GLENN CLOSE Biography - Actors and Actresses

 
 

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GLENN CLOSE

Name: Glenn Close.                                                                             
Born. 19 March 1947 Greenwich, Connecticut, United States                                     
                                                                                               
Glenn Close (born March 19, 1947) is an American film and stage actress and                   
singer, best recalled for her role as a deranged stalker in Fatal Attraction (1987).           
Close has won an Emmy Award, three Tony Awards, and two Golden Globes; she has                 
further been nominated for five Academy Awards, eight Emmys, and nine Golden                   
Globes.                                                                                       
                                                                                               
Close was born in Greenwich, Connecticut, to Bettine (née Moore) and William                 
Taliaferro Close, a doctor who operated a clinic in the Belgian Congo and                     
served as a personal physician to President Mobutu Sese Seko. Her parents                     
came from prominent families; her paternal grandfather, Edward Bennett Close, a               
stockbroker and director of the American Hospital Association, 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.                                                                                         
                                                                                               
Close attended Choate Rosemary Hall, a private boarding school in Connecticut,                 
and later the College of William and Mary; there she was elected to membership                 
in the honor society of Phi Beta Kappa.                                                       
                                                                                               
Close has had a lengthy career as a versatile actress and performer. Close is                 
remembered for her chilling roles as the scheming aristocrat Madame 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. 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 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.                                             
                                                                                               
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 2008 film Sunset               
Boulevard, based on the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical. The film has not started                 
production. In addition to Sunset Boulevard, Close also won Tony Awards in                     
1984 for The Real Thing and in 1992 for Death and the Maiden.