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.