Meg Tilly

Meg Tilly (born Margaret Elizabeth Chan on February 14, 1960) is a Canadian-American actress and writer.

She made her screen debut (somewhat ironically) as a dancer in Alan Parker's 1980 musical drama Fame, despite the fact that Tilly's dance career had been halted in 1979, when a dance partner dropped her, leading to a serious back injury.

Forced to give up dancing because of complications stemming from her back injury, Tilly moved to Los Angeles to pursue a career as an actress and studied acting under Peggy Feury.

She made her television debut in the 1982 half-hour drama The Trouble with Grandpa, co-starring Elisha Cook Jr.. After playing a prostitute in a second-season episode of Hill Street Blues, she appeared in her first starring role in the 1982 coming-of-age adventure film Tex with Matt Dillon.

Her other film roles include Psycho II (1983), The Big Chill (1983), Masquerade (1988), and Valmont (1989).

In 1983, after she starred as the lead in the supernatural horror film One Dark Night, she appeared in Psycho II with Anthony Perkins, and Lawrence Kasdan's award-winning ensemble film The Big Chill, with Kevin Kline, Glenn Close, Tom Berenger, William Hurt, Jeff Goldblum, JoBeth Williams and Mary Kay Place.

Tilly's appearance in The Big Chill, which was nominated for three Academy Awards, including Best Picture, helped her career significantly.

In 1984, she starred in the movie Impulse.

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.

For her role in the 1985 film Agnes of God, she won a Golden Globe Award and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.

In 1985, Tilly landed the acclaimed title role in Norman Jewison's Agnes of God, appearing with Jane Fonda and Anne Bancroft.

Playing the role of a novitiate nun who confesses her involvement in a virgin conception, Tilly "delivered a magnificent portrayal of a tormented young woman experiencing the ultimate crisis of faith".

Tilly's critically praised performance earned her an Academy Award nomination and a Golden Globe Award.

Tilly later appeared in Valmont (1989), The Two Jakes (1990) with Jack Nicholson and Leaving Normal (1992) with Christine Lahti, as well as the 1993 horror film Body Snatchers.

After this, she stopped acting for the next 15 years.

In 1994, Tilly's first novel Singing Songs was published by Dutton to generally positive reviews.

Donna Rifkind from Publishers Weekly called the book "an impressive first novel", and the New York Times Book Review praised Tilly for "the remarkable coherence and clarity" of Anna's narrative voice.

The book is about a young girl and her sisters living in the Northwest who are molested by their stepfather.

Her second novel Gemma was published in 2006 by the Syren Book Company.

Tilly has also written multiple novels, including Porcupine (2007), which was a finalist for the Sheila A. Egoff Children's Literature Prize.

Tilly was born in Long Beach, California to Patricia Ann (née Tilly), a Canadian teacher, and businessman Harry Chan.

Her father was Chinese-American, while her mother was of Irish and Finnish descent.

She is the younger sister of actress Jennifer Tilly.

Following her parents' divorce when she was three, Tilly was raised by her mother and stepfather, John Ward, on rural Texada Island in British Columbia, Canada.

She later claimed that Ward was a violent pedophile.

At the age of 12, Tilly started taking dance lessons, in part to avoid her stepfather, and in a few years had developed into a gifted ballerina.

Tilly attended Esquimalt High School in Esquimalt, British Columbia, and also Chief Sealth International High School in Seattle, Washington where she is listed among its alumni.

After graduating from high school, Tilly left home and moved to the United States to pursue a career as a professional dancer.

In New York City she studied with Madame Darvash and Melissa Hayden on full scholarship.

She joined the Connecticut Ballet Company.

Tilly returned to acting in 2010, portraying the Blessed Mother, a Pope-like figure in the Caprica episode "Unvanquished".

and picked up by St. Martin's Press in 2010.

In 2011 she played Martha in Edward Albee's Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, presented by the Blue Bridge Repertory Theatre in Victoria, B.C.

For her role in the television series Bomb Girls (2012–13), she won the 2013 Canadian Screen Award for Best Lead Actress in a Drama Series.

In January 2012, Global 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.

Tilly is the author of multiple published novels.