Glenn Close is a well-known American actress. Close has received numerous honors throughout her four-decade career, including two Screen Actors Guild Awards, three Golden Globe Awards, three Primetime Emmy Awards, and three Tony Awards. She has also been nominated for an Academy Award eight times, tying Peter O’Toole for the most nominations in an acting category without winning. She was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame in 2016, and Time magazine named her one of the world’s 100 most influential people in 2019. But did you know that her parents were part of a cult?
Glenn Close’s parents were cult members, and she spent 15 years growing up in communes. At the age of 22, she finally broke free.
What Cult were Glenn Close’s Parents In?
Glenn Close’s parents were part of the Moral Re-Armament (MRA). She was part of the group from the age of 7 until she was 22. She explained in an interview that the group was basically a cult that was first started in the 1920s. It was headed by an American Minister who started a worldwide evangelistic campaign based on God’s guidance and moral absolutes.
Everybody spouted the same things, and there was a lot of rules — a lot of control. Because of how we were raised, anything that you thought you would do for yourself was considered selfish. It was really awful. We were so broken up. It’s astounding that something you went through at such an early stage in your life still has such a potential to be destructive. I think that’s childhood trauma.
Glenn Close, Actress
(Source: Today)
Who is Glenn Close?
Glenn Close began her acting career in the theater before breaking out with an Oscar nomination for her performance in The World According to Garp. She established herself as a true leading lady with Oscar nominations for her roles in Fatal Attraction and Dangerous Liaisons, as well as three Tony Awards for her stage work. Close later received high praise for her performance in the legal drama Damages and additional Oscar consideration for Albert Nobbs and The Wife.
Close was making headlines once more for her dedication to her first love, theater. She won the Tony Award for Best Actress in 1992 for Death and the Maiden and again in 1995 for her performance as Andrew Lloyd Webber’s handpicked Norma Desmond in the Sunset Boulevard revival. (Source: Biography)
The Early Life of Glenn Close
Close was born in Greenwich, Connecticut, on March 19, 1947, into an upper-class family with a long history in the northeastern United States. She had two sisters, Jessie and Tina, and one brother, Sandy, growing up.
Even though her parents, Dr. William Close and Bettine Moore Close, were both born into wealthy families, they did not raise Close and her siblings in that milieu.
My parents were real black sheep in Greenwich. We had that as our heritage – my grandparents founded Round Hill Country Club – but we never participated in that kind of life, and I’ve always been a little bit proud of that.
Glenn Close, Actress
Close’s parents joined Moral Rearmament (MRA) in 1954, a cult-like organization that sent its members out to convert people to their brand of spirituality. Close’s parents relocated the family to the Belgian Congo when she was 13 to spread the word; Dr. Close also ran a clinic there.
Glenn Close spent those years dividing her time between African and Swiss boarding schools. She later attended Greenwich prep school Rosemary Hall before joining the MRA-affiliated singing group Up With People, with whom she toured Europe and the United States for four years. (Source: Biography)
Personal Life of Glenn Close
In February 2006, she married her third husband, entrepreneur David Shaw. They separated in August 2015. From 1969 to 1971, she married Cabot Wade, and from 1984 to 1987, she married James Marlas. (Source: Biography)
Image from HollywoodReporter