Alice Maud Krige (/ˈkriËÉ¡É™/; born 28 June 1954) is a South African actress and producer. Her first feature film role was as the Gilbert and Sullivan singer Sybil Gordon in the 1981 Academy Award-winning film Chariots of Fire. Since then, she has played a variety of roles in a number of genres. Krige first played the role of the Borg Queen in the motion picture Star Trek: First Contact and reprised the role for the final episode of the television series Star Trek: Voyager.</i> A year after the series ended, she reprised the role in "Borg Invasion 4-D" at Star Trek: The Experience.
Early life
Krige was born in Upington, Cape Province, South Africa, the daughter of Pat, a psychologist, and Louis Krige, a physician. The Kriges later moved to Port Elizabeth where Alice grew up in what she has described as a "very happy family", with two brothers, both of whom became physicians. She attended Rhodes University in Grahamstown, South Africa with plans to become a clinical psychologist, but did not complete her studies, leaving for London in 1976. She turned to acting after taking an acting class at Rhodes. She attended the Central School of Speech and Drama in London.
Career
Krige made her professional debut on British television in 1979, and appeared in the television movie A Tale of Two Cities. She went on to play Sybil Gordon in Chariots of Fire and Eva Galli/Alma Mobley in Ghost Story, both in 1981. She earned a Plays and Players Award, as well as a Laurence Olivier Award for Most Promising Newcomer, after appearing in a 1981 West End theatre production of George Bernard Shaw's Arms and the Man.
Krige played Bathsheba in King David (1985) and Mary Shelley in Haunted Summer (1988). She appeared on stage in plays such as Thomas Otway's Venice Preserv'd. She appeared in television movies as Baja Oklahoma (1988) and Ladykiller (1992), in mini-series such as Ellis Island (1984) and Scarlet and Black (1993). and in such horror films as Ghost Story, Sleepwalkers, Stay Alive, and Silent Hill.
In Star Trek: First Contact, Krige played the Borg Queen, who attempts to assimilate Earth into the Borg collective. She won Best Supporting Actress at the 1997 Saturn Awards for that role. She returned to this character in the Star Trek game Star Trek: Armada II and in the Star Trek: Voyager series finale "Endgame" in 2001. Her science fiction career has also expanded into television, with prominent roles in miniseries adaptations of Dinotopia and Frank Herbert's Children of Dune.
In April 2004, Krige was awarded an honorary Litt.D. degree from Rhodes University.
Krige starred in a number of made-for-television movies and miniseries. She played the role of Natalie Wood's bad mother in The Mystery of Natalie Wood (2004), and starred as Joan Collins in Dynasty: The Making of a Guilty Pleasure. She had recurring roles in Deadwood, and guest starred in Six Feet Under, Law & Order: Criminal Intent, The 4400, and Dirty Sexy Money
In 2008, she had a leading role as Sannie Laing, Sandra's mother, in Skin, the biopic about Sandra Laing, who was classified "Coloured" by the South African authorities during Apartheid, although her parents were white. In 2011, Krige appeared in the BBCs final season of Spooks, playing Russian double agent Elena Gavrik. Krige also featured in the final season of BBC drama Waking the Dead, in 2011. In recent years, Krige appeared in films Solomon Kane, The Sorcerer's Apprentice, and Thor: The Dark World.
Personal life
Krige married writer and director Paul Schoolman in 1988; the couple remains wed.
Filmography
Film
Television
References
External links
- Alice Krige at the Internet Movie Database
- Alice Krige at the TCM Movie Database
- Alice Krige at AllMovie
- Alice Krige interview at www.sci-fi-online.com
- Alice Krige at Who's Who Southern Africa
