
Glenn Close
Biography
Glenda Veronica Close (born March 19, 1947) is an American actress. In a career spanning over five decades on screen and stage, she has received numerous accolades, including three Primetime Emmy Awards, three Tony Awards and three Golden Globe Awards, in addition to nominations for eight Academy Awards, two BAFTA Awards, and three Grammy Awards. She was named by Time as one of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2019.
Close received eight Academy Award nominations for playing a feminist mother in The World According to Garp (1982), a baby boomer in The Big Chill (1983), a love interest in The Natural (1984), a psychotic ex-lover in Fatal Attraction (1987), a cunning aristocrat in Dangerous Liaisons (1988), an English butler in Albert Nobbs (2011), a troubled wife in The Wife (2017), and an eccentric grandmother in Hillbilly Elegy (2020). Her other films include Reversal of Fortune (1990), The Paper (1994), and Mars Attacks! (1996), Air Force One (1997), and Guardians of the Galaxy (2014). Close also portrayed Cruella de Vil in 101 Dalmatians (1996) and its 2000 sequel and voiced Kala in Tarzan (1999).
In television, Close received her first Primetime Emmy Award nomination for her role in the film Something About Amelia (1984) and later won three—Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited Series or Movie for portraying Margarethe Cammermeyer in the NBC film Serving in Silence (1995) and Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series twice consecutively for playing Patty Hewes in Damages (2007–2012).
On stage, Close made her Broadway debut in the play Love for Love (1974). She later won three Tony Awards, two for Best Actress in a Play for her roles in the plays The Real Thing (1983) and Death and the Maiden (1992), and one for Best Actress in a Musical for the musical Sunset Boulevard (1995). She was Tony-nominated for Barnum (1980). She returned to the Broadway stage in a 2014 revival of A Delicate Balance. In 2016, she returned to Sunset Boulevard on the West End stage, earning a Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actress in a Musical nomination.
Close is the president of Trillium Productions and co-founder of the website FetchDog. She has made political donations in support of Democratic politicians. She is vocal on issues such as women's rights, same-sex marriage, and mental health. Married three times, she has one daughter, Annie Starke, from her relationship with producer John Starke.
Gallery







Known For
Acting History
2026
The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping as Drusilla Sickle
2026Animal Farm as Frieda Pilkington (voice)
2025Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery as Martha Delacroix
2025All's Fair as Dina Standish
2025Glenn Close: A Feminist Force as Self - (archive footage)
2025Glenn Close, l'art de la transformation as Self
2025The Summer Book as Grandmother
2025Back in Action as Ginny
2024Brothers as Cath Munger
2024Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story as Self
2024The Deliverance as Alberta Jackson
2024A Look Through His Lens as Self
2023Heart of Stone as King of Diamonds
2023Tom Hanks: The Nomad as Self (archive footage)
2022The Woman in the House Across the Street from the Girl in the Window as The Woman in Seat 2A (uncredited)
2021Swan Song as Dr. Eve Scott
2021Boulevard! A Hollywood Story as Self (archive footage)
2021Broadway: Beyond the Golden Age as Self
2021Show of Titles as "Dance a Little Closer" Performer
2021Four Good Days as Deb
2021Baba Yaga as Chief (voice)
2020Hillbilly Elegy as Bonnie "Mamaw" Vance
2020In Search of the Sanderson Sisters: A Hocus Pocus Hulaween Takeover as Cruella de Vil
2020537 Votes as Self (archive footage)
2020The Great Work Begins: Scenes from Angels in America as Roy Cohn
2020Tehran as Marjan Montazeri
2020Celebrity IOU as Self
2019The Lavender Scare as Narrator (voice)
2019Desus & Mero as Self
20183Below: Tales of Arcadia as Mother (voice)
2018Let's Dance as Segment: "Night Shift"
2018The Wife as Joan Castleman
2018Andrew Lloyd Webber: Tribute to a Superstar as Self
2017Father Figures as Helen Baxter
2017Marcians as Self - Interviewee
2017Sea Oak as Aunt Bernie
2017The Wilde Wedding as Eve Wilde
2017Crooked House as Lady Edith de Haviland
2017What Happened to Monday as Nicolette Cayman
2016The Girl with All the Gifts as Dr. Caroline Caldwell
2016Warcraft as Alodi (uncredited)
2016Anesthesia as Marcia Zarrow
2015The Great Gilly Hopkins as Nonnie Hopkins
2015The Late Show with Stephen Colbert as Self
2015Close Up with The Hollywood Reporter as Self
2014Variety Studio: Actors on Actors as Self
2014Guardians of the Galaxy as Nova Prime
2014Last Week Tonight with John Oliver as Self
20145 to 7 as Arlene Bloom
2014Late Night with Seth Meyers as Self
2014The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon as Self
2014Low Down as Gram
2013Six by Sondheim as Self (archive footage)
2013Love, Marilyn as Self
2012Casting By as Self
2012Finding Your Roots as Self
2012Final Cut: Ladies and Gentlemen as (archive footage)
2011Albert Nobbs as Albert Nobbs
2011Discovering Hamlet as Gertrude (archive footage)
2011Not My Life as Narrator (voice)
2011Hoodwinked Too! Hood VS. Evil as Granny (voice)
2009My Dog: An Unconditional Love Story as Self
2009C à vous as Self
2009Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen as Self - Guest
2009Late Night with Jimmy Fallon as Self - Guest
2009Peter Matthiessen: No Boundaries as Self - Hostess
2008Gates of the Arctic as Narrator (voice)
2007Damages as Patty Hewes
2007Evening as Mrs. Wittenborn
2007Gabon The Last Eden as Narrator
2007The Graham Norton Show as Self
2005Hoodwinked! as Granny (voice)
2005Hollywood's Greatest Villains as Self
2005Nine Lives as Maggie
2005Heights as Diana
2005Tarzan II as Kala (voice)
2005The Chumscrubber as Carrie Johnson
2005Nos Bastidores de Hollywood as Self (archive footage)
2004The Stepford Wives as Claire Wellington
2004Strip Search as Karen Moore
2004Tracking 'The Lion in Winter' as Self
2003The Lion in Winter as Eleanor of Aquitaine
2003What I Want My Words to Do to You as Self
2003In Search of the Jaguar as Narrator
2003The Ellen DeGeneres Show as Self
2003Le Divorce as Olivia Pace
2003Brush with Fate as Cornelia Engelbrecht
2002The Safety of Objects as Esther Gold
2002Sunset Boulevard: A Look Back as Self
2002The Shield as Captain Monica Rawling
2001South Pacific as Nellie Forbush
2001The Ballad of Lucy Whipple as Arvella Whipple
2000Welcome to Hollywood as Glenn Close
2000Baby as Adult Sophie (voice)
2000102 Dalmatians as Cruella de Vil
2000Things You Can Tell Just by Looking at Her as Dr. Elaine Keener (segments "This is Dr. Keener" and "Fantasies about Rebecca")
1999Sarah, Plain and Tall: Winter's End as Sarah Witting
1999SNL: The Best of Adam Sandler as Gina (archive footage) (uncredited)
1999The West Wing as Evelyn Baker Lang
1999Tarzan as Kala (voice)
1999Cookie's Fortune as Camille Dixon
1999Family Guy as Glenn Close (voice)
1999The Big Chill: A Reunion as Self
1999The Lady with the Torch as Self - Host
1998Will & Grace as Fannie Lieber
1998Andrew Lloyd Webber: The Royal Albert Hall Celebration as Self - Performer
1997In & Out as Glenn Close
1997The View as Self
1997Air Force One as Kathryn Bennett
1997Leute heute as Self
1997In the Gloaming as Janet
1997Paradise Road as Adrienne Pargiter
1996Mars Attacks! as Marsha Dale
1996101 Dalmatians as Cruella de Vil
1996The Rosie O'Donnell Show as Self - Guest
1996The Good, The Bad, and the Beautiful as Self
1996Mary Reilly as Mrs. Farraday
1995MADtv as Self
1995Anne Frank Remembered as Diary Readings (voice)
1995Serving in Silence - The Margarethe Cammermeyer Story as Col. Margarethe Cammermeyer
1994Inside the Actors Studio as Self
1994Ellen as Glenn Close
1994The Paper as Alicia Clark
1993Sesame Street Jam: A Musical Celebration as Self(segment "Monster in the Mirror")
1993The House of the Spirits as Ferula Trueba
1993Late Night with Conan O'Brien as Self - Guest
1993Skylark as Sarah Witting
1992Lincoln as Mary Todd Lincoln (voice)
1992Sondheim: A Celebration at Carnegie Hall as Self
1991Pebble Mill as Self
1991Meeting Venus as Karin Anderson
1991Hook as Gutless
1991Sarah, Plain and Tall as Sarah Wheaton
1990Hamlet as Gertrude
1990The Divine Garbo as Self - Host / Narrator
1990Reversal of Fortune as Sunny von Bülow / Narrator
1990Sing! Sesame Street Remembers Joe Raposo and His Music as Self
1989The Simpsons as Mona Simpson (voice)
1989An Amazin Era: Revised and Updated as Self
1989Immediate Family as Linda Spector
1989Saturday Night Live: 15th Anniversary as Self
1988Dangerous Liaisons as Marquise Isabelle de Merteuil
1988American Experience as Self - Narrator (voice)
1988This Morning as Self - Guest
1988The Legend of Sleepy Hollow as Narrator (voice)
1988Stones for Ibarra as Sara Everton
1988Electric Blue 29 as (archive footage)
1987Gandahar as Ambisextra (voice: English version)
1987Fatal Attraction as Alexandra "Alex" Forrest
1987Rabbit Ears - The Emperor and the Nightingale as Narrator (voice)
1986An Amazin' Era as Self
1985Jagged Edge as Teddy Barnes
1985Maxie as Jan / Maxie
1984The Natural as Iris Gaines
1984The Stone Boy as Ruth Hillerman
1984Goldene Kamera as Self
1984Something About Amelia as Gail Bennett
1983The Big Chill as Sarah Cooper
1982The World According to Garp as Jenny Fields
1982The Elephant Man as Princess Alexandra
1981Wetten, dass..? as Self
1979Orphan Train as Jessica
1979Too Far to Go as Rebecca Kuehn
1977Please Turn the Page as Self
1975Saturday Night Live as Self - Host
1975The Rules of the Game as Neighbor
1971Great Performances as Neighbor
1971Great Performances as Self - Host
1956Tony Awards as Self - Presenter
1956Tony Awards as Self (archive footage)
1956Tony Awards as Self - Host/Performer/Winner
1956Tony Awards as Self - Audience Member
1956Tony Awards as Self - Host
1956Tony Awards as Hillary Clinton
1956Tony Awards as Self - Nominee
1956Tony Awards as Self - Winner
1956Tony Awards as Self - Host/Winner
1953The Oscars as Self
1951Hallmark Hall of Fame as Sara Everton
1951Hallmark Hall of Fame as Sarah Wheaton
1951Hallmark Hall of Fame as Sarah
1951Hallmark Hall of Fame as Cornelia Englebrecht
1944Golden Globe Awards as Self - Nominee
1944Golden Globe Awards as Self - Presenter/Nominee
1944Golden Globe Awards as Self - Presenter
—The Black Ball
—Encore as Marie
—Standing By
—Maud as Maud Oldcastle
—Sunset Boulevard as Norma Desmond
—The Plague Monkeys as Narrator









