Janet McTeer, OBE (born 5 August 1961)^{Dubious: Discuss[1][2][3][4]} is an English actress.

Early life[link]

McTeer was born in Newcastle upon Tyne, England, the daughter of Jean (née Morris) and Alan McTeer, and spent her childhood in York.^[5] She attended the now defunct Queen Anne Grammar School for Girls, and worked at the Old Starre Inn, at York Minster and at the Theatre Royal.^[6] She then trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, beginning a successful theatrical career with the Royal Exchange Theatre after graduating.^[3]

Career[link]

McTeer's television work includes the BBC production of Nigel Nicolson's book Portrait of a Marriage in which she played Vita Sackville-West and the popular ITV series The Governor written by Lynda La Plante. She made her screen debut in Half Moon Street, a 1986 film based on a novel by Paul Theroux. In 1991, she appeared in Catherine Cookson's The Black Velvet Gown, with Bob Peck and Geraldine Somerville; this won the International Emmy award for best drama. She appeared in the 1992 film version of Wuthering Heights (co-starring Juliette Binoche and Ralph Fiennes) and the 1995 film Carrington (which starred Emma Thompson and Jonathan Pryce).

In 1996, McTeer garnered critical acclaim - and both the Laurence Olivier Theatre Award and Critics' Circle Theatre Award for her performance as Nora in a West End production of Henrik Ibsen's A Doll's House.^[3] The following year, the production transferred to Broadway, and McTeer received a Tony Award, Theatre World Award, and Drama Desk Award as Best Actress in a Play.^[7]

During the show's run, McTeer was interviewed by Charlie Rose on his PBS talk show, where she was seen by American filmmaker Gavin O'Connor, who, at the time, was working on a screenplay about a single mother's cross-country wanderings with her pre-teen daughter. He was determined that she star in the film. When prospective backers balked at her relative anonymity in the States, he produced the movie himself. Tumbleweeds proved to be a 1999 Sundance Film Festival favourite, and McTeer's performance won her a Golden Globe as Best Actress and Academy Award and Screen Actors Guild nominations in the same category.^[8]

McTeer's screen credits include Songcatcher (with Aidan Quinn), Waking the Dead (with Billy Crudup and Jennifer Connelly), the dogme film The King is Alive (with Jennifer Jason Leigh), The Intended (with (Brenda Fricker and Olympia Dukakis), and Tideland, written and directed by Terry Gilliam. She also starred in the dramatisation of Mary Webb's Precious Bane.^[9] She has appeared in such British television serials as The Amazing Mrs Pritchard, Hunter,^[3] and Agatha Christie's Marple (episode: "The Murder at the Vicarage").^[9]

McTeer played Mary, Queen of Scots in Mary Stuart, a play by Friedrich Schiller in a new version by Peter Oswald, directed by Phyllida Lloyd. She acted opposite Harriet Walter as Queen Elizabeth I in London's West End in 2005, a role she reprised in the 2009 Broadway transfer of the production.^[10] McTeer received a Tony Award nomination for her role in Mary Stuart, and won the Drama Desk Award, Outstanding Actress in a Play.

2008 - present[link]

In 2008, she starred in God of Carnage in the West End alongside Tamsin Greig, Ken Stott and Ralph Fiennes, at the Gielgud Theatre.^[11] She reprised her role on Broadway opposite Jeff Daniels from March to June 2010.^[12]

In 2009, she portrayed Clementine Churchill in the HBO feature, Into the Storm, about Sir Winston Churchill's years as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom during World War II.^[13]

In 2011, McTeer starred alongside Glenn Close in Albert Nobbs, and with Daniel Radcliffe and Ciarán Hinds in The Woman in Black, based on the 1983 novel of the same name. Her role as Hubert Page in Albert Nobbs won McTeer critical acclaim and numerous award nominations, including an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress.^[14] It was announced in November 2011 that McTeer had joined the cast of Damages for its fifth and final season (reuniting her with her Albert Nobbs co-star Glenn Close), playing Kate Franklin.^[15] She is set to play American novelist Mary McCarthy in Margarethe von Trotta's upcoming feature, Hannah Arendt.^[16]

OBE[link]

McTeer was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2008 Birthday Honours.^[17]

Filmography[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Janet McTeer at the Internet Movie Database
• Janet McTeer at the Internet Broadway Database
• 1999 interview re: Tumbleweeds^{[dead link]}
• 1999 Salon interview re: Tumbleweeds
• 2007 Guardian interview
• God of Carnage review