Glenn Close spent fifteen childhood years inside a movement she calls a cult
From the age of seven, Glenn Close lived in communal centres run by Moral Re-Armament, a movement that decided what she wore and what she could say. She broke free at 22, crediting her longing to act. Five decades later she holds three Tonys, three Emmys and eight Oscar nominations.
Greenwich, Connecticut, saw Close's birth on March 19, 1947. Her father, a doctor, ran a clinic in the Belgian Congo and became personal physician to Mobutu Sese Seko; the family adopted a son, Tambu Misoki, while living there. She grew up in a stone cottage on her grandfather's estate, and she credits roaming the countryside in make-believe games for making acting feel natural. Despite a persistent rumour, her birth name really is Glenn, not Glenda.
Her parents joined Moral Re-Armament when she was seven, and the family stayed for 15 years. She studied in Switzerland, graduated from Rosemary Hall in 1965, and toured with the singing group Up With People, even forming a quartet called the Green Glenn Singers. After leaving the movement she double-majored in theatre and anthropology at William and Mary, where watching Katharine Hepburn interviewed on The Dick Cavett Show pushed her towards acting for good. She has said she forgave her parents, while acknowledging the damage the movement did to their children.
Stage came first: a Broadway debut in Love for Love in 1974, then Tony Awards for The Real Thing, Death and the Maiden and the musical Sunset Boulevard. Her first film, The World According to Garp (1982), brought an immediate Oscar nomination. Fatal Attraction and Dangerous Liaisons followed later that decade, and she played Cruella de Vil in 101 Dalmatians and voiced Kala in Tarzan.
Television gave her an Emmy for playing Colonel Margarethe Cammermeyer and two more for the ruthless lawyer Patty Hewes in Damages. Later film work included Albert Nobbs, The Wife and Wake Up Dead Man. The Academy gave her an honorary Oscar in 2026. A genealogy show revealed she is distantly related to Diana, Princess of Wales, and to Clint Eastwood.
Source: Glenn Close
