Posterized: Glenn Close
Friday, August 31, 2018 at 4:51PM by Nathaniel R
Glenn at the UK premiere of The Wife earlier this monthWith The Wife expanding to 78 movie theaters today, more of you will now have the chance to see the performance that's won Glenn Close so many raves. So let's consider this weekend the kick-off to what we hope will be a competitive but satisfying Best Actress race since Lady Gaga (A Star is Born) and Emma Stone (The Favourite) are in the process of making big splashes at Venice as we type this. To celebrate the Oscar campaign for Glenn Close, let's look back on her filmography, shall we? Balder & Dash beat us to a very fine essay about her whole career and we're glad they did because plans to do a whole Glenn Close Week here failed; weirdly I discovered that a lot of members of Team Experience are agnostic about her! I have had an up and down relationship with this Connecticut-born Oscar favorite, myself, but I am most definitely not agnostic about her performance in The Wife. I think it's the best she's been in 20 years and I'm thrilled (and surprised) to be quoted on the poster for the movie.
Here is her entire feature film career via movie posters. We've mixed in a few key TV projects so that this will feel more comprehensive, since Close has spent major time there, as well. How many of these 51 Glenn Close performances have you seen?
ACT 1 A SINGULAR NEW SCREEN PRESENCE (1982-1985)
The World According to Garp (Oscar nom, LAFCA, NBR, NSFC and NYFCC wins), The Big Chill (Oscar nom), Something About Amelia (Globe & Emmy nom), The Stone Boy, The Natural (Oscar nom), Maxie (Globe & Saturn nom).
During these star-making introduction years she also won the Tony on Broadway for "The Real Thing" in 1984 and she dubbed Andie MacDowell's voice in Greystoke, the beginning of a profitable sideline in voicework (she's done a lot animated films now though they're not included in this list.)
ACT 2 IN-DEMAND / PEAK BIG SCREEN FAME (1985-1996)
Jagged Edge, Fatal Attraction (Oscar nom, People's Choice win), Dangerous Liaisons (Oscar & BAFTA & People's Choice noms), Immediate Family, Reversal of Fortune, Hamlet, Sarah Plain and Tall (Globe & Emmy nom), Meeting Venus, Hook, Skylark (Emmy nom), The House of the Spirits, The Paper, Serving in Silence: The Margarethe Cammermeyer Story (Globe nom, Emmy win), Mary Reilly, and 101 Dalmatians (Globe & Saturn nom, Blockbuster win).
Despite her very busy schedule she also found time for three Broadway shows: "Benefactors" (1985), "Death and the Maiden" (1992, Tony nomination), and "Sunset Boulevard" (1995, Tony win)
ACT 3 FADING STAR YEARS... (1996-2005)
Mars Attacks!, Paradise Road, and Air Force One (Blockbuster win), In the Gloaming (Emmy nom, Cable ACE win), Cookie's Fortune, Things You Can Tell Just By Looking At Her, 102 Dalmatians, South Pacific, The Safety of Objects, The Divorce, The Lion in Winter (Globe win, Emmy nom), The Stepford Wives, Nine Lives, Heights, and The Chumscrubber.
These are also kind of the "where is this career going?" scattershot years. Most enduring star have these. Nothing much is totally working.
ACT 4a REINVENTION (2005-2017)
The Shield (Globe & Emmy noms), Evening, Damages (Globe & Emmy wins), Albert Nobbs (Oscar & Globe noms), Low Down, 5 to 7, Guardians of the Galaxy, Anesthesia, The Great Gilly Hopkins, The Girl With All the Gifts, What Happened to Monday, The Wilde Wedding.
Glenn Close was an early pioneer of the now common strategy of 'former Oscar darling reinvents herself through television to win a new legion of fans while giving her a wee bit of her movie heat back, too.' During this comeback / reinvention period she also returned to Broadway for "A Delicate Balance" (2014), and the revival of "Sunset Boulevard" (2017)
ACT 4b RIGHT NOW (2017-2018)
Crooked House, Father Figures, and The Wife
So how many is it for you? And which are your favorites? I've seen 30 of them which was both more and less than I was expecting. I didn't realize how many small indies she'd done recently and how many of her TV films I'd actually seen since the 1980s. My favorite of those is In the Gloaming though I remember liking Serving in Silence at the time.
Reader Comments (52)
Yeah SIS was gr8 for TV,I remember thinking to about 1998 what's hppened to her career,i'd love her to win but i'm sensing a GaGa onsalught.
Not a fan, but worse actresses managed to get an Oscar, so why not? I like her very much in Albert Nobbs - the performance is as awkward as it should be. But I still have issues with actresses that are always playing notes higher than the role demands, like her tense turn in Dangerous Liaisons - she is so tense, so tense, that the sexiness of the role is never there. It's only bitching and scheming.
on her television turns, I agree with you.
She was incredibly effective in her season on The Shield and, although it was lesser work in a lesser show that went on for far too long, she definitely gained a new legion of younger fans with Damages.
To be fair: she deserved to win for Fatal Attraction (where she is creepy AND sexy - a goel she missed in Dangerous Liaisons), but Cher is even better. So, I am okay with her being Oscarless. I hope she changes my mind in The Wife.
I want to submit a piece on Close.
I've seen 22 of her projects and I loved her a lot during her peak. Her work in FA and DL are stunning and her oscar loses for them are totally wrongdoing's by the academy. I'm excited for her being in the running this year because it seems like a solid return which is something i fear I cannot say about Albert Nobbs. She's a unique actress and in the ranking of her pears Lange and Streep I'd say she's behind Streep in terms of my personal opinions of them.
48 of the 50 - missing Something about Amelia and the Great Gilly Hopkins.
Thank you this!
I've seen 38 (+ Tarzan). Can't wait to see her in The Wife.
My favorites are Fatal Attraction and Dangerous Liaisons. She's the best Merteuil I've seen and her final scene is one of my favorite movies ends (and Oscar clip) ever. ln my world, she has those two Oscars.
I also like her silly turns in Mars Attacks! and Stepford Wives. I think she's very funny.
I’ve only seen 15 of them. But looking through the list, I kept thinking how did I miss this one?
My favourites are “Cookie’s Fortune”, “Jagged Edge”, “Fatal Attraction”, “South Pacific”.
The one I like least is Gertrude in “Hamlet”. She’s one of the worst Gertrude’s I’ve ever seen. Such a pity, when Claudius was played by Alan Bates.
But I like her. She’s lively, funny, versatile, and a great singer.
In her early career, they kept comparing her to Meryl Streep, as if there was only one position and you had to choose between them. (I know, so strange - no room for more than one leading lady). Streep was better at the business end, and giving performances that critics were comfortable with.
But it’s kind of the wildness and giving zero fucks of Close that makes me laugh and endears her to me. Yeah, it doesn’t always work, but .... so what?
An extraordinary actress, who should have won two Oscars, for Fatal Attraction and Dangerous Liaisons.
Love her in Damages, Service in Silence, The World according to Garp, The Lion in Winter .
I hope she finally wins for The Wife!
Would have loved the idea of a Close week; but It kind of fits that not everyone gets her and her performances. She is a breed apart.
I was 15 when I first came across her (via the VHS poster for Dangerous Liaisons) not a particularly happy time - but my incipient Glenn obsession was a big comfort for far too Many years.
One Oscar will never be enough to reward her talent - so in some ways I’d almost be happier with a 7th nomination without a win. Almost.
AIR FORCE ONE was my first R-rated movie in the theater and I thought she was a total badass.
She should have won the Oscar for "Dangerous Liasons"
The first movie I saw her in was in Dangerous Liaisons -- that confrontation scene with John Malkovich blew me away. I have been a fan since. I have respect and admiration for the 'strangeness' and 'wildness' of her acting career path that do not always sit well with people and viewers -- she goes where the projects take her, good or bad, and gives us a more compleat picture of her non-classifiable talent.
I thought she was great, verging on the sublime in Dangerous Liaisons, Fatal Attraction, The World According to Garp, The House of the Spirits, Damages, Sunset Boulevard and The Wife. And I tried to watch her other film and TV performances through the years when I can and there's something to savor in each of them. In Maxie, the attitude she adopted prefigure her Norma Desmond, Cruella De Vil and Mrs Faraday performances, albeit more tonally consistent and endlessly colorful in the latter roles. In Heights, she combined the occasionally irritating fussiness of earth mother Jenny Fields with the hauteur of the cosmopolitan Olivia Pace. She was unafraid to up the camp of Camille Dixon, Nicolette Cayman, Marsha Dale and Claire Wellington that simultaneously woo and repel the film audience. I always see the character she is playing before I sense that Glenn Close the actress is playing those characters. Even in her cameo in In & Out.
There is a perverse part of me that wishes she will remain Oscar-less if only to show how this big acting award is a reminder that an outsized talent does not need to be popular and be accorded with a prize. And that even the industry's very best can still fly under the radar and remain undervalued. But I will nevertheless cheer if and when she goes up that stage next year to receive her Oscar.
I saw 16 o them (17 with Tarzan).
My favorites of all time are Dangerous Liaisons and Fatal Attraction. Shoul had won the Oscars!
She is good friend with Michelle Pfeiffer, so how better she can be? 🙃❤️
And I understand why so many people are agnostic about her: it is difficult to see God (Glenn) when the Devil (Meryl) pass so many time on the screen (big and small).
The thought of you not finding enough writers to write about her for a week after a year suffering the Streep series, makes me MAD!
Watch your bunny, honey!
23, but, except for "Guardians", the last one was "The Stepford Wives", and I don't remember her in that at all.
"Something About Amelia" was a huge high school water cooler event that year.
And I agree that she should have won for "Fatal Attraction". No more Earth Mother for her!
Glenn and Meryl are in two movies together and both movies suck, I can't understand it.
I’ve seen 36 so far and plan on seeing The Wife as soon as I can plus a few of her other later more obscure releases.
I’ve always been a fan but I can see how for some she might come across as too strident or aggressive.
Like most I admire her big successes (Liaisons, Fatal Attraction, etc.) but looking at this list I realize that some of my favorites of her work came on the small screen. She was profoundly moving in a tricky role in Something About Amelia, lovely and graceful in Sarah, Plain and Tall & Skylark and pitch perfect in the wrenching In the Gloaming.
Of her film work outside those big hits I loved Heights and The Safety of Objects while a bit ragged is an interesting view with a very fine performance from Glenn.
I really hope she wins for The Wife but if that doesn’t happen I hope it at least opens the door for her to return to higher budget and profile projects.
I saw Glenn in The Wife and she is excellent. It’s a great part and she goes from wallflower to breakthrough and then somewhere else.
I’m sure I’ve seen 15 - and there are a few more I think I may’ve seen but am foggy on.
Favorite - Dangerous Lissons. But I liked her an awful lot in Heights too. Can’t wait to see The Wife.
She also won the Tony for Death and the Maiden ( not just nominated)
Thank you so much for FINALLY celebrating the BEST actress EVER (ok sometimes I doubt this when I think of Huppert) to me Close gave THE single one best performance EVER in Dangerous Liaisons and to this day it is the MOST upsetting Oscar lose (Jody Foster in The Accused REALLY? Such a wooden predictable forgettable average performance (I guess the members felt guilty they didn't give her the only Oscar she deserved (Taxi Driver)) Anywho I refuse to get my hope too high (As lucky as I am she'll loose to Gaga) but I am very happy she's in the conversation... Also World according to Gap? Fatal Attraction? Reversal of Fortune? Damages (What she does in the first season of that show I've really seen...) And all those roles she lost to Meryl....
Should have won for World According to Garp, Dangerous Liaisons
Should not have been nominated for The Big Chill, The Natural, Albert Nobbs
Should have been nominated for The Jagged Edge, Reversal of Fortune
Fingers crossed for The Wife
@Nathaniel, on several occasions you've mentioned that this is the best she has been in 20 years. I keep reading it as 30 years (circa Dangerous Liaisons) but now am curious: which late '90s film(s) are you referring to that is as good as her performance in The Wife? In the Gloaming?
What I admire about Close is her seemingly fearlessness and incredible versatility. The fact that she has been oscillating so frequently between stage and screen, big and small, plays and musicals, dramas and comedies, deserves respect. Among her peers (Meryl Streep, Helen Mirren, etc.), she's in a rarefied stratum.
maybe I meant it as 30 years. But I do love her in "In the Gloaming"
Excuse you but she won the Tony for Death and the Maiden.
I know we gays love Gaga but GLENN CLOSE MUST WIN THE OSCAR FOR THE WIFE! Let's campaign our asses for her! Lord knows she deserves it.
She's my Julianne Moore in that I'll follow her to whatever project she does. And when I get an audience with her, she'll probably tell me too, "Really? My god, you've seen some junk then!"
I've seen almost all of them (45), plus The Elephant Man (1982), Orphan Train (1979), and Rules of the Game (1975). I didn't see Too Far To Go (1979), and you forgot Stones for Ibarra (1988). I haven't seen her last eight films with the exception to Crooked House and TGWATG.
Glenn Close should have won for Fatal Attraction since it's a role that has become iconic. In addition, thinking of how she was nearly rejected for the role and turned Alex Forrest into someone difficult to see other actresses playing as effectively further cements her should've-won status.
All great actors bring something to their respective roles. Close clearly loves to act, wants to act, and appreciates the opportunities to do so. This makes her performances so much more enjoyable. She invests/immerses herself in them unlike most other A-list stars, male or female. And ... she plays an impeccable nutcase.
She'd better win that F****** Oscar!!!!
FOSTER4EVA
Do we think if Glenn had gotten that Best Original Song nomination for Albert Nobbs, she would have won that as a safety measure in case a The Wife never eventuated? Man or Muppet won in a two nominee field.
Louis Virtel - "Glenn Close not having an Oscar is like Bjork not having a Grammy: Everyone agrees they're geniuses but unfortunately they scared your dad one time."
Brilliant!
"Louis Virtel - "Glenn Close not having an Oscar is like Bjork not having a Grammy: Everyone agrees they're geniuses but unfortunately they scared your dad one time."
Brilliant!"
LOVE LOVE LOVE this!
I am a diehard fan of Glenn. Looking forward to The Wife.
"War!"
So she got 5 Oscar nominations from her first 8 feature films?! That’s crazy. Althought she herself has admitted some weren’t necessarily deserved: I remember reading how she said she got nominated in The Natural basically necasue she was very well lit in her scenes lol
I've seen 18. Ah, I just love Glenn!
If she really wins finally an Oscar next year, for a "subdued" role nevertheless, even better!
OMG! What a decade this would be! Two Best LEAD Actress winners over 60, one over 50, one over 40 and hopefully one over 70 years old. AMAZING!
But please forgive me, if I can't believe it right now… only if/when Glenn wins the SAG. Then it's done.
Anyway, I just love her in 101 Dalmatians (the Sequel is pretty forgettable except for the scene where she sees Dalmatian dots everywhere).
I also love her hilarious cameo in Hook. I never though that was HER. XD
Meryl is her friend, so I think she'll suppert her 100% and be estatic on Oscar night. I don't know though what roles Glenn didn't get because of Meryl. I only know about Bridges of Madison County and I'm not sure if People are actually sad. I mean, I just can't picture Glenn in that role.
Also a friendly reminder Meryl lost roles to Madonna and Emma Thompson, so not even her can really get everything she wants.
@Sonia, which role did Streep lose to Thompson? The coveted role of Evita is, of course, casting legend, but the other one is news to me.
The Remains of the Day and thank God she didn't do it.
I love Glenn Close and I hope she wins the Oscar (stay away Lady Gaga! Lol). It's also not fair to keep bashing Meryl for Close not getting the roles or not receiving the accolades that have accorded to Meryl. Hey Close won a couple of Tonys that Meryl would have groveled to get her hands on.
I can imagine Glenn in ANY role I mean come on from The Natural (like the performance or not) to Fatal Attraction? Name another actress with THAT range? (Ok Julianne comes to mine and Nicole and ... never mind name another one?)
I sincerely believe were Close a foreign actress she'd be more highly revered. Hollywood treats its treasures as disposable goods.
Reviewing the posters I realized that I haven't seen, and was unaware of the projects, since Albert Nobbs.
PS - Thank God you didn't include the poster for the failed Amazon pilot - it was wretched.
only seen 10 of them, almost all of which are from her heyday in the 80's, which says to me she has not been in a lot of films of particular interest to me, though I totally like her. I think her best performances were in Fatal Attraction and Dangerous Liasiones (the latter being among my 50 all-time favorite films). Def want to see her in The Wife!
@Mareko
Jepp, Remains of the Day. That truely did upset her and was a reason she didn't talk to Mike Nichols in 10 years, until Angels in America. Though I still don't know how he was responsable for it... Whatever.
@PeggySue
Why not? She might have been as great in that as in Bridges. We'll never know...
But yeah, I'd given Thompson the Oscar for it, if Foster didn't have Silence of the Lambs out.
@Sonja
Close was up for The Iron Lady, The Bostonians, and The Last Station, but was doing other work at the time. All were lead nominations for other women. There may have been other roles she passed on. I know she wanted to the lead in Elena and lost out. At one point, she said that was her biggest disappointment.
You can't trust IMDB to always post correct info, and especially Wikipedia. Glenn Close recently said she needed to check out those websites and 'clean them up'. For example, she and Streep are not 'good friends' as has been suggested. Close said, " We 'have a deep respect for one another." She went on to say they were peers but don't hang out together. In an interview for promoting Crooked House, she also threw a jab at Streep regarding The River Wild thanks to the snarky interviewer being a jerk, but Close played along. It had to do with a gun or something (Close totes a rifle in Crooked House). Anyway, it didn't seem to friendly a comment to me.
@BillyHeldAnOscar
I LOVED Close in Sea Oak! It wasn't the best pilot, but she was extraordinary, especially in the climax. What a performance. I have a feeling Close may call that character back somehow, maybe for a TV movie. I could see Showtime doing something with it, just not a series. If SB doesn't find a director, Close will. She said she's not giving up on it. I think she might do the same for Sea Oak if quality roles don't come her way, and Sea Oak is a hugely meaty role. If it were a cable movie, she'd snag the Emmy faster than you could breathe.
@Mike
Now I have to go back and rewatch! Perhaps I missed something there. :) I'll give it another go.
"Jepp, Remains of the Day. That truely did upset her and was a reason she didn't talk to Mike Nichols in 10 years, until Angels in America. Though I still don't know how he was responsable for it... Whatever."
He produced The Remains of the Day and originally was going to direct. Streep read for him and he decided not to cast her but did not tell her directly, nor did his agent. It's understandable that she was very angry at him. One does not become as successful as Streep if one rises to anger for no reason; she certainly has played the political game well. (I can't really say the same about Glenn when I read some of these quotes, but we'll see if things work out for her this year.)
I dun ustand why muz pple constantly pit Close n Streep agst ea oth? They r both wonderful actresses n we shld b able to luv them both n not take sides n mudsling one or the other.
I tink Close is kinda like a Hepburn or Garbo. The most impt tink to her is getting to do her fav job: acting, the fame n publicity n awards usually take a backseat. To her, it's nice to recv recognitions, but even w/o them, she's juz doing fine. She dun pick projects tinking it will get her a nom or win, tt's y she picked so many indie n eclectic roles.
@Mike
I didn't mean the word "friends" as in BFF, Meryl did somehow stated in her speech Close is "an old friend", say at least someone she sees as a friend, without hanging out. *shrug*
Friends can also neck each other easily. I doubt Meryl minded greately.
Anyway, she's not in Glenn's way this time and I'm pretty sure, if she was asked (and somehow I think she'll be) if Glenn Close deserves an Oscar, she'd say "Hell YES!".
But it's also just my imagination. No one knows these stars for real.
@Suzanne
Yeah, that was it. Thanks for clarification. 8)
@ Sonja
You're right! No one knows what these stars are thinking. It's so political.
@ BillyHeldAnOscar
You'll have to watch a rancid copy on Youtube. Amazon pulled Sea Oak right after it wasn't picked up. Such a shame. I could watch the last 10 minutes or so on repeat.
I've seen 9. I still really need to see Garp and The Big Chill but never get around to them. I love her in FA but honestly, Cher is so freakin' great in Moonstruck and those kind of performances are always underrated. But if Close HAD won for FA then maybe they would not have bothered with Albert Nobbs and one of the many, many more deserving actresses of 2011 would've gotten in instead.
It's too bad she's basically getting too old for a Sunet Blvd musical movie. I mean, I hope they do make it because it could be great and the age thing wouldn't have to be that big of a problem.