Glenn Close Movies
With elegantly aristocratic features and a career marked by versatility and critical acclaim, Glenn Close is one of Hollywood's most celebrated actresses. Her acclaim is not limited to the film world, as she has also found great success in various television and stage productions, most notably Andrew Lloyd Webber's Broadway musical version of Sunset Boulevard and in the acclaimed 1991 made-for-TV movie Sarah, Plain and Tall (which was successful enough to have two sequels, Skylark and Sarah, Plain and Tall: Winter's End.Born in Greenwich, CT, on March 19, 1947, Close grew up in Africa and Switzerland while her father, a doctor, maintained a clinic in the Belgian Congo. As a high school student at Greenwich's Rosemary Hall, the actress organized a touring rep-theater group and performed a number of folk-singing gigs. After graduating from the College of William and Mary, where she studied anthropology and acting, Close appeared in regional theater and then made her New York stage bow in 1974's Love for Love. Her theater work led to her first film role, when director George Roy Hill, after seeing her in the Broadway musical Barnum, cast her in The World According to Garp (1982). Close won the role of the protagonist's political-activist mother, a portrayal made all the more interesting by the fact that the actress was only five years older than Robin Williams, the actor playing her son. Close earned an Oscar nomination for her work, thus catalyzing the acclaim that was to surround much of her subsequent career.
Close worked steadily through the remainder of the 1980s, winning Oscar nominations for her divergent performances in The Big Chill (1983), The Natural (1984), and Fatal Attraction (1987). In the last of these films, she all but caused the screen to combust with her fearsome portrayal of a woman who gets very, very angry with Michael Douglas. As evidence of her remarkable versatility, Close avoided being typecast as similarly psychotic women, going on to win another Oscar nomination the next year for her devastatingly wicked performance in Dangerous Liaisons.
Further acclaim followed with her role as Sunny Von Bulow in Reversal of Fortune (1990), and Close spent the next decade turning in consistently strong performances in films both good and bad, from the critically and commercially lambasted Mary Reilly (1994) to the all-star Mars Attacks! (1996); 101 Dalmatians (1996), in which she got in touch with her inner drag queen as Cruella De Vil; and Air Force One (1997), which featured her as President Harrison Ford's harried Vice President. In 1999, Close took on two very different roles, first lending her voice to the animated Tarzan as the hero's gorilla mother, and then in Robert Altman's Cookie's Fortune, in which she was able to explore Southern-style insanity as the terrifically unhinged Camille Orcutt.
In addition to her film work, Close has maintained a television and stage career since the early '80s. Her stage work led to Tony Awards for her turns in Tom Stoppard's The Real Thing (1984) and Ariel Dorfman's Death and the Maiden in 1992. She garnered further raves and diva status for her starring role as the legendary Norma Desmond in the 1995 Broadway production of Sunset Boulevard (an excellent singer, Close annually performs the National Anthem for the New York Mets' opening-day game).
On television, she continued to win prestige for performances in Stones for Ibarra (1988), 1991's Sarah, Plain and Tall, in which she starred opposite Christopher Walken, and Serving in Silence: The Margarethe Cammermeyer Story (1995), for which she won an Emmy for her portrayal of the title character. However, it wasn't until 2005 that Close could be seen in a regular series role when she joined the cast of the critically acclaimed FX series The Shield. ~ Rebecca Flint Marx, All Movie Guide
- 1984
- PG
- Add Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes to QueueAdd Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes to top of Queue
Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes is a reverent retelling of the Edgar Rice Burroughs original, with a 1980s-sensibilities slant. Shipwrecked on the coast of Africa, Lord Jack Clayton (Paul Geoffrey) and his pregnant wife Lady Alice (Cheryl Campbell) attempt to survive in the hostile environment, but both die shortly after the birth of their son John. Abandoned in the wilderness, the orphaned John is adopted by a family of rather highly evolved apes, and raised as one of their own. Years later, John-now known as Tarzan, and now played by Christopher Lambert-comes across a party of white hunters. Rescuing one of the intruders, Belgian Captain Phillipe D'Arnot (Ian Holm) from a horrible death , Tarzan is taught to speak English by the grateful D'Arnot. Coming across the remains and possessions of Tarzan's parents, D'Arnot discovers that the Lord of the Jungle is actually the Earl of Greystoke. Brought back to England, Tarzan is introduced to society, where his crude, apelike manners offend everyone--except the likeable (and painfully senile) 6th Lord of Greystoke (Ralph Richardson, in his final film role) and Greystoke's American ward, Jane Porter (Andie McDowell, whose Southern-fried voice is dubbed by Glenn Close). Disturbed at the notion of Tarzan's inheriting Greystoke manner, his more greedy relatives begin plotting against him. But it is Tarzan himself who decides that he cannot adapt himself to England-especially after a painful reunion with his ape foster father, imprisoned in a science-lab cage. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ralph Richardson, Ian Holm, (more)
In this tightly-wound, perceptive film, a young farm boy kills his older brother when a shotgun accidentally goes off then retreats into a shell of silence as his family seems to react against him. Arnold (Jason Presson) and his brother get up at the crack of dawn to go duck hunting, but their happy plans take a tragic turn when Arnold's shotgun gets caught in a barbed wire fence and accidentally goes off, killing his older brother. Arnold is in shock, he sits by his brother's side, he irrationally wanders in a pea patch, slowly picking the vegetables. When he finally goes home and manages to articulate what happened, his parents ignore him in their own grief. His father Joe (Robert Duvall) thinks Arnold does not have a clue about what he did because he just stands there, not speaking or communicating anything at all -- like a stone. Arnold's mother may not understand his behavior -- this is a Montana farming couple, not a pair of psychologists -- but she is not as judgmental as her husband. The family's grief causes some aberrant behavior, making the life of Arnold's next-door Aunt Lu miserable (her philandering husband is taking off after the dead boy's girlfriend), and Arnold senses a kindred spirit in the woman. But his grandfather is the only one who understands that the family should not mistreat Arnold, that he is suffering so intensely he simply cannot express it. When Arnold runs away, escaping to the city of Reno, there is some hope that the boy will find a much-needed emotional release. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robert Duvall, Jason Presson, (more)
The film version of The Natural pulls off the neat trick of conveying the spirit of the Bernard Malamud novel upon which it is based, even while changing both the outcome and the meaning of Malamud's closing chapters. In his first film appearance in four years, Robert Redford plays Roy Hobbs, a farm boy with a hankering to be a great baseball player. With his faithful homemade bat "Wonderboy" in hand, Roy heads to the big city. En route, he arouses the fascination of the mysterious Harriet Bird (Barbara Hershey). Luring the boy to a hotel room, Harriet asks Roy what he wants out of life. Roy brashly responds he wants to be "the best there is," whereupon Harriet whips out a gun and shoots Roy down. Sixteen years later, a humbler Roy Hobbs emerges from the bush leagues to become a 35-year-old "rookie" on the 1939 lineup of the New York Knights. He soon becomes the team's star player, and in so doing once more attracts enigmatic woman Memo Paris (Kim Basinger), the glamorous niece of the Knights' manager Pop Fisher (Wilford Brimley) and the mistress of Rothstein-like gambler Gus Sands (a curiously unbilled Darren McGavin). Roy's fascination with Memo compromises his ability to play, but this time he finds salvation in the form the angelic Iris Gaines (Glenn Close), his childhood sweetheart. From this point forward, the script for The Natural bears very little resemblance to the Malamud original. Without giving anything away, it can be said that Roy Hobbs is given a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to compensate for the mistakes of his youth, despite the demonic intrusion of inexplicably spiteful sports writer Max Mercy (Robert Duvall). The Natural elevates the art of slow-motion photography to new heights; while this technique would become precious and boring in later baseball films, it works beautifully here, as does the decision by director Barry Levinson and cinematographer Caleb Deschanel to convey the symbolism inherent in the story in purely visual rather than blatantly verbal terms. (If the characters told you that the story was a retelling of the Camelot legend in baseball terms, would you have watched?) Another plus is the pastoral theme music by Randy Newman, which has been well utilized on sports broadcasts and "human interest" TV documentaries ever since. The baseball scenes in The Natural were staged at War Memorial Stadium in Buffalo, New York. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robert Redford, Robert Duvall, (more)
Embraced by the Baby Boomer generation and spawning countless imitators, the sophomore film of writer-director Lawrence Kasdan was a successful comedy-drama with a best selling soundtrack of Motown hits. Kevin Kline and Glenn Close star as Harold and Sarah Cooper, a couple whose marital troubles are put on hold while they host an unhappy reunion of former college pals gathered for the funeral of one of their own, a suicide victim named Alex. As the weekend unfolds, the friends catch up with each other, play the music of their youth, reminisce, smoke marijuana, and pair off with each other in unexpected combinations. Included are Michael (Jeff Goldblum), a smarmy journalist; Sam (Tom Berenger), a TV star; Karen (JoBeth Williams), unhappily married and pining for Sam; Nick (William Hurt), a drug-addicted Vietnam vet; and Meg (Mary Kay Place), a single career woman who wants a child. Joining the group is Alex's bizarre girlfriend Chloe (Meg Tilly), who finds new love with Nick. As they learn to deal with the truth about the loss of idealism in their lives and Alex's sad demise, the friends find their bond still intact, while the marriage of Harold and Sarah is healed in an unusual way that's in sync with the era of their youth. Cut from the release of The Big Chill (1983) was the brief appearance of young actor Kevin Costner as Alex. Kasdan promised Costner a role in his next picture, which turned out to be a star-making part in Silverado (1985). ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Kevin Kline, Glenn Close, (more)
- 1982
This TV adaptation of Bernard Pomerance's play The Elephant Man differs radically from the 1980 theatrical film of the same name. Both are based upon the same true story: that of John Merrick (1863-1890), an unfortunate citizen of Victorian England who suffered from neurofibromatosis, a hideously deforming disease that all but condemned him to a lifetime of circus sideshows. Though he remained trapped in his misshapen body, Merrick was intellectually and emotionally liberated by London physician Frederick Treves, whose sensitive treatment of the "Elephant Man" unlocked the soul beneath his horrific appearance. But whereas the film was graphically realistic in its use of makeup, the TV version follows the precedent set by Pomerance's play: John Merrick's deformity is conveyed purely through the vocal and physical contortions of actor Philip Anglim, repeating his Broadway role. Also carried over from the stage version is Kevin Conway as Dr. Treves. The TV version of The Elephant Man was telecast as an ABC Theatre of the Month special on January 4, 1982. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
The 1982 film version of the John Irving novel The World According to Garp attempts to captures the quirky spirit while condensing the Irving original. Robin Williams plays the title character, the son of unmarried, unorthodox feminist Jenny Fields (Glenn Close, in her film debut). Every effort made by Jenny to broaden Garp's outlook on life -- she even arranges for him to spend the night with a hooker (Swoosie Kurtz) -- crams more fears and phobias into his psyche. Aspiring to become a novelist, Garp succeeds in this goal at the same time that his mother publishes her first feminist manifesto. Though successful and happily married to college sweetheart Helen Holm (Mary Beth Hurt), Garp remains envious of his fearless mother, who has taken in the radical "Ellen Jamesians," a group named after a young woman who had her tongue cut out by a rapist. Mutilation, in fact, becomes something of a leitmotif in Garp's life, climaxing (in every sense of the word) in an auto accident brought about by Helen's tryst with Michael Milton (Mark Soper). There is, of course, much more to the story than this: standing out amongst the dozens of offbeat supporting characters is John Lithgow as Roberta Muldoon, a transexual ex-football jock. John Irving appears as a referee during a college wrestling match, while director George Roy Hill plays the pilot whose low-flying plane crashes into Garp's new home. The World According to Garp didn't attract as large an audience as other, more conventional Robin Williams vehicles, though Close and Lithgow would both be nominated for Best Supporting Actor statues. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robin Williams, Mary Beth Hurt, (more)
A series of 17 short stories by American writer John Updike form the basis for this examination of the rocky marriage of a New England couple. The movie was made for television in 1979 and directed by Fielder Cook. Updike's stories focus on the issues of fidelity and responsibility hiding beneath the calm veneer of American suburban affluence. Michael Moriarty plays Richard Maple, a non-conformist middle-class man married to Joan Barlow Maple (Blythe Danner). Glenn Close plays the home-wrecker Rebecca. The couple's problems are both traced to childhood incidents in which their propensity for taking the easy way out is established. ~ Michael Betzold, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Michael Moriarty, Blythe Danner, (more)
- 1979
In the second half of the 19th century, some 100,000 abandoned or poverty-stricken New York children were relocated to midwestern families by the Children's Aid Society. Made for television, Orphan Train is a fictionalized account of the early days of the Society in 1854. Top billing goes to Jill Eikenberry as a minister's daughter and Kevin Dobson as a photojournalist. Eikenberry shepherds the first group of orphans from New York to Pennsylvania, Ohio, Illinois and Indiana, with Dobson along for the ride in hopes of getting the exclusive story. En route, the orphans encounter hostility from so-called "respectable" people and danger from a fire and a train crash. The supporting cast includes Glenn Close, five years away from her theatrical-movie debut in The World According to Garp. Based on a novel by Dorothea G. Petrie, Orphan Train was initially telecast December 22, 1979. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jill Eikenberry, Kevin Dobson, (more)
A cynical husband's apathetic philosophy is put to the test when his adulterous wife draws him into a duel against her exasperated lover in this adaptation of Liugi Pirandello's upper class tragicomedy starring Joan Van Ark, David Dukes, Glen Close, and John McMartin. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
