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Glenn Close
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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, two Emmys, two Golden Globes, and a Screen Actors Guild Award.
e was born in Greenwich, Connecticut, the daughter of 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.
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Encyclopedia
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, two Emmys, two Golden Globes, and a Screen Actors Guild Award.
Biography
Early life
Close was born in Greenwich, Connecticut, the daughter of 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 Rosemary Hall, an elite boarding school in Connecticut, and later The College of William & Mary, where she was elected to membership in the honor society of Phi Beta Kappa.
Career
Close has had a lengthy career as a versatile actress and performer. Close 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. 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 1980's, 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. 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.
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 one child, Annie Maude Starke (born April 26, 1988), from her previous relationship with John Starke that ended in 1991. Annie is currently attending Hamilton College, a private, liberal arts institution in upstate New York.
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 and John Edwards.
Stage productions
Broadway and Off-Broadway musicals
- Rex (Broadway, 1976), Richard Rodgers-Sheldon Harnick musical about Henry VIII
- Barnum (Chairy 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
Documentaries
- Divine Garbo (1990)
- The Lady With The Torch (1999)
- Welcome To Hollywood (2001)
- What I Want My Words To Do To You: Voices From Inside A Women's Maximum Security Prison (2003)
- A Closer Walk (2003)
- Broadway: Beyond the Golden Age (2007)
Television credits
Other awards
External links
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