Glenn Close’s career brought her an eighth Oscar nomination in the supporting actress category for her role as Mamaw, the chain-smoking, foul-mouthed, “Terminator” franchise fan and tough-love proponent who takes her struggling grandson under her wing in Ron Howard’s “Hillbilly Elegy.”
Some critics thought Close was the saving grace of the film based on J.D. Vance’s memoir that focuses on an Appalachian family who have fallen on hard times when their once-thriving steel mill town in Ohio is riddled by poverty, addiction, domestic abuse and dead-end jobs.
Close holds the title of the most Oscar losses for an actress, in a tie with the late Peter O’Toole’s losing streak. Olivia Colman‘s performance as ditzy Queen Anne in “The Favourite” allowed her to be crowned with the Best Actress title over Close’s work in 2018’s “The Wife.”
Tour our photo gallery ranking the 17 best movies of Close’s career, including “Fatal Attraction,” “The Natural,” “Dangerous Liaisons,” “101 Dalmatians,” “Albert Nobbs,” “The Big Chill” and more.
-
17. HOOK (1991)
Image Credit: Columbia Pictures Director: Stephen Spielberg. Writers: James V. Hartland and Malia Scotch Marmo. Starring: Robin Williams, Dustin Hoffman, Julia Roberts.
Close proved herself to be a good sport in this reunion with Williams, who played her son in “The World According to Garp,” by committing to a brief yet cheeky cameo. She was virtually unrecognizable behind her male facade in this spin on “Peter Pan.” The actress is disguised as Gutless, a bearded pirate, who commits a “boo boo” and gets locked in a “boo box” filled with scorpions by Hoffman’s Capt. Hook.
-
16. MARS ATTACKS! (1996)
Image Credit: Warner Bros. Director: Tim Burton. Writers: Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski. Starring: Jack Nicholson, Annette Bening, Pierce Brosnan.
In this so-so campy homage to ‘50s sci-fi based on trading cards, Close beat out the likes of Meryl Streep and Stockard Channing for the choice role of wacky First Lady Marsha Dale opposite Nicholson’s president. After a failed try to assassinate her hubby, the Martians invade Washington, D.C. In the ensuing mayhem, she is crushed to death in the White House by her “Nancy Reagan chandelier.”
-
15. HILLBILLY ELEGY (2020)
Image Credit: Netflix Director: Ron Howard. Writer: Vanessa Taylor, based on the book by J.D. Vance. Starring Amy Adams, Glenn Close, Gabriel Basso, Haley Bennett, Freida Pinto, Bo Hopkins, Owen Asztalos.
Based on J.D. Vance’s 2016 tome, “Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis,” which landed on the best-seller lists just months before Donald J. Trump would become 45th president, it was treated like a portal into the mind set of those in the disenfranchised white underclass who supported him. But Howard decided to keep politics out of his film and simply focus on this Kentucky-bred clan who has fallen on hard times along with their neighbors. Amy Adam seems utterly adrift in her than far-from-nuanced role as Vance’s irresponsible mother Bev, who is prone to angry hysterical outbursts and bad taste in men while her addiction to prescription drugs becomes a gateway to being hooked on heroin. And what was Howard thinking when dawdling through a clichéd scene when an adult J.D. goes to a fancy dinner with his peers and becomes flummoxed by what utensils to use. But leave it to Close to put some heart into the proceedings as she volunteers to raise her teen grandson while instilling the right values in him to allow him to succeed. Most importantly, she eschews glam with glee, with a wig that looks like a gray Brillo Pad, unflattering glasses and ill-fitting T-shirts that hang to her knees.
-
14. GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY (2014)
Image Credit: Marvel Director: James Gunn. Writers: Gunn, Nicole Perlman. Starring: Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Bradley Cooper, Vin Diesel.
Every star, no matter how revered, is allowed at least one pay-day part in a superhero blockbuster. Close is planetary leader Nova Prime, who recruits a misfit crew of space heroes – including a tree and a raccoon – to save the universe. She was a good sport when it came to wearing a pretzel-style hairdo and was repaid with a few zingers, including calling an ambassador for the Kree, a rival alien race, a “prick.”
-
13. COOKIE’S FORTUNE (1999)
Image Credit: October Director: Robert Altman. Writer: Anne Rapp. Starring: Julianne Moore, Patricia Neal, Liv Tyler, Charles S. Dutton.
You can tell from the jokey title that this is one of Altman’s more light-hearted ensemble efforts. The standout is Close as she spins comic gold as pompous Southern belle Camille, who finds her aunt’s body after she commits suicide. The director of her church’s Easter play reconfigures the death to look like a break-in and murder, throwing her small town into a panic when an innocent black man is a suspect.
-
12. JAGGED EDGE (1985)
Image Credit: Columbia Pictures Director: Richard Marquand. Writer: Joe Esterhaus. Starring: Jeff Bridges, Peter Coyote, Robert Loggia.
You might groan after learning that this drama has Close’s defense attorney Teddy Barnes both fearing and falling in love with client Bridges, a newspaper publisher accused of viciously killing his rich socialite wife with a knife. “Edge” is a typical Esterhaus overheated potboiler, but Close knows how to elevate populist fare, especially when the camera and Ann Roth’s form-fitting work suits accentuate her figure.
-
11. AIR FORCE ONE (1997)
Image Credit: Columbia Pictures Director: Wolfgang Petersen. Writer: Andrew W. Marlowe. Starring Harrison Ford, Gary Oldman, Dean Stockwell.
Close was a late casting choice as the vice president to Ford’s sky-high president in this taught, top-notch thriller. While the commander in chief tries to secretly foil Russians who have hijacked his official plane, her level-headed Kathryn Bennett calls the shots on the ground. Close’s one request: That a crying scene be cut. Her reason? “We’d be doing women a disfavor if we had that cliché moment.”
-
10. REVERSAL OF FORTUNE (1990)
Image Credit: Warner Bros. Director: Barbet Schroeder. Writer: Nicholas Kazan. Starring: Jeremy Irons, Ron Silver.
Irons won an Oscar for his haughtily humorous portrait of Claus von Bulow, who was charged with the 1982 murder of his comatose heiress wife, Sunny, who often overindulged in drink and drugs. But the actor would be nothing without Close’s wifely narration of tawdry tabloid-ready events. Her bemused if downbeat presence ever hovers as she observes, “I like to be in bed. I didn’t much like anything else.”
-
9. THE PAPER (1994)
Image Credit: Universal Director: Ron Howard. Writers: David and Stephen Koepp. Starring: Michael Keaton, Robert Duvall, Marisa Tomei.
In this whirlwind depiction of 24 hours inside a New York City daily tabloid office, Close crackles as the heavy, Alicia Clark, an ambitious managing editor tasked with reducing costs and cutting corners. She particularly resents the boy’s club atmosphere of the newsroom while butting heads with Keaton‘s Henry, her dedicated metro editor. A highlight: When she bloodies his nose in a fight over the presses.
-
8. THE NATURAL (1984)
Image Credit: Columbia Pictures Director: Barry Levinson. Writers: Roger Towne, Phil Dusenberry. Starring: Robert Redford, Robert Duvall, Kim Basinger.
Many a fan of this sports-metaphor-laden fable would probably pick Close’s appearance in the stands as Iris Lemon, the luminous mystery woman in white, as one of their favorites. Redford’s aging baseball hitter Roy Hobbs is desperate for a second chance at a big league career. As he spies her in the stands in a hat that glows like a halo in the sun, Hobbs hits a game-winning home run and comes out of his slump.
-
7. THE BIG CHILL (1983)
Image Credit: Columbia Pictures Director: Lawrence Kasdan. Writers: Kasdan, Barbara Benedek. Starring: Kevin Kline, Mary Kay Place, Jeff Goldblum, William Hurt.
Little is more glorious in this Baby Boomer-palooza than the sight of Glenn Close shaking her suburban groove thing to “Ain’t Too Proud to Beg” by The Temptations while doing dishes and putting away leftovers. Her Sara is a mother hen to a flock of college pals on the occasion of a classmate’s suicide. But the scene when she weeps naked in the shower over the loss of an old lover shows her vulnerable side.
-
6. THE WIFE (2018)
Image Credit: Sony Pictures Classics Director: Bjorn Runge. Writer: Jane Anderson. Starring: Jonathan Pryce, Christian Slater, Max Irons, Annie Starke.
The Wife, a dark comedy stuffed with secrets and regrets, is somewhat more obvious than its star. Intentions are hinted at from the moment we witness Close’s Joan Castleman jumping on her marital bed along with author husband Joe (Pryce) when he gets an early- morning call telling him he has just won a Nobel Prize in literature. That is when we learn it is 1992 and the Clinton sex scandal is all the rage as Hillary stands by her man. As the couple prepares to go to Stockholm to claim Joe’s honor, flashbacks are triggered of a younger Joan in the ‘50s (played by Close’s daughter, Starke) falling for her husband when he was her married-with-newborn writing professor. Joan had shown real promise as a scribe. But she opted to raise two children, while allowing unrepentant womanizer Joe to pursue his dreams of fame and fortune. None-too-subtle hints are dropped about what will be the outcome of their trip. But the film is at its best when Close’s slow-burn performance shoots out escalating emotional sparks as she fiercely consumes the final half hour onscreen. “Please don’t paint me as a victim,” she tells Slater’s gossip hound. “I’m more interesting than that.” She is indeed.
-
5. THE WORLD ACCORDING TO GARP (1982)
Image Credit: Warner Bros. Director: George Roy Hill. Writer: Steve Tesich. Starring: Robin Willliams, John Lithgow, Swoosie Kurtz.
Talk about encouragement. Earning an Oscar nomination for your big-screen debut is no easy feat. But Close fully embodies author John Irving’s larger-than-life feminist icon Jenny Fields. She aspires to be a good mother to Williams’ Garp, her fatherless would-be writer son. But he is forced to exist in her shadow, whether she solicits a hooker for him or pens a massively influential autobiographical tome.
-
4. 101 DALMATIANS (1996)
Image Credit: Disney Director: Stephen Herek. Writer: John Hughes. Starring: Jeff Daniels, Joely Richardson, Joan Plowright.
The filmmakers blew it in this live-action version by not allowing the spotted pooches to speak. But they got their puppy-snatching villainess just right when they cast Close as pelt-craving, high-fashion maven Cruella de Vil, who haughtily howls, “I live for fur – I worship fur.” The actress insisted on taking her cues from the original ‘toon by making her Cruella “bitchier and funnier” than what Hughes envisioned.
-
3. ALBERT NOBBS (2011)
Image Credit: Lionsgate Director: Rodrigo Garcia. Writers: Glenn Close, John Banville, Gabriella Prekop. Starring Janet McTeer, Aaron Johnson, Mia Wasikowska.
Close stood by her Irish cross-dressing manservant since she played him off-Broadway in 1982. Her persistence in turning this shy creature – a rarity for her — into a fleshed-out film character paid off with her getting a sixth Oscar nomination. Says Close, who refers to Albert in female terms: “What I find compelling is Albert doesn’t feel sorry for herself. She has a dream that she doesn’t know is impossible.”
-
2. DANGEROUS LIAISONS (1988)
Image Credit: Warner Bros. Director: Stephen Frears. Writer: Christopher Hampton. Starring: John Malkovich, Michelle Pfeiffer, Uma Thurman, Keanu Reeves.
There were dueling versions of this tale of diabolical deceit and twisted sexual manipulation in 18th-century France. But the less-acclaimed one directed by Milos Forman came out a year later. For her part, Close’s devious Marquise de Merteuil has both wit and nastiness to spare as she collaborates with Malokovich’s Valmont to create havoc in the intimate personal lives of various French aristocrats.
-
1. FATAL ATTRACTION (1987)
Image Credit: Paramount Director: Adrian Lyne. Screenplay: James Deardon. Starring: Michael Douglas, Anne Archer.
If any of Close’s performances touched a nerve, it is her portrayal of Alex Forrest, a sexually available single woman and book editor who has a fling with Douglas while his wife and daughter are out of town. That she won’t go away quietly after their weekend together is probably most men’s worst stalker nightmare. As she has noted, “Men still come up to me and say, ‘You scared the (bleep) out of me.”
