak) at the Venice Film Festival. In the same year, Close became a trustee emeritus of The Sundance Institute.

Close appeared in the newsroom comedy-drama The Paper (1994), directed by her good friend Ron Howard and in 1996 she acted alongside the cast of Tim Burton's alien invasion satire Mars Attacks! (1996). In the same year she portrayed the sinister Cruella de Vil in the Disney hit 101 Dalmatians.

Close began to appear in television films rather than doing theatrical films in the early 2000s. She returned as Cruella de Vil in 102 Dalmatians (2000).

In 2004, she played Claire Wellington, an uptight socialite in the comedy The Stepford Wives opposite Nicole Kidman and Christopher Walken. She provided the voice of the Blue Fairy in the English version of Pinocchio (2002) and Granny in the animated film Hoodwinked (2005). Close continued to do smaller films like Le Divorce (2003) and The Chumscrubber (2005).

In 2005, she reunited with director Rodrigo Garcia to do Nine Lives; he would later direct Close in the film Albert Nobbs (2011). In the same year, she starred in the film Heights (2005), an independent drama centred on the lives of five New Yorkers. Close's performance was lauded by critics.

More information: Interview

In 2007, she acted alongside her friend and previous co-star Meryl Streep in the ensemble drama Evening.

In 2017, Close appeared alongside Noomi Rapace and Willem Dafoe in What Happened to Monday, a science fiction thriller produced by Netflix. Also that year, she was reunited with actors John Malkovich and Patrick Stewart in the romantic comedy The Wilde Wedding, and co-starred in Crooked House, a film adaptation of the novel by Agatha Christie.

Close garnered widespread critical acclaim for her performance in the 2018 released drama The Wife which had first premiered at the 2017 Toronto International Film Festival.

In 2020, Close starred in Netflix's film adaptation of Hillbilly Elegy, alongside Amy Adams. Also in 2020, Close co-starred with Mila Kunis in the drama Four Good Days, directed by Rodrigo García and presented at the Sundance Film Festival. It was announced that she would appear opposite Mahershala Ali in the Apple TV+ drama film Swan Song.

More information: US Magazine

Acting, to me,
is about the incredible adventure of examining
the landscape of human heart and soul.
That's basically what we do.

Glenn Close