Glenn Close Biography

Glenn Close is the Tony- and Emmy-winning star of the television series Damages.

A big-screen star since the 1980s, Glenn Close is best known for her portrayals of villains, from the crazed lover in Fatal Attraction (1987) to Cruella De Vil in the live-action version of 101 Dalmations (1996).

Close is a 12th generation New Englander, educated in Africa, Switzerland and the U.S. She studied acting at the College of William and Mary, and made her New York stage debut in 1974. Her movie debut, playing Robin Williams‘s mother in The World According to Garp (1982), earned her an Oscar nomination. It was the first of a string of critically acclaimed performances during the 1980s, including four more Oscar nominations that decade, for The Big Chill (1983, with Jeff Goldblum), The Natural (1984, with Robert Redford), Fatal Attraction (1987, with Michael Douglas) and Dangerous Liaisons (1988, with John Malkovich).

All told, she has been nominated for seven Oscars, four of those for leading performances. Close has also been nominated 13 times for a Golden Globe (winning three) and 13 times for an Emmy (winning three).

Close has had equal success on the stage and is the winner of three Tony Awards — The Real Thing (1984), Death and the Maiden (1992) and Sunset Blvd. (1995). And she’s no stranger to television, an Emmy winner for 1995’s Serving in Silence: The Margarethe Cammermeyer Story), she’s also a two-time winner for the series Damages (2007-2012).