Glenn Close is an American actress. In a career spanning over four decades, she has garnered numerous accolades, including three Tony Awards, three Emmy Awards, and three Golden Globe Awards. She has been nominated eight times for an Academy Award, sharing the record for most nominations in acting categories without a win with Peter O'Toole. In 2016, she was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame, and in 2019, Time magazine named her one of the 100 most influential people in the world.
Close began her professional career on the stage in 1974 with Love for Love. She received her first Tony Award nomination for her role in Barnum and later went on to win three competitive Tony Awards for her roles in the plays The Real Thing (1983), and Death and the Maiden (1992) and the musical Sunset Boulevard (1995). She returned to the Broadway stage in a 2014 revival of A Delicate Balance. She reprised her role as Norma Desmond in a West End and Broadway revival in 2016 and 2017 respectively. She has also hosted the Tony Awards twice in 1992 and 1995.
Often regarded as one of the greatest film actors never to have won an Academy Award, Close received eight such nominations for her roles in The World According to Garp (1982), The Big Chill (1983), The Natural (1984), Fatal Attraction (1987), Dangerous Liaisons (1988), Albert Nobbs (2011), The Wife (2017), and Hillbilly Elegy (2020). She has also starred in Jagged Edge (1985), Reversal of Fortune (1990), Hamlet (1990), The House of the Spirits (1993), The Paper (1994), Mars Attacks! (1996), and Air Force One (1997). She also portrayed Cruella de Vil in 101 Dalmatians (1996) and its sequel 102 Dalmatians (2000).
For her work on television she won her first Primetime Emmy Award for her performance in the television film Serving in Silence: The Margarethe Cammermeyer Story (1995). For her portrayal of Eleanor of Aquitaine in the Showtime television film The Lion in Winter (2003) she won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Miniseries or Television Film. From 2007 to 2012, Close starred as Patty Hewes in the drama series Damages, for which she received two Primetime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series.
Close has been married thrice, and has a daughter from her relationship with producer John Starke. She is the president of Trillium Productions and has co-founded the website FetchDog. She has made political donations in support of Democratic politicians and is vocal on issues such as women's rights, same-sex marriage, and mental health.