Greta Scacchi

This beautiful light-haired international lead first gained attention as the spirited grandmother in the flashback sequence of the Merchant-Ivory production, "Heat and Dust" (1982). Scacchi (pronounced "Skaa-key") was also memorable as the daffy secretary in Dusan Makavejev's "The Coca Cola Kid" (1985). By the late 1980s, despite such high-profile projects as "White Mischief" (1987) and "Presumed Innocent" (1990), she seemed typecast as a two-dimensional femme fatale. Her career received a renewed critical boost thanks to a standout performance in Robert Altman's "The Player" (1992). Scacchi seemed to excel in several period films, notably "Country Life" (1994), Michael Blakemore's adaptation of Chekhov's "Uncle Vanya." She then reteamed with Merchant-Ivory to portray Maria Cosway who entrances the future US president in "Jefferson in Paris" (1995) and segued to Douglas McGrath's adaptation of Jane Austen's "Emma" (1996).

In 1984, Scacchi stepped into one of Garbo's signature roles, playing the consumptive Marguerite Gauthier in a TV-movie remake of "Camille" (CBS). She appeared as the object of affection of an older Englishman (James Mason) in "Doctor Fischer of Geneva" (BBC, 1984; PBS, 1985) and was one of two nubile young woman living with an elderly artist (Laurence Olivier) in "The Ebony Tower" (BBC, 1986; PBS, 1987). For her performance as the Czarina Alexandra in "Rasputin" (HBO, 1996), Scacchi won a Supporting Actress Emmy. She followed with a turn as Penelope, the patient wife of Odysseus, in the NBC miniseries "The Odyssey" (1997).