--- name: "Meg Tilly" canonical: "https://film.one/person/meg-tilly" roles: ["Actor"] born: "14 February 1960" reviewed_on_fi1m: 2 average_fi1m_score: 70 average_as: "actor" average_over: 2 updated: "2026-09-20T09:13:28.915779+00:00" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Meg Tilly Actor. Born 14 February 1960 in Long Beach, California, USA. ## Details - **Work:** Actor - **Born:** 14 February 1960, Long Beach, California, USA - **Active:** 1983–1993 - **Also known as:** Margaret Elizabeth Chan, Мег Тилли, مگ تیلی - **Golden Globes:** 1 Golden Globe (1 won) - **Average Fi1m score:** 70, as actor, over 2 titles - **Fi1m score by decade:** 1980s 67 (1), 1990s 72 (1) - **Elsewhere:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meg_Tilly, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q236705, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000672/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/39117 ## Streaming the US now - **Tubi:** [*The Big Chill*](https://film.one/film/the-big-chill.md) (67) For United States; add `?region=XX` for another country. ## Fi1m on Meg Tilly > Meg Tilly's gift was stillness: a young woman who seems to have no guard up at all, so that whatever is going on underneath arrives late and unannounced. Too many of the films around her were not up to her, and then she stopped. In *The Big Chill* (1983) old university friends gather in a big house after a funeral and spend a weekend telling each other how much they have changed. Meg Tilly plays Chloe, the dead man's girlfriend, the one person in the house who was not at the university and does not pretend to miss it. While the others reminisce she watches and answers when asked. It is a small part, and it is the one in the film that is not performing its grief. That manner came from somewhere. She trained as a ballet dancer until a back injury ended it, studied acting with Peggy Feury in Los Angeles, and made her screen debut as a dancer in *Fame* (1980). Dancers know how to stand still and be looked at, and she brought that to a run of parts in the early eighties: *Tex* (1982), *Psycho II* (1983) as Mary Loomis, *The Big Chill* the same year, and then the title role in Norman Jewison's *Agnes of God* (1985), the part that made her reputation. *Valmont* (1989) for Miloš Forman, as Madame de Tourvel, was the last of the big ones. By the mid-1990s she had largely stopped acting to write novels and raise a family. What critics kept noticing was the innocence, the wide unguarded look of someone who has not yet learned to hide anything, and what made it worth watching was that something was always going on behind it. Directors saw this and cast her, again and again, as the vulnerable young woman in crisis, over faith or over who she was. It suited her and it boxed her in. Too many of the films around those parts were not good enough, and by the time she left there was a fair question, never answered, about how much more she could have done with better material. We are fonder of Chloe than the film gives us reason to be: in a house full of people explaining themselves, Tilly's refusal to explain anything felt like the only honest thing on screen, and we found ourselves waiting for her to come back into shot. She did come back, to television, in *Caprica* (2010) and then as Lorna Corbett in *Bomb Girls* (2012–13), a closed and difficult woman whom the series slowly opened up, which is the kind of part she was built for and rarely given. She has taken the occasional role since, from her home in British Columbia, between books. "I really enjoy acting," she once said. "At home I can't even finish a sentence, and here I am reading these wonderful lines." It reads like someone who could take it or leave it, and mostly left it. The loss is ours more than hers. ## Biography Meg Tilly is an American-Canadian actress and novelist. Born Margaret Elizabeth Chan on 14 February 1960 in Long Beach, California, she began her career as a dancer before moving into acting. She played Chloe in the 1983 ensemble film *The Big Chill*. Tilly received a Golden Globe Award and an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in *Agnes of God* (1985). She later won the 2013 Canadian Screen Award for Best Lead Actress in a Drama Series for *Bomb Girls* (2012–13). Other film roles include *Psycho II* (1983), *Valmont* (1989) and *The Two Jakes* (1990). She has written six novels, including the young adult title *Porcupine* (2007). She is the younger sister of actress Jennifer Tilly. *Sources: en.wikipedia.org, imdb.com, megtillyauthor.com.* ## On Fi1m (2) - *Fallen Angels* (1993), Fi1m 72, as Lois Weldon — [page](https://film.one/tv/fallen-angels-1993.md) - *The Big Chill* (1983), Fi1m 67, as Chloe — [page](https://film.one/film/the-big-chill.md) ## Complete filmography (32) Every credit, newest first. Titles without a page can be requested for review on the HTML page. - *Ordinary Angels* (2024), Screenplay - *Chucky* (2021), series, as Meg Tilly - *War Machine* (2017), as Jeannie McMahon - *Antibirth* (2016), as Lorna - *Bomb Girls: Facing the Enemy* (2014), as Lorna Corbett - *Bomb Girls* (2012), series, as Lorna Corbett - *Caprica* (2010), series, as Mother - *Journey* (1995), as Min - *Trick of the Eye* (1994), as Faith Crowell - *Sleep with Me* (1994), as Sarah - *Winnetka Road* (1994), series, as George Grace - *Fallen Angels* (1993), series, as Lois Weldon — Fi1m 72, [page](https://film.one/tv/fallen-angels-1993.md) - *Body Snatchers* (1993), as Carol Malone - *Leaving Normal* (1992), as Marianne - *The Two Jakes* (1990), as Kitty Berman - *In the Best Interest of the Child* (1990), as Jennifer Colton - *Road to Avonlea* (1990), series, as Evelyn Grier - *Valmont* (1989), as Madame de Tourvel - *Carmilla* (1989), as Carmilla - *Nightmare Classics* (1989), series, as Carmilla - *The Girl in a Swing* (1988), as Karin - *Masquerade* (1988), as Olivia Lawrence - *Off Beat* (1986), as Rachel Wareham - *Agnes of God* (1985), as Sister Agnes - *Impulse* (1984), as Jennifer - *The Big Chill* (1983), as Chloe — Fi1m 67, [page](https://film.one/film/the-big-chill.md) - *Psycho II* (1983), as Mary - *One Dark Night* (1982), as Julie Wells - *Tex* (1982), as Jamie Collins - *Hill Street Blues* (1981), series, Actor — Fi1m 86, [page](https://film.one/tv/hill-street-blues.md) - *Fame* (1980), as Principal Dancer - *Hallmark Hall of Fame* (1951), series, as Min ## Gallery - ![Meg Tilly](https://film.one/media/person/1246715/gallery-10d6d0ab55a1.jpg) Meg Tilly — Mr. Bombdiggity, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/95/Meg_Tilly_at_the_Toronto_International_Film_Festival_2013-original.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled) - ![Canadian-American actress Meg Tilly at the Toronto International Film Festival, September 5, 2013](https://film.one/media/person/1246715/gallery-fe0980acd6db.jpg) Canadian-American actress Meg Tilly at the Toronto International Film Festival, September 5, 2013 — Mr. Bombdiggity, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5d/Meg_Tilly_at_the_Toronto_International_Film_Festival_2013.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled) - ![Meg Tilly](https://film.one/media/person/1246715/gallery-d59c90abc784.jpg) Meg Tilly — Image via TMDB - ![Meg Tilly](https://film.one/media/person/1246715/gallery-02a80eed2fa3.jpg) Meg Tilly — Image via TMDB - ![Meg Tilly](https://film.one/media/person/1246715/gallery-f563c73c4975.jpg) Meg Tilly — Image via TMDB - ![Meg Tilly](https://film.one/media/person/1246715/gallery-03a8346d4a0e.jpg) Meg Tilly — Image via TMDB - ![Meg Tilly](https://film.one/media/person/1246715/gallery-aafc2e80d6b8.jpg) Meg Tilly — Image via TMDB - ![Meg Tilly](https://film.one/media/person/1246715/gallery-041d3cf6b246.jpg) Meg Tilly — Image via TMDB ## Awards ### Academy Awards — 0 won, 1 nominated - 1986: Best Supporting Actress (nominated), for *Agnes of God* ### Golden Globes — 1 won - 1985: Best Supporting Actress – Motion Picture (won), for *Agnes of God* *From Wikidata, which records wins more completely than nominations.* --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/person/meg-tilly