American actress, singer, and producer, regarded as one of the greatest actresses of her generation. Close is the recipient of numerous accolades, including three Primetime Emmy Awards, three Tony Awards, and three Golden Globe Awards. A seven-time Academy Award nominee, she holds the record as the actress to have the most nominations without a win. In 2016, Close was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame, and in 2019, Time magazine named her one of the 100 most influential people in the world.
The daughter of a surgeon and a 12th generation New Englander she was raised on the family 500-acre estate. Glenn was the second of four kids. Though her ancestors had helped found the town in the late 17th century, the immediate family shunned the country clubs and yacht crowd and raised the kids without benefit of nannies. A wild tomboy child, Glenn roamed freely both physically and mentally, and decided by the time she was seven that she would be an actress.
In 1960, her dad opened a clinic in the Congo which he ran for 16 years and the kids lived alternately in Africa and at boarding schools in Switzerland, until they returned to Connecticut to live with their maternal grandmother. Glenn went to an exclusive girl’s boarding school where she performed in high school plays and folk-singing groups. A talented lyric soprano, she continuing to polish her craft through traveling with a troupe through Europe and the U.S. for five years. She later referred to that time as “the blank period.” She married rock guitarist Cabot Wade for two years, another contribution to the time she considered lost. Disillusioned with life on the road, she entered William and Mary College in Virginia in 1970 where she majored in drama and minored in anthropology. She received her B.A. and Phi Beta Kappa key four years later.
She appeared in little theater and Off-Broadway for the next several years before hitting the New York stage. She made a film debut in 1982 in The World According to Garp. A natural actress, as versatile as she is talented, Close won nominations as Best Actress in Fatal Attraction (1987) and Dangerous Liaisons (1988). Her top roles also included The Big Chill and The Natural. On Broadway, she won a Tony for The Real Thing, and also raves for her Sunset Blvd.
On 1 September 1984, Close wed James Marlas, a New York venture capitalist whom she met after the stage premiere of “The Real Thing” on 5 January 1984. They separated three years later, and she rekindled an affair with producer John Starke. Their daughter, Annie Maud, was born on 26 April 1988. Since then, she has been linked romantically with younger men, most notably Woody Harrelson and hockey player Cam Neely.
Close lives in an elegantly restored farmhouse in horse country in New York as a single mom with her adored daughter. With two marriages behind her, in March 1995 she announced her engagement to eight-year-younger stage carpenter Steve Beers. She enjoys playing tennis, is an accomplished equestrienne, and has sung the national anthem before Mets games at Shea Stadium. She tries to remain private in her personal life and is reserved and controlled in public.
Link to Wikipedia biography