Glenn Close, who now turns 75, is one of Hollywood's best actors. She holds the record for the most Oscar nominations in an acting category, but without a win.
Glenn Close — actor, producer, writerImage: Chris Pizzello/AP/Invision/picture alliance
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Glenn Close: A selection of her best films
One of Hollywood's most successful and versatile actors, Glenn Close holds the record for the most Oscar nominations in an acting category without a win. Here's an overview of her work.
Image: Avalon/Photoshot/picture alliance
'The World According to Garp' (1982)
After various roles in TV movies, Glenn Close's feature film debut directly led to her first Oscar nomination. In the comedy-drama, she plays Jenny Fields, a nurse and feminist who raises her son, Garp (Robin Williams), without a father. George Roy Hill's film is based on John Irving's novel of the same name.
Image: Warner Bros/Everett Collection/picture alliance
'Fatal Attraction' (1987)
Collecting Oscar nominations with "The World According to Garp" (1982), "The Big Chill" (1983) and "The Natural" (1984), Glenn Close received her fourth nod from the Academy with Adrian Lyne's erotic thriller, "Fatal Attraction." Close plays the role of a ruthless publishing editor, Alex Forrest, who becomes a stalker following her brief affair with a married man, Dan Gallagher (Michael Douglas).
Image: Mary Evans Picture Library/picture-alliance
'Dangerous Liaisons' (1988)
Stephen Frears' period drama is set in 18th-century France. Glenn Close portrays the vengeful Marquise de Merteuil, who schemes to bring misfortune on others. Her performance also earned her an Oscar nomination for best actress — but Jodie Foster ended up winning that year.
Image: IFTN/Unitd Archives/picture alliance
'The House of the Spirits' (1993)
This drama, centering on a Chilean family over five decades, is based on a novel by Isabel Allende. The story dealing with the military dictatorship in Chile was adapted into a film by Danish director Bille August; it stars Glenn Close, Meryl Streep, Jeremy Irons, Winona Ryder and Antonio Banderas.
Image: Impress/United Archives/picture alliance
'101 Dalmatians' (1996)
In the live-action adaptation of the Disney classic, Glenn Close plays the evil Cruella de Vil, who has Dalmatian puppies kidnapped for a black-and-white fur coat. Critics weren't impressed by director Stephen Herek's overuse of slapstick, but the film still brought in more than $320 million worldwide, making it one of the highest-grossing films of 1996.
Image: IFTN/Unitd Archives/picture alliance
'Mars Attacks!' (1997)
Martians in flying saucers have reached the Earth and are landing in the Nevada desert. Attempts to communicate with them flop, and a war between humans and the extraterrestrials ensues. Directed by Tim Burton, Glenn Close portrays the US First Lady in this wacky sci-fi comedy.
Image: Impress/United Archives/picture alliance
'The Stepford Wives' (2004)
Leaving her career and moving with her family to Stepford, an idyllic Connecticut neighborhood, a former TV producer wonders if the submissive housewives she is meeting aren't actually robots created by their husbands. Glenn Close starred alongside Nicole Kidman and Bette Midler in the science fiction black comedy directed by Frank Oz.
Image: United Archives/picture alliance
'Albert Nobbs' (2011)
In this drama set in mid-century Ireland, Glenn Close portrays Albert Nobbs, a butler working in a fine hotel; her character was born female but decided to live as a man to avoid an unmarried woman's life of poverty. Close was the author of the film's screenplay; the movie was directed by Rodrigo Garcia. She received an Oscar nomination for her performance — but once again left empty-handed.
Image: Mary Evans Archive/Westend Films/imago images
'The Wife' (2017)
Instead of writing books herself, the talented Joan works on her husband's novels. He eventually ends up receiving the Nobel Prize in Literature; on their trip to Stockholm for the award ceremony, her unhappiness as the mere ghostwriter becomes apparent. This role also led to an Oscar nomination for Close. In the flashbacks, Joan is played by Glenn Close's own daughter, Annie Stark.
The film directed by Ron Howard is based on J.D. Vance's memoirs, often described as an explainer on the US white underclass that fueled Donald Trump's rise. Close's portrayal of J.D.'s grandmother led to her eighth Oscar nomination. But funnily enough, the same role earned her a nomination for worst supporting actress at the Razzie Awards.
Image: Netflix/ZUMA Press/imago images
'Swan Song' (2021)
Cameron, a loving husband and father (played by Mahershala Ali), learns that he is terminally ill. Glenn Close plays his disturbingly calm and matter-of-fact doctor, Dr. Scott, who offers to secretly replace him with a clone. Cameron is torn by the proposition's moral dilemma.
Image: Kimberly French/Apple TV
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Glenn Close is one of the most versatile actors in Hollywood.
It seems she can play anything: unscrupulous, malicious and scheming women, women scarred by life, desperate, suffering women — or even, credibly, a man.
While anti-heroines are her biggest strength, she is not committed to any one genre, and despite her age, she regularly stands in front of cameras for major productions.
All the while she gives fans glimpses into her everyday life via Instagram, where she describes herself as an actor, producer and writer as well as "an introvert with extremely low tolerance to all kinds of noise. Proud to be Pip's main human."
Glenn Close and the Oscars
At the 2021 Oscars,she showed an audience of millions that she's up for a bit of fun with her spontaneous dance to the hip-hop song "Da Butt" from Spike Lee's 1988 film "School Daze" — people in the audience and on social media were enthusiastic.
Glenn Close plays the US vice president in the 1997 film 'Air Force One'Image: United Archives/picture alliance
Glenn Close has been a welcome guest at the Oscars for decades.
Her very first feature film, the 1982 adaptation of the novel "the World according to Garp," saw her nominated for best supporting actress, but she left empty-handed.
That happened to her over and over again.
Today she is considered the "most successful" Oscar loser — tied with Peter O'Toole (1932-2013) she holds a record eight Academy Award nominations without ever winning one.
Glenn Close seems to shrug it off. Perhaps that is not too difficult because no one can deny that she is an incredibly successful, esteemed and talented actor despite the empty Oscar shelf.
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Blockbusters and indie movies
She is brilliant as a character actor, but doesn't mind action or mainstream movies, either, as well as indie films — as long as it's not boring, which is particularly important when he chooses roles, she told Germany's Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung in2012, the year she was honored for her life's work at the San Sebastian Film Festival.
She owes her unprecedented career above all to her acting skills and her willpower.
Her parents had not encouraged her career choice, arguing acting was not good for the character, Close told Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger in 2019. Her father rather urged her to learn shorthand when she was still in college, so she could become a secretary if need be.
From the stage to Hollywood
Close, who was born into a strict Puritan family in Greenwich, Connecticut, on March 19, 1947, and lived in a cult-like religious community until she left in her early 20s, was not to be deterred, however. She studied acting and anthropology and was a stage actor before finally landing in film in her mid-30s.
Glenn Close at the Oscars in 2021: Fans have long hoped the actor would one day go home with an Academy Award Image: Avalon/Photoshot/picture alliance
Glenn Close is often associated with loathsome, unscrupulous female characters. Yet from her point of view, only one of her roles was a truly evil character: Cruella de Vil from the movie "101 Dalmatians." "As her last name suggests, she is the devil in disguise," she said in the interview with Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.
"All my other film characters are not really evil in my eyes. For me, they definitely have something human, vulnerable, too, and in a way, I can understand them — they are women trying to hold their own in a harsh male world." If they were men, she told the paper, they probably wouldn't be called evil, "people would find their behavior quite normal."
The actor had to prove herself in a man's world. Perhaps it was her advantage that she didn't arrive in Hollywood until her mid-30s, an age at when many a career was already waning. After all, older female actors have a harder time landing a role. Glenn Close, however, was able to choose her roles for a long time. Most recently, she played in the 2021 film drama "Swan Song."
Glenn Close passed on her love of acting to her daughter, Annie Starke; sometimes the two women are cast in the same movie. Close's three marriages failed, the actor now lives alone with her beloved dog Pip. Close is an advocate for democracy and involved with Bring Change to Mind, the non-profit organization to end stigma and discrimination surrounding mental illness she co-founded.
