Tilda Swinton's eclectic roles

Receiving the award at the Venice Film Festival this year was somewhat of an early birthday present for Tilda Swinton. Director Alberto Barbera praised the star, who was born in London in 1960, as "one of the most original and powerful actresses" of our age. She has tackled an impressive range of roles — from strong women to androgynous heroes.

In this horror comedy, Tilda Swinton plays a funeral director who turns out to be an alien. "The Dead Don't Die" by US director Jim Jarmusch, follows in the line of his 2013 romantic vampire movie, "Only Lovers Left Alive," in which Swinton starred as a vampire named Eve.

Swinton often embodies beings with magical powers, as she did in this horror film by Italian director Luca Guadagnino. In "Suspiria," she plays the witch Madame Blanc, director of a Berlin dance school in the 1970s, as well as a strange old lady and a male psychiatrist. Initially, it was a secret that Swinton played the elderly doctor under pounds of makeup.

From evil characters to likeable protagonists, Swinton isn't typecast in a particular kind of role. In Bong Joon Ho's film "Okja," she plays the narcissistic CEO of a corporation who has a genetically modified pig-like creature named Okja, brought from South Korea to New York for her own pleasure.

Whether it's a blockbuster or an indie film, Swinton always seeks out experimentation in her projects, wrote British paper "The Independent." In the film adaptation of the Marvel comic "Doctor Strange," Swinton plays a mystical being known as Ancient One who becomes a mentor to Doctor Strange, with Benedict Cumberbatch in the title role.

At times, Swinton changes her appearance beyond recognition for her roles. In Wes Anderson's comedy "The Grand Budapest Hotel," she was Madame D., a glamorous elderly lady who stops for a night at a hotel in a fictitious Eastern European country. It wasn't the first time the Scottish actress worked with Wes Anderson.

Contributing to her cult status, Swinton is a recurring actor in the works of popular indie film directors such as Wes Anderson and Jim Jarmusch. She appeared in the latter's 2009 film, "The Limits of Control." Whether the movie can be considered a thriller or not is still debated by Jarmusch fans around the world.

Tilda Swinton appeared alongside Brad Pitt (left), who starred in David Fincher's fantasy drama film about a man who grows young. Benjamin Button is born an old man and dies a baby. He and Elizabeth Abbott (Swinton) have a brief affair. Germany's "Spiegel" news magazine called the Oscar-winning movie "the greatest film romance since 'Titanic.'"

Benedict Cumberbatch, Brad Pitt and George Clooney join Swinton in Tony Gilroy's thriller "Michael Clayton" (2007). In it, Swinton plays a determined lawyer on the verge of a mental breakdown. He strong performance was honored with an Oscar.

Swinton appeared in 2005 in the film "Broken Flowers" opposite Bill Murray, in another film directed by Jim Jarmusch. In the movie, Murray's character embarks on a cross-country journey to track down four of his former lovers after receiving an anonymous letter stating that he has a son. Swinton portrays one of the potential mothers alongside Sharon Stone, Frances Conroy and Jessica Lange.

Tilda Swinton gained international fame playing the title role in this postmodern history and time travel film directed by Sally Potter. "Orlando" is a male aristocrat who lives from the 16th to the 20th centuries, before transforming into a woman. Based on the novel by Virginia Woolf, the film critically tackles topics pertaining to gender relations and female emancipation