Meg Tilly

Meg Tilly (born 14 February 1960) is an Oscar-nominated Canadian-American actress and published novelist. She is the younger sister of actress and poker player Jennifer Tilly. --- Tilly, the third of four children, was born Margaret Elizabeth Chan in Long Beach, California, the daughter of Patricia (née Tilly), a Canadian schoolteacher, and businessman Harry Chan. Tilly's father was Chinese American, and her mother was of Irish, Finnish, and First Nations descent. Following her parents' divorce when she was three, she was raised by her mother and stepfather, John Ward, on rural Texada Island in British Columbia. She graduated from Esquimalt High School in Victoria, British Columbia. She has a brother, Steve, and two sisters, Rebecca and Jennifer. She was involved with the Connecticut Ballet Company as a teen, as well as the Throne Dance Theatre. She made her screen debut with Alan Parker's Fame in 1980. When a dance partner dropped her, causing a serious back injury, her dance career came to a shattering halt. She then became an actress. She played a prostitute in a second season episode of Hill Street Blues before she appeared in films such as The Big Chill and Psycho II before her acclaimed title role in Agnes of God, for which she received an Oscar nomination and won a Golden Globe. Tilly later appeared in Valmont, The Two Jakes with Jack Nicholson and Leaving Normal, as well as the 1993 horror film, Body Snatchers. 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. Tilly portrayed the Blessed Mother, a Pope-like figure in the Caprica episode "Unvanquished". Tilly returned to acting in 2011 playing Martha in Edward Albee's Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, presented by the Blue Bridge Repertory Theatre in Victoria, B.C. In January 2012 Global Television in Canada launched the six-part Bomb Girls about women who work in a munitions factory during World War II. Tilly stars as Lorna, the emotionally closed floor matron who blossoms as a leader and an appealing woman. She won the 2013 Lead Actress, Drama Canadian Screen Award for her work on the series. --- She has three children: Emily (born 1984) and David (born 1986) by her marriage to film producer Tim Zinnemann, which ended in 1989, and a son, Will (born 1990), from her five-year relationship with British actor Colin Firth. Her second husband, John Calley, was 30 years her senior. He is a former president of Sony Pictures; they were married in 1995 and divorced in 2002. She is now married to author Don Calame.