This strikingly beautiful supporting actress (and four-time Tony nominee) has been giving intelligent performances on the stage, screen and TV since the 1970s, yet rarely gets the chance to star. Born and raised in Canada, Nelligan moved to England, where she made her name portraying classic heroines on the London stage with the Bristol Old Vic, the Royal Shakespeare Company and the National Theatre during the 1970s. She took Broadway by storm in the 1980s with her powerful performances in David Hare's "Plenty" (1982-83), Eugene O'Neill's "A Moon For the Misbegotten" (1984), Caryl Churchill's "Serious Money" (1988) and Michael Weller's "Spoils of War" (also 1988). While Nelligan has increasingly concentrated on film work since the mid-80s, she did return to Broadway in 1997 to star in Wendy Wasserstein's "An American Daughter", about a political appointee who faces repercussions as a result of her nomination.
Nelligan made her film debut in Joseph Losey's "The Romantic Englishwoman" (1975) and followed up with her first starring role, in Hare's historical film "Licking Hitler" (1978, originally made for BBC TV), and played Lucy in the Frank Langella version of "Dracula" (1979). She subsequently starred as the fearless heroine of the taut thriller "Eye of the Needle" (1981), played a New York City mother whose son has been kidnapped in "Without a Trace" (1983) and was memorable in the title role of "Eleni" (1985), based on Greek-American journalist Nicholas Gage's attempts to unravel the truth about his mother's execution by Greek communists after WWII. Though known for her dramatic prowess, Nelligan turned in ace comedic performances in Woody Allen's "Shadows and Fog" (1991), and as the adulterous wife in the under-appreciated noir burlesque "Fatal Instinct" (1993).
Nelligan won her greatest acclaim, however, with a duo of contrasting, stellar character performances in 1991: as a wisecracking, poignantly promiscuous waitress in "Frankie and Johnny" and as Nick Nolte's steely and ultimately destructive mother in Barbra Streisand's "The Prince of Tides". The latter earned her a Best Supporting Actress Oscar nod. She subsequently was featured in Mike Nichols' "Wolf" (1994) and Jocelyn Moorhouse's female ensemble drama "How to Make an American Quilt" (1995). Nelligan delivered an award-winning turn as Helena Bonham Carter's mother in "Margaret's Museum" (also 1995) and portrayed Robert Redford's journalist ex-wife in "Up Close and Personal" (1996).
Television has given the actress several opportunities to shine, as well as to make some money in unremarkable movies-of-the-week. Her TV debut was in NBC's "The Count of Monte Cristo" (1975), and over the next two decades she appeared in nearly 20 movies and miniseries, as well as narrating such specials as "Marcel Proust: A Writer's Life" (PBS, 1993). Her finest moment, perhaps, was starring as Zola's "Therese Raquin" in a terrifying PBS version (1981). Among other high points have been as Isabella in Shakespeare's "Measure for Measure", playing her stage role in a completely revised version of "Spoils of War" (ABC, 1994), as a potential adoptive mother in "A Mother's Prayer" (USA, 1995) and as the Irish wife of an ex-slave in "Captive Heart: The James Mink Story" (CBS, 1996).