Glenn Close is an undeniable Hollywood legend. For over 40 years, she has been a mainstay on the big screen, and occasionally the small one too, proving herself as one of the industry's most versatile and reliable actors.
Throughout her illustrious career, Glenn Close's performances have earned her eight Academy Award nominations. Shockingly, Close has yet actually to win an Oscar. Because she is such a powerful actress, a case could be made that she should have won each nomination.
'Hillbilly Elegy' (2020)
It was pretty clear then, but it has only become more obvious that Ron Howard's Hillbilly Elegy was a mistake for everyone involved. The misguided melodrama fails to do much except judge its characters and look down on their lives. Not only is it a bad movie, but the lead character, J.D. Vance, whose memoir the movie is based on, is currently running for Senate in Ohio as a far-right extremist, something that Howard, Close, and Amy Adams likely aren't proud of. The movie tries to avoid any political implications for its characters, but in retrospect, it's impossible to swallow.
With all that being said, you can't help but admire that Glenn Close still turned in a performance worthy of an Oscar nomination. She steals every scene she's in as the foul-mouthed, tough, but loving Mamaw. While Youn Yuh-jung deserved to win at the 2021 Oscars for her role in Minari, you could argue that Close winning would be deserved, considering that she didn't let the movie around her affect her stellar performance.
'The Natural' (1984)
Based on a novel by Bernard Malamud, Barry Levinson's The Natural follows a middle-aged man who suddenly becomes a baseball superstar thanks to his supernatural ability at the sport. The film earned four Oscar nominations, but the only acting nomination went to Glenn Close for her supporting role as Iris, the love interest of Robert Redford's lead character.
Many movies feature women as love interests for their male leads, giving little for the women to do. Glenn Close doesn't have much screen time in The Natural, which is fair. The movie isn't about Iris, but no one makes the most of their screen time better than Glenn Close. When Redford's character is in the hospital, Iris talks to him about the two lives everyone has, and she changes her eyeline in a way that sells the lines better than any words could. At the 1985 Oscars, Close lost to Peggy Ashcroft, another screen legend, in A Passage To India, which was an Oscar juggernaut with 11 nominations. While the film is quite the historical epic, you could argue that Ashcroft was a co-lead that campaigned as a supporting actress. In contrast, Close truly embodied the art and craft of being a supporting character like Iris.
'The World According To Garp' (1982)
Certain actors have such an energy and screen presence that it's almost impossible to exist in a scene with them because you can't compete. Robin Williams was definitively one of these, an example of someone the audience would never tire of watching. That's what makes it so impressive is that Glenn Close received her first Academy Award nomination for her supporting role in George Roy Hill's The World According To Garp, which was also her feature film debut. Based on John Irving's novel, the film follows Williams as T.S. Garp, a struggling writer whose life is thrown for a loop when his mother, Jenny (Close), finds the success he's longed for when she writes a feminist manifesto.
At the 1983 Academy Awards, Close lost out to Jessica Lange for Tootsie, which is pretty hard to argue with. The World According To Garp is a good movie, but Tootsie is a classic. The best argument for Close winning is that Lange should have won her other nomination for that year's Oscars, her lead performance in Frances. But, she was up against Meryl Streep in Sophie's Choice, so that didn't happen.
'The Big Chill' (1983)
Lawrence Kasdan's The Big Chill has an all-time great cast: Glenn Close, Jeff Goldblum, William Hurt, Tom Berenger, Kevin Kline, Meg Tilly, JoBeth Williams, and Mary Kay Place. The hard part of acting in an ensemble cast is that it can be difficult to stand out, especially in a movie like The Big Chill, which gives each member of the cast moments to shine. Close plays Dr. Sarah Cooper, one of a group of college friends who come together to remember their friend who committed suicide. They reflect on their lives up to this point and ponder what their futures will be like.
At the 1984 Academy Awards, Close was the film's only acting nomination, but the film itself had three total nominations. She lost out to Linda Hunt for The Year Of Living Dangerously. Linda Hunt truly transforms for her role as Billy Kwan, but The Big Chill and Close's performance captured the moment in time. It's rare for a movie like that to come along.
'Albert Nobbs' (2011)
Rodrigo Garcia's Albert Nobbs is one of those kind of movies that the Academy loves. It's a period piece with extravagant costumes about a person struggling to fit into society with actors giving over-the-top performances. Glenn Close plays the title character, a woman in 19th-century Ireland living life as a man to escape the hard life he grew up in. When he meets someone else living a similar life, his purpose comes into perspective.
The film received mixed reviews, but Glenn Close and Janet McTeer's performances were praised, and each received nominations at the 2012 Academy Awards. Unfortunately for Close, she was once again up against Meryl Streep, this time for The Iron Lady.
'Dangerous Liaisons' (1988)
Stephen Frears' Dangerous Liaisons is one of the most iconic period pieces of all time. The film, based on a play by Christopher Hampton, which is itself an adaptation of Pierre Choderlos de Laclos' novel, is about a romantic wager turned sinister between French aristocrats in pre-Revolution Paris. Glenn Close plays Marquise de Merteuil, a woman who wants to get revenge against her ex-lover, Le Chevalier Raphael Danceny (Keanu Reeves), by getting Vicomte de Valmont (John Malkovich) to seduce his fiancé Cècile de Volanges (Uma Thurman).
Close is electric in this movie, utilizing sexual manipulation as a tool for her revenge. It's one of the best performances of her career. Unfortunately for Close, at the 1989 Academy Awards, she lost Best Actress to Jodie Foster for The Accused. Foster is incredible in The Accused, which is itself a very important movie, especially when looking back amid the #MeToo movement, but it's hard to deny the fact that, in Dangerous Liaisons, Glenn Close touches cinematic icon status.
'The Wife' (2018)
Björn Runge's The Wife is Glenn Close proving to the world that, even after 30+ years in the industry, she's still a force to be reckoned with. The film follows Close as Joan Castleman as she travels with her husband Joe (Jonathan Price) to Stockholm, where he is set to receive the Nobel Prize for Literature. While there, she goes on a journey of self-empowerment, becoming fed up with supporting her husband without receiving support in return.
This was supposed to be her year. Close's performance is full of quiet looks and powerful monologues that sell the character's pain and anger. Throughout the 2019 awards season, Best Actress seemed like a two-horse race between Close and Lady Gaga for A Star Is Born. They even tied at the Critics' Choice Awards. Then, when the night came, Olivia Colman surprised everyone and won the Oscar for The Favourite, cementing her place in Hollywood as the next Meryl Streep. Giving Close the Oscar would have been deserved because her performance is impeccable, but it also would have been the long-awaited celebration of her career. Colman won her first nomination, but Close is eight in and still hasn't won the Oscar.
'Fatal Attraction' (1987)
Dangerous Liaisons is definitely an iconic role for Glenn Close, but no movie is associated more with the screen legend than Adrian Lyne's Fatal Attraction. The film is an erotic thriller, Lyne's specialty, that follows Dan Gallagher, played by Michael Douglas, whose one-night affair comes back to bite him when Alex (Close) isn't ready to let him go and begins stalking him and his family. Close gives a deranged performance better than any other actor on the planet, and this movie is all the proof you need. You see such mixed emotions in her expressions: pain, anger, love, lust.
At the 1988 Academy Awards, Close lost Best Actress to Cher for Moonstruck. While both roles are iconic, Cher's performance doesn't have the depth of Close's. Moonstruck is safe, while Fatal Attraction is bold. The best argument for why Glenn Close should have won is that Close could have starred in Moonstruck, but Cher couldn't have starred in Fatal Attraction.