Glenn Close
Actress
Live Webcast March 12, 2003, 1pm ET/10am PT

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Born on March 19, 1947, in Greenwich, Conn., Glenn Close grew up on a 250-acre farm with her parents and three siblings. When she was seven years old, the family moved away to join a conservative evangelical organization. The family's involvement in the group took them abroad to Switzerland and then to the Belgian Congo (now Zaire), where her father, a surgeon, opened and ran a clinic for 16 years. The Close children attended boarding schools in Africa and in Switzerland.

Close returned to Connecticut to attend high school. At Greenwich's Rosemary Hall, she started a theater group. Close received her bachelor's degree in drama and anthropology from the College of William and Mary and then headed to New York to pursue her acting goals.

Close began her acting career in regional theater, then appeared on Broadway in 1974's Love for Love. Her first film role came after director George Roy Hill saw her in Broadway's Barnum and cast her as the family matriarch Jenny Garp in The World According to Garp (1982), for which she was nominated for an Academy Award. Close earned another Academy Award nomination for her role in 1983's The Big Chill. Several more Oscar nominations followed for her performances in The Natural (1984), Fatal Attraction (1987) and Dangerous Liaisons (1988).

Close has maintained a strong television and stage career in addition to her film work. In 1991, Close starred in and served as executive producer for the TV movie Sarah, Plain and Tall and its sequel, Skylark (1992). She has won an Emmy Award for her role in the TV movie Serving in Silence: The Margarethe Cammermeyer Story (1995), and Tony Awards for her roles in The Real Thing (1984), Death and the Maiden (1992) and Sunset Boulevard (1995).

Currently, Close can be heard co-narrating with actor Will Smith the documentary A Closer Walk, which explores the harsh realities of the global AIDS epidemic.

Related Links:

• Glenn Close biography and filmography on IMDB.

• Glenn Close biography and filmography on Blockbuster.com.

• Official Web site of the film, A Closer Walk.

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