Janet McTeer (born 8 May 1961) is a British actress. McTeer was born in Newcastle upon Tyne, England, United Kingdom, the daughter of Jean and Alan McTeer. She trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and began her successful theatrical career with the Royal Exchange Theatre after graduating. McTeer's television work includes the BBC production of Nigel Nicolson's book 'Portrait of a Marriage' in which she played Vita Sackville-West and the popular ITV series 'The Governor' written by Lynda La Plante. She made her screen debut in 'Half Moon Street', a 1986 film based on a novel by Paul Theroux. In 1991 she appeared in Catherine Cookson's 'The Black Velvet Gown', with Bob Peck and Geraldine Somerville, it won the International Emmy award for best drama. She appeared in the 1992 film version of 'Wuthering Heights' (co-starring Juliette Binoche and Ralph Fiennes) and the 1992 film 'Carrington' (which starred Emma Thompson and Jonathan Pryce). In 1996, McTeer garnered critical acclaim - and both the Laurence Olivier Theatre Award and Critics' Circle Theatre Award for her performance as Nora in a West End production of Henrik Ibsen's 'A Doll's House'. The following year, the production transferred to Broadway, and she was honored with a Tony Award, Theatre World Award, and Drama Desk Award as Best Actress in a Play. During the show's run, McTeer was interviewed by Charlie Rose on his PBS talk show, where she was seen by American filmmaker Gavin O'Connor, who, at the time, was working on a screenplay about a single mother's cross-country wanderings with her pre-teen daughter. Enamoured with the actress, he was determined that she star in the film. When prospective backers balked at her relative anonymity in the States, he produced the movie himself. Tumbleweeds proved to be a 1999 Sundance Film Festival favourite, and McTeer's performance won her a Golden Globe as Best Actress and Academy Award and Screen Actors Guild nominations in the same category. McTeer's screen credits include Songcatcher (with Aidan Quinn), Waking the Dead (with Billy Crudup and Jennifer Connelly), the dogme film The King is Alive (with Jennifer Jason Leigh), The Intended (with (Brenda Fricker and Olympia Dukakis), and Tideland, written and directed by Terry Gilliam. She also starred in the dramatisation of Mary Webb's Precious Bane. McTeer appeared in the British TV series The Amazing Mrs Pritchard, Five Days, the Five Days sequel Hunter and the new Agatha Christie's Marple series starring Geraldine McEwan in the episode entitled 'The Murder at the Vicarage', and is the voice of the Shaman in the computer game "Populous: The Beginning". McTeer played Mary, Queen of Scots in 'Mary Stuart' in London's West End in 2005, a role she is reprising in the 2009 Broadway transfer of the production. McTeer received a Tony Award nomination for her role in Mary Stuart and won the Drama Desk Award, Outstanding Actress in a Play. In 2008, McTeer starred in God of Carnage in the West End alongside Tamsin Greig, Ken Stott and Ralph Fiennes, at the Gielgud Theatre. McTeer is currently (as of April 10, 2010) reprising her role at the Jacobs Theatre on Broadway opposite Jeff Daniels. In 2009, McTeer starred as Clementine Churchill opposite Brendan Gleeson as Winston Churchill in the made-for-TV HBO film Into the Storm, about Churchill's years as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom during World War II. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.