Renowned Actress Glenn Close to Speak at The Harvey School

Stage, screen and television actress Glenn Close will appear at The Harvey School in Katonah on Saturday, Jan. 23, as part of the community program series “Harvey Presents,” school officials announced.

The evening discussion will take place at 7:30 p.m. at the school’s Walker Center for the Arts. Close, a six-time Academy Award nominee and winner of three Tonys and three Emmys, will be interviewed by special guest host and Bedford resident Pat Collins, the acclaimed film and theater critic.

Tickets for “Harvey Presents: An Evening with Glenn Close” are on sale now for $45 for General admission, and $60 for a Meet and Greet photo opportunity. Seating is limited.

To order tickets visit the website www.harveyschool.org and click on Glenn Close under “Announcements.” For more information call (914) 232-3161 ext. 161.

Bios on Glenn Close and Pat Collins:

Actress Glenn Close recently completed filming the sci-fi thriller, “What Happened to Monday,” with Noomi Repace for director Tommy Wirkola; “She Who Brings Gifts,” the screen adaptation by M.R. Carey of his best-selling, post-apocalyptic thriller “The Girl With All the Gifts,” co-starring Gemma Arterton and directed by Colm McCarthy; the romantic comedy “Wilde Wedding,” opposite John Malkovich; and the comedy “Bastards,”directed by Larry Sher and co-starring Ed Helms, Owen Wilson, JK Simmons, Ving Thames and Terry Bradshaw, all in 2015.

In April and May 2016, Close will reprise her Tony Award-winning role in Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical “Sunset Boulevard,” in a special concert production with the English National Orchestra in London.

Glenn Close made her feature film debut in George Roy Hill’s “The World According to Garp.” Her performance in the film earned her awards from the Los Angeles Film Critics Association and the National Board of Review as well as her first Academy Award nomination. She was subsequently Oscar-nominated for her performances in Lawrence Kasdan’s “The Big Chill:” Barry Levinson’s “The Natural;” Adrian Lyne’s smash “Fatal Attraction;” and Stephen Frears’ “Dangerous Liaisons” (for which she was also a BAFTA Award nominee).

Close received her sixth Academy Award acting nomination in 2012, along with Golden Globe and SAG nominations, for the feature film “Albert Nobbs.” She starred in the title role alongside a distinguished cast that includes Mia Wasikowska, Aaron Johnson, Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Brendan Gleeson, Brenda Fricker and Janet McTeer. Rodrigo Garcia, for whom Close starred in two previous films, directed. In addition to writing the screenplay with (Man Booker prize-winning novelist) John Banville, Close was also a producer on the film and she composed the lyrics for the Golden Globe and World Soundtrack nominated song, “Lay Your Head Down.” She received the Irish Film and Television Award (IFTA) as “Best Foreign Actress,” was voted “Best Actress” at the 2011 Tokyo International Film Festival, the AARP “Movies for Grownups” Award as “Best Actress” and was honored for her performance by the San Sebastian Film Festival (Donostia Award), Hollywood Film Festival, Mill Valley Film Festival and the Palm Springs Film Festival.

In 2014, Close completed filming on five features: “Low Down,” which debuted at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival, for director Jeff Preiss, co-starring John Hawkes and Elle Fanning; “5 to 7,” with Anton Yelchin, Bérénice Marlohe and Frank Langella for writer-director Victor Levin; “Anesthesia” for writer-director Tim Blake Nelson, which premiered at the 2015 TriBeCa Film Festival; and “The Great Gilly Hopkins” with Kathy Bates, Julia Stiles and Sophie Nelisse. She is one of the stars of the 2013 global hit, “Guardians of the Galaxy.”

Close’s other films include Richard Marquand’s “Jagged Edge;” Barbet Schroeder’s “Reversal of Fortune;” Franco Zeffirelli’s “Hamlet;” István Szabó’s “Meeting Venus;” Ron Howard’s “The Paper;” Stephen Herek’s “101 Dalmatians;” Kevin Lima’s “102 Dalmatians;” Wolfgang Petersen’s “Air Force One;” Robert Altman’s “Cookie’s Fortune;” Rose Troche’s “The Safety of Objects;” Merchant Ivory’s “Le Divorce;” Chris Terrio’s “Heights;” Rodrigo García’s “Things You Can Tell Just by Looking at Her and Nine Lives;” and Lajos Koltai’s “Evening.”

In 2012, Glenn Close headlined the fifth and final season of the critically acclaimed original legal thriller, “Damages.” For her riveting portrayal of high-stakes litigator ‘Patty Hewes,’ Glenn was nominated for a 2012 Emmy Award, a 2010 Emmy Award and won two consecutive Emmys as “Best Actress in a Drama Series” for “Damages” in its first two seasons. For the show’s 2009 premiere season, she won a Golden Globe Award in addition to the Emmy and received a SAG nomination. She was also nominated for a 2010 Golden Globe and both a 2011 and 2010 SAG Award. Prior to “Damages,” Close won rave reviews and an Emmy nomination for her portrayal of Captain Monica Rawling in a season-long story arc on FX’s “The Shield.”

Close’s 12 Golden Globe Award nominations include a win for “Best Actress in a Miniseries or Motion Picture for Television” for her performance in Andrei Konchalovsky’s adaptation of “The Lion in Winter” (which also earned her a SAG Award).

The latter is also among the television projects that have brought her 12 Emmy Award nominations, among them a win for her portrayal of real-life hero Margarethe Cammermeyer in Jeff Bleckner’s “Serving in Silence: The Margarethe Cammermeyer Story,” which Close executive produced, and for which as producer she received a Peabody Award.

Her other notable films for television include Jack Hofsiss’ taped staging of “The Elephant Man;” Randa Haines’ “Something About Amelia;” Jack Gold’s “Stones for Ibarra;” Christopher Reeve’s “In the Gloaming” (for which she won a CableACE Award) and Richard Pearce’s musical remake of “South Pacific,” in which she starred and sang as Nellie Forbush, and which she executive-produced. She executive-produced and starred three times opposite Christopher Walken in the “Sarah, Plain and Tall” trilogy, directed, alternately, by Glenn Jordan and Joseph Sargent. She likewise executive-produced and starred in “The Ballad of Lucy Whipple,” directed by Jeremy Kagan.

Glenn Close made her professional theater, and Broadway, debut in Harold Prince’s revival of “Love for Love.” Other early stage credits include Paul Giovanni’s “The Crucifer of Blood” and Simone Benmussa’s adaptation of “The Singular Life of Albert Nobbs,” for which she won an Obie Award. Close’s first Tony Award nomination came for her role in Joe Layton’s musical “Barnum” and she subsequently won Tony Awards for her performances in “The Real Thing” and “Death and the Maiden,” both directed by Mike Nichols.

For her portrayal of Norma Desmond in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical “Sunset Boulevard,” Close won a Tony Award, a Drama Desk Award, a Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award and a Dramalogue Award. She would later reteam with the show’s director, Trevor Nunn, in London for his Royal National Theatre revival of “A Streetcar Named Desire.”

Glenn Close returned to Broadway in November 2014 for the first time in 20 years to lead a high-powered cast in a widely-praised production of “A Delicate Balance,” Edward Albee’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play. The cast included John Lithgow, Lindsay Duncan, Martha Plimpton, Bob Balaban and Clare Higgins.

Close received the Donostia Award for career achievement at the 2011 San Sebastian Film Festival. She has been honored with a Crystal Award from Women In Film; a GLAAD Media Award; a People’s Choice Award; the National Association of Theatre Owners’ Female Star of the Year award at ShoWest and a Gotham Award for her contributions to the New York independent filmmaking community. She is a trustee emeritus of The Sundance Institute, having served as a board member for 16 years.

In 2009, Glenn Close co-founded Bring Change 2 Mind, a not-for-profit organization dedicated to confronting, head-on, the stigma and discrimination associated with mental illness. The idea for the organization came about following Close’s firsthand observation of battles with mental illness within her family. Ms. Close’s sister, Jessie, is successfully living with bipolar disorder and Jessie’s son, Calen, is living with schizoaffective disorder. All three are actively involved in spreading The Bring Change 2 Mind mission to end the stigma and discrimination surrounding mental illness through widely distributed Public Education Materials and programs based on the latest scientific insights and measured for effectiveness. For more information please visit, Bringchange2mind.org.

The idea for this movement evolved out of Ms. Close’s firsthand observation of battles with mental illness within her family. Ms. Close’s sister, Jessie, is living with bipolar disorder and Jessie’s son, Calen, is living with schizoaffective disorder. All three are actively involved in spreading The Bring Change 2 Mind mission of tackling the stigma and discrimination of mental illness where they live – in all of us.

Close actively supports Puppies Behind Bars and their program Dog Tags: Service Dogs for Those Who’ve Served Us. She co-directed, narrated and co-produced “Pax,” a documentary short subject that looks at the program and the effect it has had on one particular soldier, Sergeant Bill Campbell, who returned home from Iraq with post-traumatic stress and traumatic brain injury. The film has played in film festivals around the country and won an Honorable Mention at the NYC Downtown Short Film Festival.

Close is also a Founding Member of the Panthera Conservation Advisory Committee. Panthera is an international nonprofit whose sole mission is conservation of the world’s 36 species of wild cats.

Pat Collins

Pat Collins, an Emmy Award-winning critic, has enjoyed a long professional relationship with Glenn Close from the actress’s early roles on screen and on Broadway. Collins won Emmys for “The Pat Collins Show” and as a member of the news team at WCBS TV where she served as its film and theater critic. Subsequently, she covered entertainment news for “Good Morning America” and “The CBS Morning News.” At WWOR-TV, Collins hosted a number of behind-the-scenes-Broadway specials in addition to reviewing film and theater for the “10 O’ Clock News.” Collins has hosted several specials for CUNY TV including “Kinky Boots: The Road To Broadway,” a three-part series on independent films, and a special marking the 50th anniversary of “Fiddler On The Roof.”

Collins serves as the president of The Joe Raposo Music Group which administers the catalogue of compositions of her late husband Joe Raposo, a co-creator of “Sesame Street” and its longtime musical director. Pat and her husband William Sarnoff live in Bedford.

Photo: Glenn Close. Photo credit: Brigitte Lacombe