Swinton was born in London. Her mother, Judith Balfour (née Killen), was Australian, and her father, Major-General Sir John Swinton of Kimmerghame, Berwickshire, KCVO, is Scottish. The Swinton family is an ancient Anglo-Scots family that can trace its lineage to the ninth century. Swinton attended West Heath Girls' School (the same class as Diana, Princess of Wales), and also Fettes College for Read more...

Swinton worked with the Traverse Theatre in Edinburgh, and the Royal Shakespeare Company before embarking on a career in film in the mid-1980s. Her early film work included several film roles for director Derek Jarman, notably War Requiem (1989) playing a nurse opposite Sir Laurence Olivier as an old soldier. In 1991, Swinton won the Volpi Cup Best Actress award for her role in the postmodern film Read more...

Swinton lives in Nairn, in the Highland area of Scotland, with Scottish painter John Byrne, the father of her twins, Xavier and Honor. She travels with her partner Sandro Kopp, a German/New Zealand painter, while continuing her live-in relationship with Byrne platonically. She has been with Kopp since 2004 and the relationship has Byrne's blessing.

In August 2006 she opened the new Screen Read more...