Glenn Close

Now one of Hollywood's most enduring actresses, Glenn credits her formative years as the source of her acting skills: "I have no doubt that the days I spent running free in the evocative Connecticut countryside with an unfettered imagination, playing whatever character our games demanded, is one of the reasons that acting has always seemed so natural to me".

Born March 19, 1947 in Connecticut, the actress was welcomed into the fold of a prominent family. Her doctor father served as a personal physician to Congo/Zaire President Mobutu, Sese Seko. At the age of seven, both her parents joined the Moral Rearmament, an ultra-conservative political movement that saw the family uproot to a new life in Zaire, Africa.

After attending boarding school in Zaire and Switzerland, Glenn and her siblings returned to Greenwich to live with their maternal grandmother.

Her love of acting blossomed in parallel with her education. she attended exclusive girls' school, Rosemary Hall, where she formed a theatrical troupe dubbed The Fingernails and excelled in the school's plays. And after graduating, she majored in theatre at the The College of William and Mary.

In 1974 the budding thespian landed her first professional acting job in Broadway show Love for Love. Six years later, the silver screen beckoned and Glenn found herself portraying Robin William's feminist matriarch in The World According to Garp (1982).

Her film debut was a resounding success and saw her nominated for Best Supporting Actress. Her most iconic work can be found in other early roles, such as her turn as scheming aristocrat The Marquise de Merteuil in Dangerous Liaisons, and her unforgettably psychotic character from Fatal Attraction.

Over the years critical acclaim never strayed far from Glenn who has received three Academy nominations for Best Actress, the most recent being for her for her incredible performance in Albert Nobbs where she plays a woman masquerading as a butler in Victorian England.

She also found success as the ruthless and brilliant lawyer Patty Hewes in hit TV series Damages. 

An avid dog lover, Glenn currently resides in Maine with her husband David E Shaw.