This page uses content from the Tilda Swinton biography page on the English version of Wikipedia and is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. This list of authors can be seen in the page history. Rotten Tomatoes disclaims any and all warranties as to the accuracy or reliability of the content.

Katherine Mathilda Swinton (born November 5 1960), better known as Tilda Swinton, is a British actress known for both arthouse and mainstream films.

Early life

Swinton was born in London to Judith (an Australian) and Sir John Swinton (a Scottish major-general in the Scots Guards). She also has relatives in the town of Monkseaton. The Swinton family is said to be the oldest family in both Scotland and England, with a proven descent dating back to Saxon times in the male line.

She attended West Heath Girls' School (the same school as Diana, Princess of Wales), and also Fettes College for a brief period. In 1983, she graduated from New Hall at Cambridge University with a degree in the social and political sciences.

Film career

Carving out an international reputation as a risk taker, she has always eschewed conventional leading lady roles. She 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, and also the title role in Orlando, Sally Potter's film version of the novel by Virginia Woolf.

Swinton became notorious for a brief period in 1995 when she appeared 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 by Cornelia Parker. The following year, the performance, entitled The Maybe, was repeated at a gallery in Rome. She appeared in the music video for Orbital's The Box.

Recent years have seen her move towards more mainstream projects, including the leading role in the well-reviewed American film The Deep End (2001). She appeared as a scheming angel Gabriel in Constantine with Keanu Reeves, as a supporting character in films such as Vanilla Sky with Tom Cruise, and The Beach, featuring Leonardo DiCaprio. Swinton has also appeared in British films: The Statement (2003) and Young Adam (2004), and sat on the jury of the 2004 Cannes Film Festival.

In 2005, her performance as the sinister, seductive and mildly psychotic White Witch Jadis, in the film version of The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe garnered critical praise as did her portrayal of Audrey Cobb in the Mike Mills film adaptation of the novel Thumbsucker.

Personal life

She lives in Nairn in the north of Scotland with her husband John Byrne, an artist, and their two children, Xavier Byrne and Honor Byrne. Tilda is 5' 11" (1.80 m).

Filmography

External links

• Tilda Swinton fansite

Interviews

• From The Guardian
• From BBC (2004)
• From NarniaWeb (2005)
• From Dark Horizons (2005)
• From SPLICEDwire (2005)
• From JoBlo (2005)
• Speech at SF filmfest 2006

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