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Greta Scacchi

Greta Scacchi

Born Greta Gracco in Milan, Italy 1960, Greta Scacchi's mother was an English dancer and antiques dealer and her father an Italian painter. She grew up in Milan, later moving to London. In 1975 she moved to Australia, returning to England in 1977 aged 18 to pursue a career in acting at Bristol Old-Vic-Theatre School alongside Miranda Richardson and Amanda Redman. She played small parts as a stage actress and at 5’9” tall, worked as a fashion model. Young Director/producer Dominik Graf discovered her which promptly led to her film debut in Das Zweite Gesicht [The Second Face] (1982).

A catalogue of diverse film roles ensued including notably; Merchant Ivory masterpiece Heat And Dust (1983); The Ebony Tower (1984); colonial era classic White Mischief (1987)with Charles Dance; The Player (1992); Shattered (1991)with Tom Berenger; Country Life (1994); Emma (1996); Rasputin (1996) for TV, with Alan Rickman; Ladies Room (1999); Australian cultural drama Looking For Alibrandi (2000)with Anthony La Paglia; Beyond The Sea (2004); Broken Trail (2006) and Brideshead Revisited (2008). Scacchi, (pronounced ‘Skacky’) has starred in over Fifty three productions for film and television, many of her more recent roles being TV and Radio appearances. She won an Emmy Award for her work as Empress Alexandra Fyodorovna of Russia in the 1996 television film Rasputin: Dark Servant of Destiny for which she was also nominated for a Golden Globe. More recently, she received another Emmy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress in Broken Trail (2007).
In 2004 Scacchi was created Dame of the Order of the British Empire for services to art. She is currently a British National, has two children and resides in Sussex (UK).

Did you know that…
- Scacchi turned down the Sharon Stone role played by Catherine Trammell in Basic Instinct (1992).

-She speaks Italian and French languages fluently and learned German for her debut in Das Zweite Gesicht(1982).

-She has played many nude scenes in various roles including full-frontal nudity.

Filmography:
Das Zweite Gesicht (1982)
Dead on Time (1982)
Heat And Dust (1983)
The Ebony Tower (1984)
Camille (1984) TV
Waterfront (1984) TV
Defence Of The Realm (1985)
Burke & Wills (1985)
Dr. FisCher of Geneva (1985) TV
The Coca-Cola Kid (1985)
Carve You In Marble (August 1986)
White Mischief (1987)
Good Morning, Babylon (1987)
A Man in Love (Un homme amoureux) (1987)
The Moon Woman (1988)
Three Sisters (1988)
Presumed Innocent (1990)
Shattered (1991)
Fires Within (1991)
Salt on Our Skin (1992)
The Player (1992)
Turtle Beach (1992)
Country Life (1994)
The Browning Version (1994)
Jefferson In Paris (1995)
Emma (1996)
Cosi (1996)
Rasputin: Dark Servant of Destiny (1996) TV
The Odyssey (1997) TV
The Serpent's Kiss (1997)
Love and Rage (1998)
The Red Violin (1998)
Macbeth (1998) TV
Ladies Room (1999)
Cotton Mary (1999)
Tom's Midnight Garden (1999)
The Manor (1999)
Christmas Glory 2000 (2000) TV
One of the Hollywood Ten (2000)
Looking For Alibrandi (2000)
The Farm (2001) TV
Festival in Cannes (2001)
Jeffrey ArCher: The Truth (2002) TV
Daniel Deronda (2002) TV
The Buzz of the Flies (2003)
Baltic Storm (2003)
Beyond The Sea (2004)
Under False Name (2004)
Flightplan (2005)
Broken Trail (2006)
Marple: By the Pricking of my Thumbs (2006)
The Book of Revelation (2006)
Brideshead Revisited (2008)
Shoot On Sight (2008)
The Trojan Horse (2008) TV














What members say | Filmography

Greta Scacchi - what members say


  • The Player
  • The Player review by stalingrad from East Bergholt
    Rated - 2.0 stars Tiresome 24 July 2008
    ...f examination of the Hollywood system. As pleasing as she is to the eye I found Greta Scacchi's performance unconvincing & Tim Robbins was little better. The constant merry ...   Read customer review
  • Broken Trail
  • Broken Trail review by williamsgwynfa from gwaenysgor in flintshire
    Rated - 5.0 stars superb.................. 3 June 2007
    ...r suits her, in her mind. Also along the way, Print and Tom rescue Nola Johns (Greta Scacchi), the proverbial hooker with the heart of gold, who was forced into prostitutio...   Read customer review

Greta Scacchi - filmography


  • Hindenburg on DVD (2011)
    Starring: Maximilian Simonischek,  Lauren Lee Smith,  Heiner Lauterbach
    Director: Philipp Kadelbach
    Certificate: Certificate: 15
    Watch now: £2.49
    This lavish drama recreates one of the most infamous air disasters in history, that of the Hindenburg. The much lauded, giant airship had been the toast of Nazi Germany when construction completed, but in 1937 it, along with its passengers and crew, was destroyed when its cargo of gas combusted. ..read more »
    2.5 stars out of 5 53% from 159 members
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  • Un altro mondo (2010)
    Starring: Silvio Muccino,  Michael Rainey Jr.,  Isabella Ragonese
    Director: Silvio Muccino
    Certificate: Certificate: TBC
    Andrea (played by Silvio Muccino) is a 30 something, wealthy middle-class professional lay about, leading a less than meaningful life in Rome with his bulimic girlfriend Livia (Isabella Ragonese) financed by his icy cold detached mother. After receiving a letter from his father, with whom he hasn'..read more »
    1.5 stars out of 5 32% from 4 members
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  • Miss Austen Regrets on DVD (2008)
    Starring: Jack Huston,  Pip Torrens,  Olivia Williams
    Director: Jeremy Lovering
    Certificate: Certificate: PG
    A passionate and emotional story of Jane Austen’s romantic life, inspired by the great writer’s own novels, letters and diaries. As Jane Austen approaches her forties, her success as a writer is assured and her witty and sharply observed romantic novels are widely admired. To her niece, Fanny ..read more »
    3.5 stars out of 5 67% from 2,062 members
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  • Brideshead Revisited on DVD (2008)
    Starring: Emma Thompson,  Michael Gambon,  Matthew Goode
    Director: Julian Jarrold
    Certificate: Certificate: 12
    The latest adaptation of the novel by Evelyn Waugh centres around the memoirs of Captain Charles Ryder who is stationed at Brideshead Castle during WWII and remembers his involvement with the owners of the Brideshead estate: the aristocratic yet Catholic Flyte family and in particular brother and ..read more »
    3 stars out of 5 62% from 8,571 members
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  • Shoot On Sight on DVD (2007)
    Starring: Clemency Burton-Hill,  Clemency Burton-Hill,  Brian Cox
    Director: Jag Mundhra
    Certificate: Certificate: 15
    Watch now: Included in all packages with LOVEFiLM Instant
    "Shoot On Sight" is a gripping thriller and riveting family drama that unfolds the turmoil in the life of Tariq Ali, a Muslim police officer at Scotland Yard. Commander Ali, born in Pakistan, married to an English woman, and with two kids, is tasked to investigate the police shooting of a ..read more »
    3 stars out of 5 58% from 2,287 members
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  • The Book of Revelation on DVD (2006)
    Starring: Tom Long,  Greta Scacchi,  Colin Friels
    Director: Ana Kokkinos,  Ana Kokkinos
    Certificate: Certificate: 18
    Book Of Revelation is a story of sex, betrayal, and obsession. Daniel (Tom Long) is a successful dancer and, along with his partner and lover Bridget (Anna Torv), the toast of the dance world. But Tom is arrogant, and his ego is often his biggest stumbling block to greatness, or so claims his long ..read more »
    2 stars out of 5 38% from 1,538 member
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  • Broken Trail on DVD (2006)
    Starring: Robert Duvall,  Thomas Haden Church,  Greta Scacchi
    Director: Walter Hill
    Certificate: Certificate: 15
    Set in 1898, Print Ritter (Robert Duvall) and his estranged nephew Tom Harte (Thomas Haden Church) become the reluctant guardians of five abused and abandoned Chinese girls (introducing Caroline Chan, Olivia Cheng, Jadyn Wong, Valerie Tian, and Gwendoline Yeo). Ritter and Harte's attempts to care ..read more »
    3.5 stars out of 5 69% from 3,251 members
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  • Looking For Alibrandi on DVD (2000)
    Starring: Pia Miranda,  Greta Scacchi,  Anthony La Paglia
    Director: Kate Woods
    Certificate: Certificate: 15
    A teenage Australian girl deals with the traumas of everyday life. These include her difficult relationship with her single mother, the unexpected return of her long-lost father, the disapproving nuns at her strict Catholic school, the acceptance of her schoolmates,and romantic dilemmas over two ..read more »
    3 stars out of 5 61% from 175 members
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  • Tom's Midnight Garden on DVD (1999)
    Starring: Nigel Le Vaillant,  Greta Scacchi,  James Wilby
    Director: Willard Carroll
    Certificate: Certificate: U
    While staying with his aunt and uncle, young Tom Long (Anthony Way) discovers he can enter a magical garden when the grandfather clock strikes midnight. Tom is joined by a girl named Hatty (Florence Hoath) on his adventures in the garden. The film also stars Greta Scacchi, James Wilby, and Joan ..read more »
    3.5 stars out of 5 66% from 760 members
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  • The Manor on DVD (1999)
    Starring: Greta Scacchi,  Gabrielle Anwar,  Peter O'Toole
    Director: Kenneth Burns
    Certificate: Certificate: 12
    A wickedly funny and intelligent comedy of manners, where lies and deception rule. An investigator (Martin Dejdar) searches for the truth of two dead men in an old manor run by an overbearing woman (Greta Scachhi) and finds out quickly that he's caught in a web of lies and deceit. Everyone is a ..read more »
    2.5 stars out of 5 46% from 56 members
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  • The Red Violin on DVD (1998)
    Starring: Jason Flemyng,  Samuel L. Jackson,  Greta Scacchi
    Director: Francois Girard
    Certificate: Certificate: 15
    Following the unusual journey of an original and unique violin (painted red with the blood of his beloved and deceased wife), as it survives three centuries to a present-day auction in Montreal. The violin weaves a Svengali over all those who play it and becomes the subject of passion, deception ..read more »
    3.5 stars out of 5 70% from 1,893 member
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  • The Odyssey on DVD (1997)
    Starring: Greta Scacchi,  Armand Assante,  Eric Roberts
    Director: Andrei Konchalovsky
    Certificate: Certificate: 12
    This lavish small-screen adaptation of Homer's ancient epic--complete with exotic Maltese and Turkish locations, state-of-the-art special effects, and many bronzed muscles gleaming with sweat--chronicles the voyage home of a Trojan hero, Odysseus the King Of Ithaca, after the ten year Trojan war.
    3 stars out of 5 59% from 551 members
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  • Emma on DVD (1996)
    Starring: Gwyneth Paltrow,  Toni Collette,  Alan Cumming
    Director: Douglas McGrath
    Certificate: Certificate: U
    Douglas McGrath's film is an elegant and entertaining adaptation of Jane Austen's 1816 novel about Emma (Gwyneth Paltrow), a well-to-do young woman whose kindhearted attempts at matchmaking mask her own lack of romantic attachment. She takes it upon herself to find the perfect man for her friend ..read more »
    3.5 stars out of 5 67% from 7,177 members
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  • Emma - Blu-ray (1996)
    Starring: Gwyneth Paltrow,  Toni Collette,  Alan Cumming
    Director: Douglas McGrath
    Certificate: Certificate: U
    Douglas McGrath's film is an elegant and entertaining adaptation of Jane Austen's 1816 novel about Emma (Gwyneth Paltrow), a well-to-do young woman whose kindhearted attempts at matchmaking mask her own lack of romantic attachment. She takes it upon herself to find the perfect man for her friend ..read more »
    3 stars out of 5 62% from 49 members
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  • Jefferson In Paris on DVD (1995)
    Starring: Nick Nolte,  Greta Scacchi,  Thandie Newton
    Director: James Ivory
    Certificate: Certificate: 12
    Statesman and 'Declaration Of Independence' author Thomas Jefferson is depicted during the time he served as America's Ambassador to France. The story follows his love life and dramatises a romance (widely believed to be exaggerated) between Jefferson and one of his youthful slaves.
    2.5 stars out of 5 53% from 286 members
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  • The Browning Version (1994)
    Starring: Albert Finney,  Matthew Modine,  Greta Scacchi
    Director: Mike Figgis,  John K. Watson
    Certificate: Certificate: 15
    Andrew Crocker-Harris (Albert Finney), a teacher of Greek and Latin at a private school, is dubbed the 'Hitler of the Lower Sixth' by his students. His rigidity and cruelty are the sad remnants of an extinguished passion for classical literature. But as he is poised to leave the school--forced into ..read more »
    3.5 stars out of 5 70% from 473 members
    Not currently released
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  • The Player on DVD (1992)
    Starring: Tim Robbins,  Greta Scacchi,  Whoopi Goldberg
    Director: Robert Altman
    Certificate: Certificate: 15
    Robert Altman's adaptation of Michael Tolkin's novel gives the notorious director a chance to address perhaps his greatest nemesis: the Hollywood studio system. Disguised as a thriller, the film assembles virtually every famous actor in Hollywood to create an exhilarating blend of real life and ..read more »
    3.5 stars out of 5 69% from 5,855 members
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  • Turtle Beach (1992)
    Starring: Greta Scacchi,  Joan Chen,  Jack Thompson
    Director: Stephen Wallace
    Certificate: Certificate: TBC
    In this grim docu-drama an Australian photojournalist leaves her children to cover the story of Vietnamese boat people in a Malaysian refugee camp. There she becomes friends with a Vietnamese streetwalker who has married a diplomat and together they try to do something about shocking conditions ..read more »
    0.5 stars out of 5 10% from 1 member
    Currently unavailable
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  • Shattered (1991)
    Starring: Tom Berenger,  Bob Hoskins,  Greta Scacchi
    Director: Wolfgang Petersen
    Certificate: Certificate: 15
    A wealthy and powerful architect is left with a completely disfigured face and amnesia after his car plummets off a cliff. As he struggles to reconstruct his life, he experiences strange flashbacks of nightmarish and erotic memories that don't match the story he has been told.
    3.5 stars out of 5 71% from 41 members
    Currently unavailable
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  • Presumed Innocent on DVD (1990)
    Starring: Harrison Ford,  Greta Scacchi,  Raul Julia
    Director: Alan J. Pakula
    Certificate: Certificate: 18
    Watch now: Unavailable
    PRESUMED INNOCENT, like most of director Alan J. Pakula's films is also a complex character study. Based on a best-selling novel by Scott Turrow, the courtroom murder mystery tells the story of prosecutor Rusty Sabich (Harrison Ford) who is accused of murdering his former mistress, the beautiful ..read more »
    3 stars out of 5 64% from 2,448 members
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  • White Mischief on DVD (1987)
    Starring: Greta Scacchi,  Charles Dance,  Joss Ackland
    Director: Michael Radford
    Certificate: Certificate: 15
    If there was a paradise untouched by the war in the winter of 1940, it was Kenya's Happy Valley. There the tall, blond and impeccably groomed Josslyn Hay, 22nd Earl of Errol, enjoyed a decadent life of pleasure with his fellow aristocrats. Their's was a society in which adultery was routine and ..read more »
    3 stars out of 5 64% from 311 members
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  • Defence Of The Realm (1985)
    Starring: Gabriel Byrne,  Greta Scacchi,  Denholm Elliott
    Director: David Drury
    Certificate: Certificate: PG
    This fast-paced thriller examines the amorality of a nation's secret services and the responsibility of journalistic investigations in an era of nuclear tensions and bureaucratic deceit. The film examines an unspooling series of events occurring after a near crash of a nuclear bomber at an American ..read more »
    3 stars out of 5 60% from 354 members
    Not available for rental
  • The Ebony Tower (1984)
    Starring: Laurence Olivier,  Roger Rees,  Greta Scacchi
    Director: Robert Knights
    Certificate: Certificate: 15
    Featuring a formidable central performance by Laurence Oliver, one of Britain s most revered actors, this BAFTA-nominated television play was adapted by John Mortimer (Rumpole of the Bailey) from the novel by John Fowles; a distinguished supporting cast includes Greta Scacchi and Roger Rees. Henry ..read more »
    3 stars out of 5 No ratings yet. Be the first.
    Not available for rental
  • Heat And Dust on DVD (1982)
    Starring: Julie Christie,  Shashi Kapoor,  Christopher Cazenove
    Director: James Ivory
    Certificate: Certificate: 15
    Two women, related but separated by one generation and 60 years, have parallel experiences in the evocative mystical environment of India in this period drama from producer Ismail Merchant and director James Ivory. Although a little slow-paced for some, and slightly confusing because the stories of ..read more »
    3 stars out of 5 58% from 677 members
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Greta Scacchi facts

5 most recent films

Hindenburg - 2.5 stars
Un altro mondo - 1.5 stars
Brideshead Revisited - Blu-ray - 3.0 stars
Miss Austen Regrets - 3.5 stars
Brideshead Revisited - 3.0 stars

5 highest-rated films

The Red Violin - 3.5 stars
The Browning Version - 3.5 stars
Broken Trail - 3.5 stars
The Player - 3.5 stars
Rasputin - 3.5 stars

5 lowest-rated films

The Ebony Tower - 3 stars
Turtle Beach - 0.5 stars
Baltic Storm - 0.5 stars
Un altro mondo - 1.5 stars
Macbeth - 2.0 stars

Most frequent co-stars

Vincent D'Onofrio - 4 times - show films
Gwendoline Yeo - 3 times - show films
Jadyn Wong - 3 times - show films
Chris Mulkey - 3 times - show films
Ewan McGregor - 3 times - show films

Most frequent directors

Julian Jarrold - 4 times - show films
Douglas McGrath - 3 times - show films
Walter Hill - 3 times - show films
Jag Mundhra - 2 times - show films
David Drury - 2 times - show films