Glenn Close

American film, television and stage actress Glenn Close (1947) is considered one of the best actresses of her generation due to her wide variety of roles. Throughout her career spanning over four decades, she won three Emmy Awards and three Tony Awards in her career. She was also nominated eight times for an Academy Award for best actress, without winning it.


Spanish postcard in the Yo amo al cine series by Rovensa SA. Photo: Lauren Films. Glenn Close in Maxie (Paul Aaron, 1985).


British postcard by Boomerang Media. Photo: Disney. Glenn Close in 101 Dalmatians (Stephen Herek, 1996).

Fatal Attraction

Glenn Close was born in Greenwich, Connecticut, in 1947. She was the daughter of socialite Bettine Moore Close and William Taliaferro Close. Her father was a doctor who ran a clinic in the Belgian Congo and was a private physician to President Mobutu Sese Seko. She has two sisters, Tina and Jessie, and two brothers, Alexander (nicknamed Sandy) and Tambu Misoki, whom Close's parents adopted while living in the Congo. During most of that time, the Close children lived alternately in Africa and at boarding schools in Switzerland.

In her youth, Close also lived with her parents in a cottage on her grandfather's estate in Greenwich. When she was seven, her parents joined a sect called the Moral Re-Armament (MRA) and remained members of it for 15 years. She has described MRA as a "cult" that dictated every aspect of her life, from the clothes that had to be worn to what she was allowed to say. Close studied at St George's School in Switzerland and travelled around with an MRA singing group called Up With People in the late 1960s. She also studied at Rosemary Hall, where she graduated in 1965.

At 22, Close broke with the MRA and left for the College of William & Mary to study theatre and anthropology. It was here that she first began working seriously on an acting career under the tutelage of Howard Scammon. At age 27, Close made her Broadway debut in The Phoenix Theatre's production of William Congreve's 'Love for Love' (1974). She appeared in productions of 'Barnum' (1980) and Tom Stoppard's 'The Real Thing' (1983), winning the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play for the latter. Close received another Tony Award for 'Death and the Maiden' (1992).

Her best-known theatrical role was that of Norma Desmond in 'Sunset Boulevard' (1995) for which she won an additional Tony. She was chosen by Andrew Lloyd Webber to replace Patti LuPone in 'Sunset Boulevard' before its arrival on Broadway in 1994. More than a decade earlier, film director George Roy Hill discovered her at the New Phoenix Repertory Company and picked her for his film The World According to Garp (George Roy Hill, 1982). She played the mother of Robin Williams, despite being just four years older. For her film debut, she was immediately nominated for an Oscar. It was followed by supporting roles in the films The Big Chill (Lawrence Kasdan, 1983) and Robert Redford's baseball drama The Natural (Barry Levinson, 1984); both films earned her nominations for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.

In 1984, Close starred in her TV debut, the drama film Something About Amelia (William Hanely, 1984) about a family going down because of sexual abuse. The film won a Golden Globe. She subsequently went on to establish herself as a leading lady with roles in the legal thriller Jagged Edge (Richard Marquand, 1985), opposite Jeff Bridges, the psychological thriller Fatal Attraction (Adrian Lyne, 1987) and the period romantic drama Dangerous Liaisons (Stephen Frears, 1988) with John Malkovich and Michelle Pfeiffer. Fatal Attraction became a huge box-office success, the highest-grossing film worldwide of that year. The film propelled Close to international stardom and the character of Alex Forrest is considered one of her most iconic roles.


Dutch collectors card. Glenn Close in Maxie (Paul Aaron, 1985).


Romanian postcard in the Starurile si moda series by Inter Contemp Press.

Cruella De Vil

During the 1990s, Glenn Close starred in films like the drama Reversal of Fortune (Barbet Schroeder, 1990) with Jeremy Irons, the TV movie Sarah, Plain and Tall (Glenn Jordan, 1991) and its two sequels, and the period drama The House of the Spirits (Bille August, 1993), based on the novel by Isabel Allende. She also starred in The Paper (Ron Howard, 1994), Steven Spielberg's Hook (1991), the satirical Sci-Fi film Mars Attacks! (Tim Burton, 1996) and the Disney film 101 Dalmatians (Stephen Herek, 1996). In the latter, she played the role of the infamous villain Cruella De Vil, which she repeated in the sequel, 102 Dalmatians (Kevin Lima, 2000). Glenn Close received three additional Academy Award nominations.

She was nominated for Best Actress for her title role in Albert Nobbs (Rodrigo García, 2011) and for her lead role as Joan Castleman in The Wife (Björn L. Runge, 2017), winning her third Golden Globe Award for the latter. In 2020, she starred in the drama Hillbilly Elegy (Ron Howard, 2020), for which she received an additional Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress, her eighth nomination overall.

More than 15 film awards were actually given to her, including Emmy Awards for the television film Serving in Silence: The Margarethe Cammermeyer Story (Jeff Bleckner, 1995) and the drama series Damages (2007-2012) as Golden Globes for her portrayal of Eleanor of Aquitaine in the television film The Lion in Winter (Andrey Konchalovskiy, 2003) and for her role as Patty Hewes in Damages (2007-2012).

In 2009, Close received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. From 1969 to 1971, Close was married to Cabot Wade, a guitarist and songwriter she knew from her time with Up with People. From 1979 to 1983, she was in a relationship with Len Cariou. From 1984 to 1987, she was married to businessman James Marlas. Shortly after this marriage, she began a relationship with producer John H. Starke, whom she had met on the set of The World According to Garp. Together they had a daughter named Annie Starke in 1988. In 1995, Close was engaged to Steve Beers, but the marriage did not happen and they broke up in 1999.

In February 2006, Close married David Shaw. This marriage ended in 2015. Close is a dog lover and writes blogs for Fetchdog.com, in which she interviews celebrities about their relationship with their pets. On the political front, she has financially supported the election campaigns of Hillary Clinton, Howard Dean, John Edwards and Barack Obama, among others. Close is the founder and chairwoman of BringChange2Mind, an organisation that aims to break the stigma and discrimination surrounding mental illness. Through this, she supports her sister Jessie, who suffers from bipolar disorder.


British postcard by Boomerang Media for the video release. Photo: Walt Disney Pictures. Glenn Close in 102 Dalmatians (Kevin Lima, 2000).


Spanish postcard by Disney for the DVD release. Photo: Disney Enterprises Inc. Glenn Close in 102 Dalmatians (Kevin Lima, 2000).

Sources: Wikipedia (Dutch and English) and IMDb.