Eccentric mother of Garp, bunny-boiling nightmare of the adulterous men of the 80s, sly and seductive French marquise, and the incarnation of Cruella de Ville. I'll just come out and say it before I move on to the more factual bio stuff - Glenn Close is one fine actress.
She was born March 19, 1947 in Greenwich, Connecticut. Her father was a surgeon, her mother a homemaker, and she has three siblings. The family was, for a long time, part of a sectarian religious movement - Moral Re-Armament - that brought them to Congo for several years, for her father to serve as a missionary. She has been married - and divorced - twice and has one daughter.
Close got into theatre work studying at The College of William & Mary. She performed on-stage for a long while until her big screen debut at the age of 35 with The World According to Garp based, of course, on the popular novel by John Irving. Major stardom, of course, she gained playing the jealous mistress of the adulterous Michael Douglas in the 80s thriller Fatal Attraction. According to imdb.com she was actually only 4th choice for the part, although I am guessing no one actually came to regret getting to number four on the list. A sly delight on the screen opposite John Malkovich, she played la Marquise de Mertreuil in the 1988 adaptation of the French classic Les Liaisons Dangereuses.
Other notable parts include that of lesbian colonel Margrethe Cammermeyer in the movie based on the true story of the colonel, and - useless, but funny piece of trivia: her voice has been involved in two Tarzan movies, although uncredited in Greystoke (1984). Among her more recent performances, I found that of playing the lonely Dr. Keener in Things you can tell just by looking at her particularly stunning.
Glenn Close has been nominated five times for the Academy Awards, but has not taken any home thus far. She is also a movie producer.