Photo via Glenn Close's Instagram (she's great at social media!)
The great and still Oscar-less Glenn Close is 77 today. If seven is a good luck number than we wish her a double-lucky year that somehow leads her to Oscar nomination #9. I bring Glenn up because I promised a longtime reader a retrospective on Fatal Attraction (1987) so long ago that he probably knows how she feels still waiting for that naked gold man for what has been an inexcusably long time. Given that it's Glenn's birthday and given the long-ass wait, I felt compelled to commit publicly to discussing this movie this upcoming weekend scene-by-scene style like we haven't done since just before the pandemic (only I'll do this one solo). It's such a great thriller and it really holds up.
Anyway, before we dive into Glenn's most zeitgeisty moment, let's have a chat about her Oscar history...
8 Oscar nominations
Currently Glenn holds the record for most acting nominations without a win in a tie with Peter O'Toole. The only living actor who is anywhere close to that record is Amy Adams (six noms without a win). Do you think she should have won for any of these titles?
- The World According to Garp (1982) - film debut! LAFCA win, NBR win
- The Big Chill (1983) - second film/second nomination... what a batting average from the jump.
- The Natural (1984) - the kind of nom you only get if they can't get enough of you in that particular time frame.
- Fatal Attraction (1987) - her biggest non-franchise hit as a leading lady.
- Dangerous Liaisons (1988) - when they had such a perfect opportunity to reward her but thought "nah" for still terribly annoying reasons
- Albert Nobbs (2011) - the 'dream project' nod that sometimes happen to well loved actors even if people don't like their film
- The Wife (2018) - Globe & Spirit & SAG win
- Hillbilly Elegy (2020) - the film everyone involved would surely like to forget for current fascist-dystopia reasons
Key non-Oscar nominated turns?
Any actor of Glenn Close's fame and calibre will have non-Oscar roles that were key in some way in the overall story of their career. If we had to pick a handful of films (alongside the Oscar noms) to paint a fuller picture of her film career, it would probably be the following:
- Jagged Edge (1985) - consider it a kind of warm-up to Fatal Attraction
- Reversal of Fortune (1990) - the sign that she had lost her Oscar default status since they were definitely paying attention to the film
- 101 Dalmatians (1996) - her second biggest leading lady hit.
- Heights (2005) - arguably her best film work in the decade when her movie career was sputtering out.
- Guardians of the Galaxy (2014) - the kind of thankless role in an event film that Hollywood always shoves aging legends into if they're still eager to work. Thankfully two more Oscar brushes were ahead of her still.
QUESTION: If you were a casting director or an auteur-fan what kind of project would you be looking for / writing for her in order to nab her that record-breaking 9th Oscar nomination?