Samantha Morton

Samantha Morton

Samantha Jane Morton (born 13 May 1977) is an English actress and director. She has received numerous accolades, including a British Academy Television Award, a British Independent Film Award and a Golden Globe Award, as well as nominations for two Academy Awards, a Primetime Emmy Award, and a British Academy Film Award. Morton was a member of the Central Junior Television Workshop in her native Nottingham, and later began her career in British television in 1991. She guest-starred in Soldier Soldier and Cracker and had a bigger role in the ITV series Band of Gold. She made the transition to film with lead roles in the dramas Emma (1996), Jane Eyre (1997), and the well-received Under the Skin (1997). The latter led director Woody Allen to cast Morton in Sweet and Lowdown (1999), which earned her nominations for the Academy Award and the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress. Established as a prominent force on the independent film scene by the early 2000s, Morton starred in Morvern Callar (2002), which garnered her the BIFA Award for Best Actress, and she received her second Academy Award nomination for her performance in In America (2003), this time for Best Actress. Her role in the commercially successful sci-fi thriller Minority Report (2002) was followed by biographical portrayals of Myra Hindley in Longford (2006), Deborah Curtis in Control (2007), and Mary, Queen of Scots in Elizabeth: The Golden Age (2007). For her role in Longford, she won the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress – Series, Miniseries or Television Film.

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