Glenn Close

b. 19 March 1947, Greenwich, Connecticut, USA. Although known primarily as an accomplished actress in movies such as The World According To Garp, The Big Chill, The Natural, and especially Fatal Attraction, Dangerous Liaisons, Reversal Of Fortune, and 101 Dalmatians, Glenn Close has also made an important contribution to the musical theatre. After majoring in drama and anthropology at the College of William & Mary, she worked in regional theatre before appearing in Richard Rodgers’ ill-fated musical Rex in the late 70s. She was nominated for a Tony Award for her performance as P.T. Barnum’s feisty wife, Charity, in the Broadway musical Barnum (1980), and won Tonys for Best Actress in Tom Stoppard’s play, The Real Thing (1984), and Ariel Dorfman’s Death Of A Maiden (1992). However, Close achieved her greatest triumph so far when she portrayed the ageing film star, Norma Desmond, in the Broadway production of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical, Sunset Boulevard (replacing original actress Patti LuPone). Her ‘untamed, larger-than-life performance’ - for which she was hailed as ‘the exciting new star of the American musical theatre of the 90s’ - won one of the show’s seven Tony Awards, for Best Actress In A Musical.