SUPPORTING ROLE: Jean and Allan McTeer show a photograph of their daughter, actress Janet McTeer, who has been nominated for an Oscar

The York parents of actress Janet McTeer were today celebrating her nomination for the film industry's highest accolade.

Janet, who was brought up in York and attended Queen Anne School in the city, has been short-listed for a best actress Oscar for her role as a Southern mum in the low-budget film Tumbleweeds.

In January, she won a Golden Globe award for the performance, not bad for a girl whose first foray into the theatrical world was serving coffee at the Theatre Royal in York.

Her parents, Jean and Allan McTeer, who live in Cyprus Grove, Haxby, said their daughter's success was "exhilarating".

"It's unbelievable that this sort of low budget film, which she loved doing, should be so successful," said Jean.

"We're incredibly proud of her."

Her parents say the Oscars ceremony will give the down-to-earth actress another exciting opportunity to meet more famous people.

She was delighted when she met her idol, Peggy Ashcroft, and would have liked time to chat to Steven Spielberg at the Golden Globes ceremony.

Jean said: "He came up and gave her a kiss but she said they immediately had cameras in their faces and it was all so over-the-top. It's all terribly exciting though."

But the actress, perhaps best-known in the UK for her starring role in The Governor, in which she played the hard-nosed chief of a tough male prison, almost chose a completely different career path as a theatre critic.

Jean said: "She decided she might as well do a few auditions and she ended up being offered a place at RADA.

"By the time she was ready to leave she had two agents fighting over her."

And despite the success an Oscar would undoubtedly bring, her parents say nothing could alter their daughter's genuine nature.

Jean said: "When Janet is in a play she's invited to all the parties - the joiners' and the stage hands' - because she's part of the crew, she's down-to-earth."

American Beauty, the debut movie by British director Sam Mendes, received eight nominations for the Oscars.

Also flying the flag for Britain was screen veteran Michael Caine, who was "delighted" to get his fifth nomination, competing against Jude Law for the title of best supporting actor.

The last of Britain's four acting hopes this year is 22-year-old Samantha Morton, who - just nine days after the birth of her baby Esme - was celebrating her place on the best supporting actress shortlist.

Caine's film, Cider House Rules, picked up seven nominations, as did The Insider, a fact-based expose of the US tobacco industry.

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