Glen Close: By The Numbers

As a kid my first knowledge of Glen Close came with Hook; my eldest sister informing me that one of the pirates was in fact actually a women done up in makeup. My initial thoughts were disbelief, amazed at her acting ability, and of course the 'Aw' factor. No wait, I mean 'Ew' factor. Course seeing the actress without the beard was little better. First impressions being what they are, I suppose there could be said to be some bias involved. Except that I grew up, and while I don't particularly care for Glen close, I have liked her in some things. The Sarah Plain and Tall series for instance (come for the Christopher Walken, stay for the heart warming) I thought she was particularly memorable. Course that's TV and I don't count TV when running the numbers.

First a quick rundown of how this all works for anyone new:

I take all the films an actor or actress has been in and break them down into three categories, 'Good' 'Bad' and 'Okay.' I do not count TV appearances or Made for TV movies. Afterwards a quick analysis will show whether or not they're a good actor by the numbers. Invariably there is a 2-3 +/- point bias on a person to person basis. Also, since 'ok' movies are not bad they count towards the positive column in the overall figuring. If, by the numbers, they fall in the 50 - 60% range, they're a bad actor; 61 - 70% good actor, and 71 - 80% great actor. Anything higher is unlikely, but will be classified as "elite."




Now let's see those numbers:

Honestly I was expecting her to do better. Glen Close has a reputation for pursuing strong characters that are often outside of many an actress's comfort zone. Course that doesn't necessarily translate to quality. Also as I've noted in previous columns I do consider television to be a different kind of acting and so some of the good work she's done there would be counted to her favor should she be rated according to TV credits. Mind you with 62% positive, she does just squeak into the good actress column. And while I expected her to do better, that feels about right to me. She can act, but she's far from being a great actress. One note though is that the rating for The Natural on IMDB I felt was harshly low. What's up with that? It's a good film.

This week's pick was chosen by the ever creative Stacey over at Scrap With Stacey.

It's been awhile since I did one of these but I feel it's time to get busy rating some actors. Anyone you'd like to see covered? If I haven't already done them I'll put them on the list.