Tilda Swinton

Infobox actor

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caption = Swinton in Edinburgh, August 2007
birthname = Katherine Matilda Swinton
birthdate = Birth date and age|1960|11|5|df=y
birthplace = London, England
occupation = Actress
yearsactive = 1986 - present
domesticpartner = John Byrne
Sandro Kopp (2004- present)
academyawards = Best Supporting Actress
2007 "Michael Clayton"
baftaawards = Best Actress in a Scottish Film
2003 "Young Adam"
Best Actress in a Supporting Role
2007 "Michael Clayton"
awards = Volpi Cup for Best Actress
1991 "Edward II"

Katherine Matilda "Tilda" Swinton (born 5 November 1960) is an Academy Award-, BAFTA-, BAFTA Scotland-, and Coppa Volpi award-winning British actress known for both arthouse and mainstream films.

Biography

Early life

Swinton was born in London. Her mother, Judith Balfour (née Killen), was Australian, and her father, Major-General Sir John Swinton of Kimmerghame, Berwickshire, KCVO, is Scottish. [ Dewar, Peter Beauclerk, "Burke's Landed Gentry of Great Britain - The Kingdom in Scotland", 19th edition, vol.1, Wilmington, Delaware, 2001, p.1317. ISBN 0-9711966-0-5 ] [ [http://www.tiscali.co.uk/entertainment/film/biographies/tilda_swinton_biog/3 Tilda Swinton Biography ] ] [http://www.swintonfamilysociety.org/web%20charts%20Jan%202005/Swint%20Ch.01-3/SWINTON_Ch02B_Sh2.pdf] The Swinton family is an ancient Anglo-Scots family that can trace its lineage to the ninth century. [http://observer.guardian.co.uk/magazine/story/0,11913,1587905,00.html Tilda Swinton, one of our most unique actors, talks to Gaby Wood | Magazine | The Observer ] ] Swinton attended 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 Murray Edwards College (known previously as New Hall) at Cambridge University with a degree in Social and Political Sciences. 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

Swinton worked with the Traverse Theatre in Edinburgh, and the Royal Shakespeare Company before embarking on a career in film in the mid-1980s. 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.

Swinton gained great artistic acclaim for a period in 1995 when she developed a performance/installation art piece in which as a live exhibit in the Serpentine Gallery, London, 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 often erroneously 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 who refer to her as more than a muse. 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." [ [http://features.elleuk.com/fashion_week/muses_1.php
Elle 'the muses' Tilda Swinton] ]

Recent years have seen Swinton move towards more mainstream projects, including the leading role in the well-reviewed 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, and "Vanilla Sky" (2001) with Tom Cruise and, as the scheming 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's performance as the sinister, seductive villainess, the White Witch Jadis, in the film version of "" garnered critical praise. Tilda later had a cameo in the film's sequel. So did her portrayal of Audrey Cobb in the Mike Mills film adaptation of the novel "Thumbsucker".

Swinton's performance as Karen Crowder in "Michael Clayton" also drew favorable reviews, for which she earned her second Golden Globe nomination for Best Supporting Actress. After winning a BAFTA award in the same category at the 61st British Academy Film Awards, Swinton won an Oscar for Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role at the 80th Academy Awards, the film's sole win. [cite news|url=http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071004/REVIEWS/710040302/-1/REVIEWS01|title=Michael Clayton|last=Ebert|first=Roger|date=2007-10-05|accessdate=2007-12-15|publisher=Chicago Sun-Times] [cite news|url=http://www.goldenglobes.org/news/id/81|title=HOLLYWOOD FOREIGN PRESS ASSOCIATION 2008 GOLDEN GLOBE AWARDS FOR THE YEAR ENDED DECEMBER 31, 2007|date=2007-12-13|accessdate=2007-12-15|publisher=Hollywood Foreign Press Association] cite press release|url=http://www.bafta.org/press/winners-announced,17,SNS.html|title=Winners Announced|publisher=BAFTA|date=2008-02-10|accessdate=2008-02-10] Swinton next appeared in the newest Coen Brothers film, "Burn After Reading".

Personal life

Swinton lives in Nairn, in the Highland area of Scotland, with Scottish painter John Byrne, the father of her twins, Xavier and Honor. She travels with her partner Sandro Kopp, a German/New Zealand painter, [ [http://www.sandrokopp.com/17.html About Sandro Kopp ] ] while continuing her live-in relationship with Byrne platonically. She has been with Kopp since 2004 and the relationship has Byrne's blessing. [ [http://www.dailyexpress.co.uk/posts/view/47593 Daily Express: The World's Greatest Newspaper :: Day & Night :: Proud parents but not partners ] ]

In August 2006 she opened the new Screen Academy Scotland production centre in Edinburgh. [cite web|url=http://news.napier.ac.uk/press/articles/article_10334.htm|title=Sir Sean Connery Named Patron of Screen Academy Scotland|date=2006-11-02|accessdate=2008-04-25]

On July 2008 she founded the Ballerina Ballroom Cinema Of Dreams, [ [http://www.spanglefish.com/ballerinaballroom/ Ballerina Ballroom | Home ] ] a whimsical, glamour-free, purely cinephile film festival. The event takes place in a ballroom in Nairn in the Scottish Highlands in August.

Awards

Filmography

References

External links

*
* [http://www.screenonline.org.uk/people/id/489957/index.html BFI: Tilda Swinton]
* [http://www.bafta.org/learning/webcasts/a-life-in-pictures-tilda-swinton,202,BA.html Tilda Swinton: A Life in Pictures] , BAFTA webcast, 27 November 2007
* [http://www.guardian.co.uk/weekend/story/0,3605,1044747,00.html From "The Guardian"]
* [http://www.bbc.co.uk/films/2003/09/23/tilda_swinton_young_adam_interview.shtml From "BBC" (2004)]
* [http://www.narniaweb.com/news.asp?id=270&dl=2884950 From "NarniaWeb" (2005)]
* [http://www.darkhorizons.com/news05/constan2.php From "Dark Horizons" (2005)]

###@@@KEY@@@###s-ach
-succession box
title=Academy Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role
years=2007
for "Michael Clayton"
before=Jennifer Hudson
for "Dreamgirls"
after=TBDsuccession box
title=BAFTA Award for Best Supporting Actress
before=Jennifer Hudson
for "Dreamgirls"
years=2008
for "Michael Clayton"
after=TBD

Persondata
NAME= Swinton, Tilda
ALTERNATIVE NAMES= Swinton, Katherine Matilda
SHORT DESCRIPTION= Actress
DATE OF BIRTH= 5 November 1960
PLACE OF BIRTH= London, England
DATE OF DEATH=
PLACE OF DEATH=