:Meg Tilly
{{short description|American-Canadian actress and writer (born 1960)}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=October 2018}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Meg Tilly
| image = Meg Tilly at the Toronto International Film Festival 2013-original.jpg
| alt = Photo of Meg Tilly
| caption = Tilly in 2013
| birth_name = Margaret Elizabeth Chan
| birth_date = {{Birth date and age|1960|2|14}}
| birth_place = Long Beach, California, U.S.
| occupation = {{Hlist|Actress|writer}}
| years_active = {{Plainlist|
- 1980–1995, 2010–present (acting)
- 1994–present (writing)
}}
| spouse = {{Plainlist|
- {{marriage|Tim Zinnemann|1983|1989|end=div}}
- {{marriage|John Calley|1995|2002|end=div}}
- {{marriage|Don Calame|2002}}
}}
| partner = Colin Firth (1989–1994)
| children = 3
| relatives = Jennifer Tilly (sister)
}}
Meg Tilly (born Margaret Elizabeth Chan on February 14, 1960){{Cite web |url=http://www.officialmegtilly.com/about/biography/#.YKUNDqi2m71 |title=Official Meg Tilly Web Site | Biography}} is an American-Canadian actress and writer.{{cite news |last=Telling |first=Gillian |title=Meg Tilly Says She Hated Being Hit On in Hollywood—and Her Quiet Life Living on an Island Now Couldn't Be More Different |url=http://people.com/movies/meg-tilly-inside-her-quiet-life-now/ |work=People |date=June 6, 2017}}
For her role in the 1985 film Agnes of God, she won a Golden Globe Award and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. Her other film roles include Psycho II (1983), The Big Chill (1983), Masquerade (1988), and Valmont (1989). For her role in the television series Bomb Girls (2012–13), she won the 2013 Canadian Screen Award for Best Lead Actress in a Drama Series.
Tilly has also written multiple novels, including Porcupine (2007), which was a finalist for the Sheila A. Egoff Children's Literature Prize.
Early life
Tilly was born on February 14, 1960, in Long Beach, California, to Patricia Ann (née Tilly), a Canadian teacher, and businessman Harry Chan.{{cite web |url=https://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/person/192128%7c0/Meg-Tilly/ |title=Meg Tilly Biography |work=Turner Classic Movies |access-date=February 1, 2012}} Her father was Chinese-American, while her mother was of Irish and Finnish descent.{{cite web |date=March 2011 |url=http://www.asiancemagazine.com/2011/03/17/meg-tilly-is-asian-irish |title=Meg Tilly is Asian Irish |work=Asiance |access-date=January 31, 2012 |quote=[Meg] is the daughter of Patricia Tilly, an Irish and Finnish schoolteacher and Harry Chan, a Chinese American used car salesman... 'My mother was Irish/Finnish...' |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111229232603/http://www.asiancemagazine.com/2011/03/17/meg-tilly-is-asian-irish |archive-date=December 29, 2011}}
• {{cite web |url=http://www.bankrollboost.com/jennifer-tilly.php |title=Bio, Pictures and Videos of Poker Pro: Jennifer Tilly |work=Bankroll Boost |access-date=January 31, 2012 |quote=[Jennifer's] father was a Chinese-American stockbroker and her mother an Irish-Canadian. |archive-date=December 28, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101228042449/http://www.bankrollboost.com/jennifer-tilly.php |url-status=dead}}
• {{cite news |last=Rose |first=Tiffany |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/jennifer-tilly-little-voice-big-talent-533709.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220512/https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/jennifer-tilly-little-voice-big-talent-533709.html |archive-date=May 12, 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live |title=Jennifer Tilly: Little voice, big talent |location=London |work=The Independent |date=November 19, 2004 |access-date=January 31, 2012 |quote=[Jennifer] Tilly, who owes her exotic looks to her Chinese/Native American blood...}} She is the younger sister of actress Jennifer Tilly.
Following her parents' divorce when she was three, Tilly was raised by her mother and stepfather, John Ward, on rural Texada Island in British Columbia, Canada. She later said that Ward was a violent pedophile.{{cite web |last=Chiu |first=Alexis |date=September 11, 2006 |title=Scars of Her Youth |work=People |url=http://www.people.com/people/archive/article/0,,20060265,00.html}}{{Cite web |url=https://twitter.com/meggamonstah/status/920004113882005505?lang=en |title=#MeToo I am grateful that I've gotten to the point where their wrongs no longer define me. That is their burden to carry. Not mine. #Karma |last=Tilly |first=Meg |date=2017-10-16 |website=@meggamonstah |language=en |access-date=2020-01-21}} At the age of 12, Tilly started taking dance lessons, in part to avoid her stepfather, and in a few years had developed into a gifted ballerina.
Tilly attended Esquimalt High School in Esquimalt, British Columbia, and also Chief Sealth International High School in Seattle, Washington, where she is listed among its alumni. After graduating from high school, Tilly left home and moved to the United States to pursue a career as a professional dancer. In New York City she studied with Madame Darvash and Melissa Hayden on full scholarship. She joined the Connecticut Ballet Company. She made her screen debut as a dancer in Alan Parker's 1980 musical drama Fame, despite the fact that Tilly's dance career had been halted in 1979, when a dance partner dropped her, leading to a serious back injury.
Career
=Acting=
Forced to give up dancing because of complications stemming from her back injury, Tilly moved to Los Angeles to pursue a career as an actress and studied acting under Peggy Feury. She made her television debut in the 1982 half-hour drama The Trouble with Grandpa, co-starring with Elisha Cook Jr. After playing a prostitute in a second-season episode of Hill Street Blues, she appeared in her first starring role in the 1982 coming-of-age adventure film Tex with Matt Dillon.
In 1983, after she starred as the lead in the supernatural horror film One Dark Night, she appeared in Psycho II with Anthony Perkins, and Lawrence Kasdan's award-winning ensemble film The Big Chill, with Kevin Kline, Glenn Close, Tom Berenger, William Hurt, Jeff Goldblum, JoBeth Williams and Mary Kay Place. Tilly's appearance in The Big Chill, which was nominated for three Academy Awards, including Best Picture, helped her career significantly. In 1984, she starred in the movie Impulse.
Tilly was the first choice for the role of Constanze Mozart in Miloš Forman's film Amadeus, having received glowing appraisals of her rehearsal work by both her would-be costar Tom Hulce and director Forman. However, she sustained a leg injury playing soccer and had to abandon the project. The role later went to Elizabeth Berridge.
File:Meg Tilly - The Record (1985).jpg
In 1985, Tilly landed the acclaimed title role in Norman Jewison's Agnes of God, appearing with Jane Fonda and Anne Bancroft. Playing the role of a novitiate nun who confesses her involvement in a virgin conception, Tilly "delivered a magnificent portrayal of a tormented young woman experiencing the ultimate crisis of faith". Tilly's critically praised performance earned her an Academy Award nomination and a Golden Globe Award.{{cite web |last=Maslin |first=Janet |title=Agnes of God (1985) |work=The New York Times |date=September 13, 1985 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9502E6D7133BF930A2575AC0A963948260 |access-date=February 3, 2014}}
Tilly later appeared in Valmont (1989), The Two Jakes (1990) with Jack Nicholson and Leaving Normal (1992) with Christine Lahti, as well as the 1993 horror film Body Snatchers. After this, she stopped acting for the next 15 years.{{cite news |last=Hampson |first=Sarah |url=https://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/television/meg-tilly-as-she-is-not-as-youd-imagine/article10530917/ |title=Meg Tilly as she is, not as you'd imagine |work=The Globe and Mail |date=March 28, 2013 |access-date=May 27, 2017}}
Tilly returned to acting in 2010, portraying the Blessed Mother, a Pope-like figure in the Caprica episode "Unvanquished". In 2011 she played Martha in Edward Albee's Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?,{{cite news |last=Chamberlain |first=Adrian |title=Meg Tilly's leap of faith{{!}} |url=http://digital.timescolonist.com/epaper/viewer.aspx |access-date=February 2, 2012 |location=Victoria |newspaper=Times Colonist |date=July 7, 2011}} {{subscription required|date=February 2012}}. presented by the Blue Bridge Repertory Theatre in Victoria, B.C.{{cite web |title=Edward Albee's Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? |url=http://bluebridgetheatre.ca/plays-schedules/whos-afraid-of-virginia-woolf/ |publisher=Blue Bridge Repertory Theatre |access-date=February 2, 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110918131104/http://bluebridgetheatre.ca/plays-schedules/whos-afraid-of-virginia-woolf/ |archive-date=September 18, 2011}}
In January 2012, Global in Canada launched the six-part Bomb Girls about women who work in a munitions factory during World War II.{{cite news |last=Vlessing |first=Etan |title=Meg Tilly Takes Lead in Canadian 'Bomb Girls' Drama |url=http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/meg-tilly-takes-lead-canadian-227699 |access-date=February 2, 2012 |newspaper=The Hollywood Reporter |date=August 25, 2011}} Tilly stars as Lorna, the emotionally closed floor matron who blossoms as a leader and an appealing woman.{{cite news |last=Chamberlain |first=Adrian |date=December 21, 2011 |url=http://www.timescolonist.com/entertainment/From+minx+matron+with+regrets/5895641/story.html |title=From minx to matron – with no regrets |location=Victoria |work=Times Colonist |access-date=February 2, 2012}}{{Dead link|date=March 2019 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}
• {{cite news |last=Chamberlain |first=Adrian |title=From Minx to Matron |url=http://digital.timescolonist.com/epaper/viewer.aspx |access-date=February 2, 2012 |location=Victoria |newspaper=Times Colonist |date=December 22, 2011}}{{subscription required|date=February 2012}}. She won the 2013 Lead Actress, Drama Canadian Screen Award for her work on the series.
=Writing=
Tilly is the author of multiple published novels. In 1994, Tilly's first novel Singing Songs was published by Dutton to generally positive reviews. Donna Rifkind from Publishers Weekly called the book "an impressive first novel", and the New York Times Book Review praised Tilly for "the remarkable coherence and clarity" of Anna's narrative voice.{{cite news |last=Colford |first=Paul D. |title=Actress Tilly Lets Voice Be Heard—as a Novelist |newspaper=Los Angeles Times |date=June 17, 1994 |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1994-06-17-ls-5250-story.html |access-date=February 3, 2014}} The book is about a young girl and her sisters living in the Northwest who are molested by their stepfather.{{cite book |last=Tilly |first=Meg |title=Singing Songs |publisher=Dutton Adult |location=Boston |year=1994 |isbn=978-0-525-93778-4 |url=https://archive.org/details/singingsongs00till}}
Her second novel Gemma was published in 2006 by the Syren Book Company.{{cite book |last=Tilly |first=Meg |title=Gemma |publisher=Syren Book Company |location=Minneapolis |year=2006 |isbn=978-0-929636-61-0 |url=https://archive.org/details/gemmanovel00till}} and picked up by St. Martin's Press in 2010. The book is about a twelve-year-old girl who is kidnapped and taken on a cross-country journey in which she is physically and sexually abused by her captor.
Her third novel Porcupine was published in 2007 by Tundra Books.{{cite book |last=Tilly |first=Meg |title=Porcupine |publisher=Tundra Books |location=Toronto |year=2007 |isbn=978-0-88776-810-1}} The book is about a twelve-year-old girl, Jacqueline "Jack" Cooper, whose life is shattered by the death of her father by friendly fire in the War in Afghanistan. Porcupine was a finalist for the Sheila A. Egoff Children's Literature Prize, shortlisted for The Canadian Libraries Association Best Children's Book 2008, Foreword Magazine Book of the Year and was an Ontario Library Best Bets 2008.
Her fourth novel First Time was published in 2008 by Orca Book Publishers.{{cite book |last=Tilly |first=Meg |title=First Time |publisher=Orca Book Publishers |location=Victoria, BC |year=2008 |isbn=978-1-55143-944-0}} The novel is about a sixteen-year-old who is molested and physically abused by her mother's boyfriend, and must deal with the trauma alone without the help of her mother or best friend. First Time was a 2009 Golden Eagle Award Nominee, a 2009 YALSA Quick Picks and 2010 CCBC Best Books.
Tilly's fifth novel A Taste of Heaven was published in 2013 by Puffin Books.{{cite book |last=Tilly |first=Meg |title=A Taste of Heaven |publisher=Puffin Books |location=London |year=2013 |isbn=978-0-14-318249-8 |url=https://archive.org/details/tasteofheaven0000till}} A departure from the darker themes of Tilly's previous work, the novel is about two young girls who become friends who experience the "comical, sometimes bittersweet and melodramatic trials and tribulations of tweenhood".{{cite web |last=Foster |first=Jennifer D. |title=A Taste of Heaven by Meg Tilly |work=Quill & Quire |date=April 2013 |url=http://www.quillandquire.com/books_young/review.cfm?review_id=7954 |access-date=February 3, 2014}} One reviewer wrote, "Tilly paints an insightful, memorable portrait of the ups and downs of friendship and the unwavering bonds of family, delving into age-old issues of honesty, trust, and loyalty. A Taste Of Heaven was shortlisted for the 2014 Libris Young Reader Book of the Year, a 2014 Diamond Willow Award and won the 2014/2015 Chocolate Lilly Award.
Her sixth novel, Behind the Scenes, was published in 2014 by Puffin Books (Canada).{{Cite web |url=https://www.penguinrandomhouse.ca/books/392220/behind-the-scenes-by-meg-tilly/9780143182511 |title=Behind the Scenes by Meg Tilly |website=Penguin Random House Canada |language=en |access-date=2019-09-26}}{{Cite book |url=https://www.penguinrandomhouse.ca/books/392220/behind-the-scenes-by-meg-tilly/9780143182511 |title=Behind the Scenes |last=Tilly |first=Meg |publisher=Puffin |year=2014 |isbn=978-0-14-318251-1 |location=Canada}}
In 2018, Tilly published the first of three books in her Solace Island trilogy, a series of romantic thrillers about a young woman, Maggie Harris, dating a mysterious handsome man after recently being dumped by her fiancé. It was quickly followed by two sequels, Cliff's Edge and Hidden Cove.
In 2021, Tilly's latest novel, the new romantic thriller The Runaway Heiress, was published.
Personal life
In 1983, Tilly married Tim Zinnemann, an American film producer and son of film director Fred Zinnemann. They met on the set of her first film, Tex. The couple had two children, Emily (born 1984) and David (born 1986).{{Citation needed |date=August 2020}} The marriage ended in divorce in 1989.
In 1989, Tilly began a 5-year relationship with British actor Colin Firth, whom she met during the filming of Valmont. They moved from Los Angeles to a log house on five acres of mountainside property about an hour outside Vancouver near the town of Maple Ridge, British Columbia.{{citation needed|date=July 2021}} They have one son, William Joseph (born 1990).{{Cite web |title=BFI Screenonline: Firth, Colin (1960-) Biography |url=http://www.screenonline.org.uk/people/id/873595/index.html |access-date=2021-06-16 |website=www.screenonline.org.uk}}
In 1995, Tilly married John Calley, an American film studio executive and producer 30 years her senior. They moved to Los Angeles, where Calley worked as president and CEO of Sony Pictures Entertainment. The marriage ended in divorce in 2002.{{Cite news |last=Barnes |first=Brooks |date=2011-09-14 |title=John Calley, Hollywood Chief, Dies at 81 |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/14/business/media/john-calley-hollywood-chief-dies-at-81.html |access-date=2021-06-16 |issn=0362-4331}}
In 2002, Tilly married her current husband, author Don Calame, who writes fiction for adolescents. They met during a writing seminar in Big Sur, California.{{cite news |last=Hampson |first=Sarah |title=Meg Tilly as she is, not as you'd imagine |work=The Globe and Mail |date=March 28, 2013 |url=https://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/television/meg-tilly-as-she-is-not-as-youd-imagine/article10530917/ |access-date=February 4, 2014}}
Since 1999, Tilly has resided in the Gulf Islands, British Columbia.{{Cite web |title=Meg Tilly: Inside Her Quiet Life Now |url=https://people.com/movies/meg-tilly-inside-her-quiet-life-now/ |access-date=2021-06-16 |website=People |language=en}}
Filmography
=Film=
| class="wikitable sortable"
! Year ! Title ! Role ! Notes | |||
| 1980 | Fame | Principal Dancer | |
| rowspan="2" |1982 | Tex | Jamie Collins | |
| One Dark Night | Julie Wells | ||
| rowspan="2" |1983 | Psycho II | Mary Loomis | |
| data-sort-value="Big Chill, The" | The Big Chill | Chloe | ||
| 1984 | Impulse | Jennifer | |
| 1985 | Agnes of God | Sister Agnes Devereaux | |
| 1986 | Off Beat | Rachel Wareham | |
| rowspan="2" |1988 | Masquerade | Olivia Lawrence | |
| data-sort-value="Girl in a Swing, The" | The Girl in a Swing | Karin Foster | ||
| 1989 | Valmont | Madame de Tourvel | |
| 1990 | data-sort-value="Two Jakes, The" | The Two Jakes | Katherine "Kitty" Berman | |
| 1992 | Leaving Normal | Marianne Johnson | |
| 1993 | Body Snatchers | Carol Malone | |
| 1994 | Sleep with Me | Sarah | |
| 2016 | Antibirth | Lorna | |
| 2017 | War Machine | Jeanie McMahon | |
| 2024 | Ordinary Angels | {{N/A}} | Screenplay only |
=Television=
| class="wikitable sortable"
! Year ! Title ! Role ! Notes | |||
| 1981–82 | Insight | Cindy / Dori | Episodes: "To Climb a Mountain" / "The Trouble with Grandpa" |
| 1982 | Hill Street Blues | Prostitute | Episode: "Some Like It Hot-Wired" |
| 1989 | Nightmare Classics | Carmilla | Episode: "Carmilla" |
| 1990 | In the Best Interest of the Child | Jennifer Colton | Television film |
| rowspan="2" |1993 | Road to Avonlea | Evelyn Grier | Episode: "Evelyn" |
| Fallen Angels | Lois Weldon | Episode: "Dead-End for Delia" | |
| rowspan="2" |1994 | Winnetka Road | George Grace | Main cast (6 episodes) |
| Trick of the Eye | Faith Crowell | rowspan="2" | Television film | |
| 1995 | Journey | Min | |
| 2010 | Caprica | Blessed Mother | Episodes: "Unvanquished" / "The Heavens Will Rise" |
| 2012–13 | Bomb Girls | Lorna Corbett | Main role (19 episodes) |
| 2014 | Bomb Girls: Facing the Enemy | Lorna Corbett | Television film |
| 2022 | Chucky | Meg Tilly | Episodes: "Death on Denial" / "Doll on Doll" |
Awards and nominations
Published works
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
{{commonscat}}
- {{Official website|http://www.officialmegtilly.com/}}
- {{IMDb name|672}}
{{GoldenGlobeBestSuppActressMotionPicture 1981–2000}}
{{Best Actress in a Drama Series CSA}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tilly, Meg}}
Category:20th-century American actresses
Category:20th-century American novelists
Category:21st-century American actresses
Category:21st-century American novelists
Category:20th-century Canadian actresses
Category:20th-century Canadian novelists
Category:21st-century Canadian actresses
Category:21st-century Canadian novelists
Category:American actresses of Chinese descent
Category:American emigrants to Canada
Category:20th-century American ballet dancers
Category:American film actresses
Category:American musical theatre actresses
Category:American people of Canadian descent
Category:American people of Finnish descent
Category:American people of Irish descent
Category:American television actresses
Category:American women novelists
Category:American writers of Chinese descent
Category:Best Supporting Actress Golden Globe (film) winners
Category:Canadian actresses of Chinese descent
Category:Canadian film actresses
Category:Canadian musical theatre actresses
Category:Canadian television actresses
Category:Canadian people of Finnish descent
Category:Canadian people of Irish descent
Category:Canadian writers of Asian descent
Category:Canadian women novelists
Category:20th-century Canadian women writers
Category:21st-century Canadian women writers
Category:Best Actress in a Drama Series Canadian Screen Award winners
Category:Actresses from California
Category:Dancers from California
Category:Dancers from Connecticut
Category:People from Langford, British Columbia
Category:American women writers of young adult literature
Category:American writers of young adult literature