Friday, June 3, 2011

Who is Katherine Mathilda Swinton?

Who is Katherine Mathilda Swinton ? The entertainment and acting world knows her as Tilda Swinton. Swinton is a British actress known for both arthouse and mainstream films. She won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in Michael Clayton.


Early life

Swinton was born 5 November 1960 in London, England.[1] Her father, Major-General Sir John Swinton, KCVO, OBE, DL, who was Lord Lieutenant of Berwickshire (1989–2000), is Scottish, and her mother, Judith Balfour, Lady Swinton (née Killen), was Australian.[2][3][4][5][6] The Swinton family is an ancient Anglo-Scots family that can trace its lineage to the High Middle Ages.[6]
Swinton attended two independent schools, the West Heath Girls' School (the same class as Diana, Princess of Wales), and also Fettes College for a brief period. In 1983, she graduated from New Hall (now known as Murray Edwards College) at Cambridge with a degree in Social and Political Sciences. While at Cambridge she joined the Communist Party of Great Britain.[7] She has two Honorary Doctorates: one from Napier University in Edinburgh, received in August 2006 and one from the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama (RSAMD) in Glasgow, received July 2006. She was a contributing editor to the literary magazine Zembla.

Career

Arthouse work

Swinton worked with the Traverse Theatre in Edinburgh, starring in Mann ist Mann by Manfred Karge,[8] and the Royal Shakespeare Company, before embarking on a career in film in the mid-1980s. She appeared as Julia in the 1986 television mini-series Zastrozzi: A Romance based on the Gothic novel by Percy Bysshe Shelley. Her early film work included several film roles for director Derek Jarman, notably War Requiem (1989) playing a nurse opposite Sir Laurence Olivier as an old soldier. In 1991, Swinton won the Volpi Cup Best Actress award for her role in the postmodern film Edward II. Swinton also played the title role in Orlando, Sally Potter's film version of the novel by Virginia Woolf.
In 1995, with producer and friend Joanna Scanlan, Swinton developed a performance/installation live art piece in the Serpentine Gallery, London, where she was on display to the public for a week, asleep or apparently so, in a glass case, as a piece of performance art. The piece is sometimes credited to Cornelia Parker, whom Swinton invited to collaborate for the installation in London. The following year, the performance, entitled The Maybe, was repeated at the Museo Barracco in Rome. She also appeared in the music video for Orbital's "The Box". She has collaborated with the fashion designers Viktor & Rolf. She was the focus of their 'One Woman Show' 2003, in which they made all the models look like copies of Swinton, and she read a poem (of her own) that included the line, "There is only one you. Only one".[9]

Mainstream films

Recent years have seen Swinton move towards more mainstream projects, including the leading role in the American film The Deep End (2001), for which she was nominated for a Golden Globe Award. She appeared as a supporting character in films such as The Beach (2000), featuring Leonardo DiCaprio, Vanilla Sky (2001) with Tom Cruise and, as the archangel Gabriel in Constantine (2005) with Keanu Reeves. Swinton has also appeared in the British films The Statement (2003) and Young Adam (2003), and sat on the jury of the 2004 Cannes Film Festival.

In 2005, Swinton performed as the White Witch Jadis, in the film version of The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, and as Audrey Cobb in the Mike Mills film adaptation of the novel Thumbsucker. Swinton later had cameos in Narnia's sequels,The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian and The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader.
In 2007, Swinton's performance as Karen Crowder in Michael Clayton earned her both a BAFTA award for Best Supporting Actress as well as the Oscar for Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role at the 2008 80th Academy Awards, the film's sole win.[10][11][12] Swinton next appeared in the 2008 Coen Brothers film, Burn After Reading. Swinton said of the film, in which she plays opposite George Clooney, "I don’t know if it will make anybody else laugh, but it really made us laugh while making it."[13] She was cast for the role of Elizabeth Abbott in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, alongside Burn After Reading co-star Brad Pitt. She had a starring role as the irresponsible eponymous character in Erick Zonca's Julia, which premiered at the 2008 Berlin International Film Festival and later saw a limited U.S. release in May 2009. Several critics praised her performance and some claimed it should have won her an Academy Award.[14][15][16]
She stars in the new film adaptation of We Need to Talk About Kevin due for release in September 2011.[17]

Other projects

In 1988, she was a member of the jury at the 38th Berlin International Film Festival.[18]
In August 2006, she opened the new Screen Academy Scotland production centre in Edinburgh.[19]
In July 2008, she founded the film festival Ballerina Ballroom Cinema Of Dreams.[20] The event took place in a ballroom in Nairn in the Scottish Highlands in August.
Swinton has collaborated with artist Patrick Wolf on his 2009 album The Bachelor, contributing four spoken word pieces.[21]
Swinton appeared at the 2009 81st Academy Awards helping to present the 2009 Best Supporting Actress Awards.
In 2009, Swinton and Mark Cousins embarked on a project where they would mount a 33.5-tonne portable cinema on a large truck, hauling it manually through the Scottish Highlands, creating a travelling independent film festival. The festival was repeated again in 2011.[22][23][24]

Personal life

Swinton lives in Nairn, in the Highland region of Scotland, near Scottish painter John Byrne and their twin children: a son, Xavier, and a daughter, Honor. She travels with her partner Sandro Kopp, a German/New Zealand painter.[25] She has been with Kopp since 2004 and the relationship has Byrne's blessing.[26] In an interview, Swinton commented on her domestic situation: "It’s the way we have been for nearly four years. I’m very fortunate. It takes some extraordinary men to make a situation like that work."[27]

Filmography

Year↓ Title↓ Role↓ Notes
1986 Egomania – Insel ohne Hoffnung Sally
1986 Zastrozzi: A Romance Julia Mini TV series
1986 Caravaggio Lena
1987 Aria Young Girl
1987 Friendship's Death Friendship
1988 The Last of England

1988 Das Andere Ende der Welt

1988 Degrees of Blindness

1988 L' Ispirazione

1989 Play Me Something Hairdresser TV
1989 War Requiem Nurse
1990 Your Cheatin' Heart Cissie Crouch TV series
1990 The Garden Madonna
1991 Edward II Isabella Volpi Cup
1991 The Party: Nature Morte Queenie
1992 Shakespeare: The Animated Tales Ophelia Mini TV series; voice
1992 Orlando Orlando Seattle International Film Festival Award for Best Actress
Thessaloniki Film Festival Award for Best Actress
Nominated–European Film Award for Best Actress
1992 Man to Man Ella/Max Gericke
1993 Blue
Voice
1993 Das Offene Universum Carla TV
1993 Wittgenstein Lady Ottoline Morrell
1994 Remembrance of Things Fast: True Stories Visual Lies

1994 Visions of Heaven and Hell Narrator TV
1996 Female Perversions Eve Stephens
1997 Conceiving Ada Ada Augusta Byron King
1998 Love Is the Devil: Study for a Portrait of Francis Bacon Muriel Belcher
1998 The Protagonists

1999 The War Zone Mum
2000 Possible Worlds Joyce Nominated–Genie Award for Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role
2000 The Beach Sal
2001 Vanilla Sky Rebecca Dearborn
2001 The Deep End Margaret Hall Boston Society of Film Critics Award for Best Actress
Las Vegas Film Critics Society Award for Best Actress
Nominated–Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting Actress
Nominated–Chlotrudis Award for Best Actress
Nominated–Golden Globe Award for Best Actress - Motion Picture Drama
Nominated–Independent Spirit Award for Best Lead Female
Nominated–Online Film Critics Society Award for Best Actress
Nominated–Phoenix Film Critics Society Award for Best Actress
Nominated–Satellite Award for Best Actress - Motion Picture Drama
2002 Adaptation Valerie Thomas Nominated–Phoenix Film Critics Society Award for Best Cast
Nominated–Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture
2002 Teknolust Rosetta/Ruby/Marinne/Olive
2003 The Statement Annemarie Livi
2003 Young Adam Ella Gault BAFTA Scotland for Best Actress in a Scottish Film
Nominated–British Independent Film Award for Best Actress
Nominated–London Film Critics Circle Award for British Actress of the Year
2005 Constantine Angel Gabriel
2005 The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe Jadis, the White Witch Nominated–London Film Critics Circle Award for Best Supporting Actress
Nominated–Saturn Award for Best Actress
2005 Broken Flowers Penny
2005 Thumbsucker Audrey Cobb Gijón International Film Festival Award for Best Actress
2006 Stephanie Daley Lydie Crane Nominated–Satellite Award for Best Actress - Motion Picture Drama
2006 Galápagos Narrator BBC Documentary
2007 Sleepwalkers Violinist
2007 Strange Culture Hope Kurtz
2007 The Man from London Camélia
2007 Michael Clayton Karen Crowder Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress
BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role
Dallas-Fort Worth Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting Actress
Detroit Film Critics Society Award for Best Supporting Actress
Kansas City Film Critics Circle Award for Best Supporting Actress
Vancouver Film Critics Circle Award for Best Supporting Actress
Nominated–Broadcast Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting Actress
Nominated–Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Best Actress
Nominated–Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress - Motion Picture
Nominated–London Film Critics Circle 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
2008 Julia Julia Evening Standard British Film Award for Best Actress
International Cinephile Society Award for Best Actress[28]
Village Voice Film Poll - Best Actress
Nominated–César Award for Best Actress
Nominated–London Film Critics Circle Award for British Actress of the Year
Nominated–Online Film Critics Society Award for Best Actress
2008 The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian Jadis, the White Witch Cameo
2008 Burn After Reading Katie Cox Nominated–BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role
2008 The Curious Case of Benjamin Button Elizabeth Abbott London Film Critics Circle Award for Best Supporting Actress
Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actress[29]
Nominated–Broadcast Film Critics Association Award for Best Cast
Nominated–Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture
2009 The Limits of Control Blonde
2009 I Am Love Emma Recchi Dublin Film Critics Award for Best Female Performance
European Silver Ribbon
Nominated–London Film Critics Circle Award for British Actress of the Year
Nominated–San Diego Film Critics Society Award for Best Actress
Nominated–Satellite Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Drama
2010 The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader Jadis, the White Witch Cameo
2011 We Need to Talk About Kevin Eva Completed, due for release September 2011
2011 Die Blutgräfin (The Bloody Countess) Elizabeth Báthory In Post-production
2012 Moonrise Kingdom TBA







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