Alice Krige
About
Biography
Filmography
Family & Companions
Biography
A strikingly lovely brunette actress, Krige was born in South Africa and completed a degree in psychology and drama before moving to the UK at age 22 to study acting further and pursue her career. Her delicate, high-cheekboned beauty, poise and crisp speaking voice have made her ideal for period drama, and she made a vivid impression as a woman who becomes involved with a runner in the 1924 Olympics in her first film, "Chariots of Fire" (1981). She was also lovely as the demure Lucie Manette in her US TV-movie debut, an adaptation of "A Tale of Two Cities" (1980). Krige, though, has also been called upon to convey a seductive, sometimes feline aloofness, as in "Ghost Story" (1981), in which she adeptly combined a sense of nostalgia and danger as the woman who haunts four elderly ex-beaus.
Krige was not able to immediately follow up the one-two punch of her first features, though. A restless talent who has often sought out offbeat roles in small-scale or independent productions, she also plunged into TV-movies and miniseries that struck her fancy, and worked for a season with the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1984-85. Her return to features came with the unpopular Biblical epic, "King David" (1985), in which her Bathsheba tempted Richard Gere in the title role. Krige has subsequently alternated leads and second leads in films like "Barfly" (1987), as an upscale publisher intrigued by low-life Mickey Rourke and his writings; "Haunted Summer" (1988), an uneven but lovingly filmed fictional encounter between Lord Byron, Percy Shelley and her Mary Godwin, during the season in which she conceives the idea for her novel "Frankenstein"; and "See You in the Morning" (1989), in which she gave a good account of herself as one of Jeff Bridges' paramours. The 90s were a leaner period for Krige, but she returned to sleek territory as a vampire mother prowling about with her bloodsucking son in "Stephen King's Sleepwalkers" (1992) and as the wife of a headmaster of a bizarre school for servants in the Brothers Quay's very experimental "Institute Benjamenta" (1995).
TV has on the whole provided highly typical but also more reliable work for Krige, from her Irish immigrant in the turn-of-the-century miniseries "Ellis Island" (CBS, 1984) to the acclaimed Western miniseries "Dream West" (CBS, 1986) and in support of Vanessa Redgrave as transsexual Renee Richards in the well-done TV-movie "Second Serve" (CBS, 1986). Although her TV credits include more routine and lurid thrillers like "Double Deception" (NBC, 1993) and "Donor Unknown" (USA, 1995), Krige has worked to add mystery and dimension to efforts such as "Ladykiller" (USA, 1992), and she continues gracing period fare, returning to religious sobriety as Rachel in "Joseph" (TNT, 1995) or as a Holocaust survivor in "Max and Helen" (TNT, 1990).
The mid-90s saw an upswing in feature film work for Krige, with three features all lensed in 1995-96: "Amanda," a boy and his horse story; "Hothouse/Ecophoria," a sci-fi film shot on high definition video; and the especially high-profile, "Star Trek: First Contact," in which she played the icy, mechanized Borg Queen.
Filmography
Cast (Feature Film)
Producer (Feature Film)
Music (Feature Film)
Cast (Special)
Cast (TV Mini-Series)
Life Events
1979
Professional acting debut in British TV drama "The Happy Autumn Fields"
1980
First US TV-movie, "A Tale of Two Cities"
1981
Feature film debut as Sybil Gordon, in the Academy Award winning Best Picture, "Chariots of Fire"
1981
Cast in the dual role as the avenging spirit in "Ghost Story"
1981
West End debut, "Arms and the Man"; received the honors for Plays and Players Award and a Laurence Olivier Award for Most Promising Newcomer
1984
Spent two seasons with the Royal Shakespeare Company (in Stratford and London)
1985
Returned to films after four years to play Bathsheba in "King David" opposite Richard Gere in the title role
1988
Played country singer Patsy Cline in the made-for-HBO movie, "Baja Oklahoma"; sang one of Cline's standards, "Faded Love"
1990
Starred opposite Treat Williams as concentration camp inmates who remeet twenty years later in the made-for-cable movie "Max and Helen"
1992
Cast as the overprotective mother of a shape changing teenager in "Sleepwalkers"
1993
Had leading role in "The Scarlet and the Black"; originally made for British television
1995
Acted in the Quay Brothers' "Institute Benjamenta"
1996
Delivered a strong supporting turn in the Showtime drama "Hidden in America"
1996
Played the Borg Queen in "Star Trek: First Contact"
2000
Acted in "The Littlest Vampire"
2005
Cast as Maddie, a former prostitute in the HBO series "Deadwood"
2006
Played Rachel Fedden on mini-series "The Line of Beauty"
2006
Cast on "The 4400"
2006
Played Christabella in video game adaptation "Silent Hill"
2010
Starred as Morgana in Disney's live action "Sorcerer's Apprentice"
2013
Appeared in Marvel sequel "Thor: The Dark World"
2014
Played Amira Al-Fayeed on "Tyrant"
2017
Appeared in TV movie "A Christmas Prince"
2018
Cast as Anna Reinach in "A Rose in Winter"
Companions
