Glenn Close

Glenn Close Bio

Glenn Close (born March 19, 1947) is an American actress, producer, and director whose career spans more than five decades across film, television, and theater. She has earned recognition including three Primetime Emmy Awards, three Tony Awards, three Golden Globe Awards, and eight Academy Award nominations, making her one of the most honored performers of her generation. Time named her one of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2019, and in 2026 she was announced as the recipient of an Academy Honorary Award. Close is also widely known for founding the mental health campaign Bring Change to Mind and for serving as president of Trillium Productions.

Close gained early recognition on Broadway and went on to international stardom with signature film roles in Fatal Attraction (1987) and Dangerous Liaisons (1988). She later earned acclaim for her television work on the FX series Damages, where she won two consecutive Emmy Awards, and has continued to build a body of work on stage that includes Tony-winning turns in The Real Thing, Death and the Maiden, and Sunset Boulevard.

Early Life and Background

Glenn Close was born on March 19, 1947, in Greenwich, Connecticut, the daughter of Elizabeth Mary Hester “Bettine” Moore and William Taliaferro Close, a doctor who operated a clinic in the Belgian Congo. She grew up with two sisters, Tina and Jessie, and two brothers, Alexander and Tambu Misoki, the latter of whom her parents adopted while living in Congo. During her childhood, she spent time on her maternal grandfather’s estate in Greenwich, where she developed an early love of storytelling and performance.

When Close was seven years old, her family joined the Moral Re-Armament movement, an organization she later described as a “cult” that dictated many aspects of daily life for fifteen years. She attended St. George’s School in Switzerland and Rosemary Hall, now Choate Rosemary Hall, graduating in 1965, and in her late teens she traveled with the singing group Up With People. At age 22, she left the Moral Re-Armament movement and enrolled at the College of William & Mary, where she double-majored in theater and anthropology and trained under professor Howard Scammon.

Close was elected to Phi Beta Kappa at William & Mary and performed in the outdoor drama The Common Glory, written by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Paul Green. She has credited a televised interview of Katharine Hepburn on The Dick Cavett Show with inspiring her decision to pursue acting as a career, and she later returned to her alma mater as a commencement speaker in 1989.

Path to Celebrity

Close began her professional stage career in 1974 at age 27, booking a season of three plays at the Helen Hayes Theatre, including Love for Love, directed by Hal Prince. She made her television debut in 1975 with a small role in the anthology series Great Performances and played Cordelia in King Lear at the Milwaukee Repertory Theater the same year. Her early Broadway work included the short-lived musical Rex in 1976 and The Crucifer of Blood in 1978, and she closed out the decade with a celebrated run as Chairy in the Broadway musical Barnum from 1980 to 1981.

In 1980, director George Roy Hill discovered Close on Broadway and cast her opposite Robin Williams in The World According to Garp, which became her film debut and earned her first Academy Award nomination. The following year, Lawrence Kasdan wrote the role of Sarah Cooper in The Big Chill specifically for her, and with that film Close became the third actor to receive Tony, Emmy, and Academy Award nominations in the same calendar year. These early breakthroughs launched a film career that would soon place her among the most respected actresses in Hollywood.

Glenn Close Career

Early Career (1974-1984)

Close’s first film role was The World According to Garp in 1982, for which she earned an Academy Award nomination. She quickly followed it with The Big Chill in 1983, and in 1984 she starred in Robert Redford’s The Natural, earning a third consecutive Oscar nomination for a small but visually striking supporting part. That same year, she won her first Tony Award for her performance as Annie in Tom Stoppard’s The Real Thing, directed by Mike Nichols, cementing her reputation on both coasts.

On television, Close starred in the critically acclaimed drama Something About Amelia in 1984, earning her first Emmy nomination. She also appeared in the television film The Elephant Man and continued to balance Broadway work with screen projects. By the mid-1980s, Close was widely regarded as one of the most compelling new dramatic actresses in American film, a position that would lead to her casting in several of the most talked-about movies of the late 1980s.

Breakthrough (1985-1995)

Close’s breakthrough in Hollywood came with Jagged Edge in 1985, opposite Jeff Bridges, a legal thriller that received positive reviews and grossed $40 million against a $15 million budget. In 1987, she played the disturbed book editor Alex Forrest in Fatal Attraction, the highest-grossing film worldwide that year, and the role earned her fourth Oscar nomination and her first in the leading category. The character of Alex Forrest became one of the most iconic antagonists in film history.

She followed that success with the role of Marquise de Merteuil in the 1988 period drama Dangerous Liaisons, earning her fifth Academy Award nomination and her first BAFTA nomination. Her 1990s work included Reversal of Fortune with Jeremy Irons, the television film Serving in Silence: The Margarethe Cammermeyer Story in 1995, for which she won her first Primetime Emmy Award, and the title role of Norma Desmond in the Broadway production of Sunset Boulevard in 1993-94, which earned her third Tony Award. The decade also brought memorable turns in The Paper, 101 Dalmatians as Cruella de Vil, Air Force One, and the voice of Kala in Disney’s Tarzan.

Notable Works and Milestones

Close’s signature performances include Alex Forrest in Fatal Attraction, Marquise de Merteuil in Dangerous Liaisons, Cruella de Vil in 101 Dalmatians, Patty Hewes in Damages, Joan Castleman in The Wife, and Mamaw in Hillbilly Elegy. She is widely regarded as one of the great actresses of her era, and her character in Fatal Attraction was ranked number 7 on AFI’s list of 100 Heroes and Villains. Films featuring Close have grossed over $1.3 billion in North America, and she received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2009.

Glenn Close Award Nominations

Glenn Close has earned a remarkable number of nominations across film, television, theater, and music, including eight Academy Award nominations, three Primetime Emmy Award nominations, two BAFTA Award nominations, three Grammy Award nominations, and a Laurence Olivier Award nomination. She is one of the few performers to be nominated for the Triple Crown of Acting and the EGOT, having received recognition in all four major American entertainment categories. Her nominations span acclaimed performances in projects such as The World According to Garp, Fatal Attraction, Dangerous Liaisons, Albert Nobbs, The Wife, and Hillbilly Elegy.

Glenn Close Awards Won

Close has won three Primetime Emmy Awards, three Tony Awards, and three Golden Globe Awards over the course of her career. She earned her first Emmy in 1995 for Serving in Silence: The Margarethe Cammermeyer Story, followed by back-to-back Emmys in 2008 and 2009 for Damages. Her Tony Awards came for The Real Thing, Death and the Maiden, and Sunset Boulevard, and her Golden Globe Awards include a Best Actress win for The Wife in 2018.

Glenn Close Family

Glenn Close is the daughter of William Taliaferro Close and Elizabeth Mary Hester “Bettine” Moore. She has two sisters, Tina and Jessie, and two brothers, Alexander and Tambu Misoki, the latter adopted in Congo. She is a granddaughter of surgeon and author Edward Bennett Close, and through family research she has been connected to figures including Marjorie Post. Close has also been a longtime supporter of the wildlife charity Panthera and serves as a trustee of The Wildlife Conservation Society.

Personal Life

Close has been married three times, first to guitarist Cabot Wade from 1969 to 1971, then to grocery heir James Marlas from 1984 to 1987, and finally to venture capitalist David Evans Shaw from 2006 to 2015. She lived with actor Len Cariou from 1979 to 1983, and from her relationship with producer John Starke, she welcomed a daughter, actress Annie Starke, in 1988. Close’s first grandchild was born in February 2025. She primarily resides in Bedford Hills, New York, and also maintains properties in Florida and Montana.