Janet McTeer Biography

Janet McTeer, (born 5 August 1961) is an English actress. In 1997, she won the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play, the Olivier Award for Best Actress and the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actress in a Play for her role as Nora in A Doll's House (1996-97). She also won a Golden Globe Award and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress for her role as Mary Jo Walker in the 1999 film Tumbleweeds, and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role as Hubert Page in the 2011 film Albert Nobbs. She was made an OBE in the 2008 Birthday Honours.

McTeer made her professional stage debut in 1984, and was nominated for the 1986 Olivier Award for Best Newcomer for The Grace of Mary Traverse. Other theatre roles include Yelena in Uncle Vanya (London), Veronique in God of Carnage (London & New York) and the title role in Mary Stuart (London & New York), which won her a second Drama Desk Award in 2009. On television, she starred in the title role of Lynda La Plante's The Governor (1995–96), received an Emmy Award nomination for Into the Storm (2009) and a Golden Globe nomination for The White Queen (2013).

She also appeared opposite Glenn Close in the final season of the drama series Damages (2012). Her other film roles include Half Moon Street (1986), Hawks (1988), Wuthering Heights (1992), Carrington (1995), Velvet Goldmine (1998), Songcatcher (2000), The Intended (2002), As You Like It (2006), Tideland (2005), Cat Run (2011), Woman in Black (2012), Maleficent (2014), The Divergent Series (2015-16) and Me Before You (2016).

Early life

McTeer was born in Wallsend, Newcastle upon Tyne, England, the daughter of Jean (ne Morris) and Alan McTeer, and spent her childhood in York. She attended the now defunct Queen Anne Grammar School for Girls, and worked at the Old Starre Inn, at York Minster and at the city's Theatre Royal. She performed locally with the Rowntree Players at Joseph Rowntree Theatre, then trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, beginning a successful theatrical career with the Royal Exchange Theatre after graduating.

Career

McTeer's television work includes the BBC production Portrait of a Marriage, an adaptation of Nigel Nicolson's biography of the same name 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) as Vanessa Bell.

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. 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.

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-teenage daughter. He was determined that she star in the film. When prospective backers balked at her relative anonymity in the US, he produced the film 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.

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. She has appeared in such British television serials as The Amazing Mrs Pritchard, Hunter, and Agatha Christie's Marple (episode: "The Murder at the Vicarage").

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. 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

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

In 2009, she portrayed Clementine Churchill in the HBO feature, Into the Storm, about Sir Winston Churchill's years as Britain's leader during World War II.

In 2011, McTeer starred alongside Glenn Close in Albert Nobbs and with Daniel Radcliffe and Ciarn 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. 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. This was her first American television series. She played American novelist Mary McCarthy in Margarethe von Trotta's feature Hannah Arendt.

In 2013 McTeer was cast as Jacquetta of Luxembourg, the mother of the title character in The White Queen, a British television drama series based on Philippa Gregory's bestselling historical novel series The Cousins' War. Her performance was applauded, with Sam Wollaston of The Guardian suggesting she stole the show. In December 2013, McTeer was nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actress for her role as Jacquetta.

On 29 July 2013, it was announced that McTeer had joined the cast of The Honourable Woman, an upcoming BBC spy thriller television miniseries, starring Maggie Gyllenhaal. In 2015, McTeer starred as Commander Kim Guziewicz in CBS comedy-drama Battle Creek, and is currently filming The Kaiser's Last Kiss (in which she is due to portray Princess Hermine Reuss of Greiz), set for a 2016 release.

In 2016, McTeer played Petruchio in the New York Public Theater Shakespeare in the Park all-female production of The Taming of the Shrew, directed again by Phyllida Lloyd. She co-starred alongside Liev Schreiber in "Les Liaisons Dangereuses"? on Broadway, with McTeer cast as Marquise de Merteuil. The play ran from October 2016 to January 2017.

Honours

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

Filmography

Year	Film	Role	Notes
1985	Juliet Bravo	Esther Pearson	Episode: "Flesh and Blood"
1986	Gems	Stephanie Wilde	2 episodes
1986	Half Moon Street	Van Arkady's Secretary
1987	Theatre Night	Miss Julie	Episode: "Miss Julie"
1988	Les Girls	Susan	7 episodes
1988	Hawks	Hazel
1989	Precious Bane	Prue Sarn	Television film
1990	'	Dr. Juliet Horowitz	Episode: "Yellowbacks"
1990	Portrait of a Marriage	Vita Sackville-West	4 episodes
1990	Screen Two	Celeste	Episode: "102 Boulevard Haussmann"
1990–1991	Screen One	Adult Claudie/Caroline	2 episodes
1991	I Dreamt I Woke Up	Mysterious Woman/Lady of Lake/Journalist	Short film
1991	'	Riah Millican	Television film
1992	Dead Romantic	Madeleine Severn	Television film
1992	'	Loretta Lawson	Television film
1992	Wuthering Heights	Ellen (Nelly) Dean
1993	Don't Leave Me This Way	Loretta Lawson	Television film
1994	Jackanory	Reader	Episode: "The Iron Woman"
1995	Carrington	Vanessa Bell
1995–1996	The Governor	Helen Hewitt	12 episodes
1996	Saint-Ex	Genevieve de Ville-Franche
1998	Velvet Goldmine	Narrator	Voice
1998	Populous: The Beginning	Additional Voices	Voice
1999	Tumbleweeds	Mary Jo Walker	Golden Globe Award for Best Actress - Motion Picture Musical or Comedy Jury Award for Best Actress National Board of Review Award for Best Actress Satellite Award for Best Actress - Motion Picture Musical or Comedy Nominated"?Academy Award for Best Actress Nominated"?Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Best Actress Nominated"?Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Most Promising Actress Nominated"?Independent Spirit Award for Best Female Lead Nominated"?London Film Critics Circle Award for Actress of the Year Nominated"?New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actress Nominated"?Online Film Critics Society Award for Best Actress Nominated"?Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role
2000	Waking the Dead	Caroline Pierce
2000	Songcatcher	Professor Lily Penleric, PhD	Sundance Film Festival - Special Jury Prize for Outstanding Ensemble Performance
2000	'	Liz
2002	'	Sarah Morris
2004	Agatha Christie's Marple	Anne Protheroe	Television film
2005	Tideland	Dell
2006	As You Like It	Audrey
2006	The Amazing Mrs Pritchard	Catherine Walker	6 episodes Nominated"?Golden Nymph Award for Best Performance by an Actress in a Mini-Series
2007	Five Days	DS Amy Foster	4 episodes Nominated"?Royal Television Society Award for Best Actor - Female
2007	Daphne	Gertrude Lawrence	Television film
2008	Sense and Sensibility	Mrs. Dashwood	Episode: "Sense and Sensibility"
2008	Masterpiece Theatre	Mrs. Dashwood	Episode: "Sense and Sensibility"
2009	Hunter	DS Amy Foster	2 episodes
2009	Into the Storm	Clementine Churchill	Nominated"?Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Miniseries or a Movie Nominated"?Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress - Series, Miniseries or Television Film Nominated"?Satellite Award for Best Supporting Actress - Series, Miniseries or Television Film
2009	Psychoville	Cheryl	2 episodes
2011	Cat Run	Helen Bingham
2011	Island	Phyllis Lovage
2011	Weekends at Bellevue	Diana Wallace
2011	Albert Nobbs	Hubert Page	Southeastern Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting Actress Nominated"?Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress Nominated"?Denver Film Critics Society Award for Best Supporting Actress Nominated"?Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress - Motion Picture Nominated"?Houston Film Critics Society Award for Best Supporting Actress Nominated"?Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Female Nominated"?Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting Actress Nominated"?Online Film Critics Society Award for Best Supporting Actress Nominated"?Satellite Award for Best Supporting Actress - Motion Picture Nominated"?Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role
2012	'	Mrs Daily
2012	Parade's End	Mrs. Satterthwaite	4 episodes
2012	Damages	Kate Franklin	9 episodes
2012	Hannah Arendt	Mary McCarthy
2013	The White Queen	Jacquetta of Luxembourg	6 episodes Nominated"?Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress - Series, Miniseries or Television Film
2014	The Honourable Woman	Dame Julia Walsh	8 episodes
2014	Maleficent	Elderly Princess Aurora (narrator)
2015	Angelica	Anne Montague
2015	Battle Creek	Commander Kim Guziewicz	Main cast, 13 episodes
2015	The Divergent Series: Insurgent	Edith Prior
2015	Fathers and Daughters
2015	Paint It Black	Meredith
2016	Me Before You	Camilla Traynor
2016	The Exception	Princess Hermine 'Hermo' Reuss of Greiz	(filming)
2018	Jessica Jones