MEG TILLY Biography - Actors and Actresses

 
 

Biography » actors and actresses » meg tilly

MEG TILLY

Name: Meg Tilly                                                                       
Birth name: Margaret E. Chan                                                           
Born: 14 February 1960 Long Beach, California                                         
                                                                                       
Meg Tilly (born February 14, 1960) is an Academy Award-nominated American             
actress, Broadway stage dancer and ballerina.                                         
                                                                                       
Tilly, the third of four children, was born Margaret E. Chan in Long Beach,           
California, the daughter of Patricia Tilly, a schoolteacher, and Harry Chan,           
a Chinese American used car salesman. Following her parents' divorce when she         
was three, she was raised by her mother and stepfather, John Ward, in British         
Columbia, Canada. Tilly graduated from Esquimalt High School in Victoria,             
British Columbia. She has two sisters: Rebecca, and actress Jennifer Tilly (born       
1958).                                                                                 
                                                                                       
Tilly won a Golden Globe and was nominated for the Best Supporting Actress Oscar       
for the portrayal of Sister Agnes in Agnes of God                                     
                                                                                       
As a teen, she was involved with the Connecticut Ballet Company, as well as the       
Throne Dance Theatre, and made her screen debut with Alan Parker's Fame in 1980.       
                                                                                       
A serious back injury forced her to give up dance. She entered the field of           
acting, appearing in films such as The Big Chill and Psycho II before her             
acclaimed title role in Agnes of God, for which she was nominated for an Oscar         
and won a Golden Globe. Tilly later appeared in Valmont, The Two Jakes with Jack       
Nicholson and Leaving Normal, as well as Body Snatchers, in which she delivered       
a pessimistic monologue in the form of an alien.                                       
                                                                                       
Tilly was the first choice for the role of Constanze Mozart in Milos Forman's         
film Amadeus. Unfortunately, despite glowing appraisals of her rehearsal work by       
both her would-be costar Tom Hulce and director Forman, she sustained a serious       
leg injury playing soccer with some local children and was forced to drop out.         
The role later went to Elizabeth Berridge.                                             
                                                                                       
Tilly has written a novel entitled Singing Songs, comprising a series of               
vignettes about a young girl whose stepfather molests her and her sisters. A           
second novel, Gemma, came out in October 2006.