Glenn Close And Her Childhood Cult
Close Family ArchivesGlenn Close (standing) with her siblings during her youth in the Moral Re-Alignment cult.
Glenn Close has worked in Hollywood for nearly half a century, with both Oscar-nominated roles and cult classic films to show for it. And though the Greenwich, Connecticut-born actress is immediately recognizable, her youth in the traumatizing Moral Re-Armament (MRA) cult has largely been forgotten — except by Close, herself.
Born on March 19, 1947, Close was seven years old when her father, Dr. William Taliaferro Close, joined the group in 1954. While the group ostensibly began as an anti-war movement in the 1930s, Reverend Frank Buchman’s creation evolved into a strict religious cult over time. For Close, its rigid rules left a lifelong mark.
“You basically weren’t allowed to do anything, or you were made to feel guilty about unnatural desires,” Glenn Close recalled.
“If you talk to anybody who was in a group that basically dictates how you’re supposed to live and what you’re supposed to say and how you’re supposed to feel, from the time you’re seven till the time you’re 22, it has a profound impact on you.”
Bettmann/Getty ImagesMRA founder Dr. Frank Buchman (left) with U.S. Congressman Charles B. Deane (center) and Wall Street broker William C. Wilkes (right) at the MRA World Assembly at Mackinac Island, Michigan, in 1954.
Moving to Europe with her family, who were adamant to join the movement’s Switzerland headquarters, Close found her only escape in higher education. Enrolling at the College of William & Mary in 1970, she began studying theater. She began working professionally in 1974. Her trauma, however, was ongoing.
“I would have dreams because I didn’t go to any psychiatrist or anything,” she recalled. “I had these dreams, and they started with betrayal, a sense of betrayal, and then they developed into me being able to look at these people and say, ‘You’re wrong. You’re wrong.'”
“And then the final incarnation of those dreams was my being able to calmly get up and walk away. And then I didn’t have them anymore. They knew that was it. I had nothing to do with them from that point. And I wouldn’t have anything to do with them.”
Eventually, the rest of her family managed to leave the cult voluntarily as well. And while Close has had a staggering career, she believes her childhood trauma has prevented her from forming long-term relationships.
“Because of the devastation — emotional and psychological of the cult — I have not been successful in my relationships and finding a permanent partner and I’m sorry about that,” she said. “I think it’s our natural state to be connected like that.”
Nonetheless, she has never wavered from supporting her parents and has moved to Montana to live near them.
After learning about nine of the most tragic celebrity childhoods before fame, read about the 10 most embarrassing celebrity deaths throughout history. Next, check out 67 revealing photos Of celebrities before they were famous.
