In a career spanning more than four decades, Glenn Close is an infinite beauty at 76, and recently celebrating her birthday, the legendary actor confidently showed her makeup-free face and says she still views the world “through the eyes of a 20-year-old.” On March 18, the day before the multiple award-winning actor celebrated her birthday, Glenn Close thrilled fans by posting a video update on her Instagram, where she boasts her natural makeup-free beauty, her short white hair undone.
Updating fans on her health and recent activity, the actor who pulled off a perfect performance as Cruella de Vil in Disney’s live action films 101 Dalmatians and 102 Dalmatians (1996 and 2000), pointed out that the portrait behind her was the painting of Elizabeth I that was on the set of the sequel. Recording from her home in New York, Close explained she was happy to be back with her dog again, after a hectic schedule that included isolating after a Covid diagnosis that kept her from appearing at the 2023 Oscars, where she was intended to present an award with Harrison Ford.
The Reversal of Fortune star also shared that she would soon appear in the Netflix comedy-action film Back in Action, where she co-stars with Jamie Foxx and Cameron Diaz.
Fans praised the stage and screen actor, wishing her good health and thanking her for being an inspiration. One fan writes from Scotland, “…your work is astounding and your posts are so uplifting, your gift and talent in your craft is just mesmerising and I look forward to watching you in your coming projects.”
While another recalls the star’s earlier performances on theater stages before she made the leap to film. The fan writes, “We so loved having YOUR immense talent in the theater. Thank you again!”
The multi-talented star made her Broadway debut as Anjelica in Love for Love in 1974 and later loaned her powerful vocals to animating the deluded silent film diva, Norma Desmond, in the Broadway production of Sunset Boulevard in 1994, a role she revived in 2017.
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She was on Broadway when she was discovered by Hollywood director George Roy Hill, known for Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969), The Sting (1973) and Slapshot (1977), to name a few. The film Hill was working on was The World According to Garp (1982) where she was cast as the mother of Robin Williams, who was only four years younger. Her performance earned her an Oscar nomination, the first of eight in her career, with no wins.
Close then had back-to-back nominations for roles in The Big Chill (1983) and The Natural (1984).
Though the vengeful wife in Fatal Attraction and Dangerous Liaisons (her fourth and fifth nominations) is facing challenges in collecting an Oscar, Close does have three of each in the Golden Globes, Tony Awards and Primetime Emmy Awards.
Her sixth and seventh academy nominations came for her roles in Albert Noobs (2011) and The Wife (2017), both films she acted with her look-alike daughter, Annie Starke, her only child whose father is John Starke. Close was in a relationship with Starke from 1987 to 1991 and previously, she was married three times.
Annie, 35, also shared the screen with her mother in Father Figures, where like in The Wife, she plays a younger version of Close’s character. Close can’t stop gushing about her gorgeous daughter. In an interview with Glamour, she shared, “Well, I’m a mother, so I’m proud of my daughter, most of all. I’m proud that she’s a fantastic human being.” She continued, “I’m proud that she’s fiercer than I am. She’s the person that I call probably the most to get her opinion about something, because she’ll have a perspective that I know I don’t have, and I need that perspective.”
A mutual love that is palpable.
On Close’s birthday, Annie posted a throwback photo of her mom with Michael Douglas and Eddie Murphy, and captioned it, “Happy birthday Queen!!! You legend!!! We love you!!!”
And in January 2019, before the 91st Academy Awards, where Close was nominated for The Wife, Annie posted a photo of the two and calling out @theacademy, she wrote, “You deserve EVERY goddamn award in existence… but especially THIS ONE. CONGRATULATIONS”
Close lost that year to Olivia Coleman’s performance in The Favourite.
The star’s eighth Oscar nomination was for Hillbilly Elegy (2020) where she played the mother of Amy Adams. Considering that Close has appeared on screen or stage for more than 40 years, it’s not surprising the glamorous actor, who played the vengeful bunny boiler 1987 looks older.
Though she admits that sometimes it’s hard to not play into Hollywood’s beauty game, she says, “I’ve always felt that my body is not really who I am. We have this house, if you will, that we look out of during our whole life, and it’s not who you are. It’s made me think about it because I’m 75, and I look out in the world, and I feel like I’m looking out in the world with the energy of somebody in their 20s. And that’s who I am.”
She continues, “But I look at my arm in the morning at a certain light and I go, ‘Ah! Are you kidding me? Whose arm is this? Are you kidding?’ And it’s like, Okay, I see; it’s happening. So, I’m trying to come to the point that I just embrace my—what’s the word they use for it? Creepy skin?” Explaining that she’s determined, every day, to find beauty in even her aging skin.
“Is there a beauty in it? I try to think that maybe it looks like the sand after the tide has gone out. We are so brainwashed about skin. Certainly, about women’s skin. The texture of your skin, and the warm, the hard, smooth bodies against the ones that are fighting to get a waist again. It’s actually fascinating to me, because as our house ages, we should get more and more interesting and interested. And yet you have this facade that people see.” Her façade is one of grace and immense talents.
In addition to her roles in commercially successful films, Close is still challenging herself. In a career first, she appears in a foreign language series, where for her performance in the second season of Tehran, the acclaimed Apple+ thriller, she wears a habib, and speaks fluent Farsi.
“I studied for about two months,” she said. “I had three lessons a day. I said to everyone, ‘I want to speak Farsi that will surprise Farsi speakers.’ And so we worked really hard.”
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