Vanessa Redgrave Biography

(1937 - )

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Related Works

  • Films
  • 1966 Morgan, a Suitable Case for Treatment
  • 1966 Blow Up
  • 1967 The Sailor from Gibraltar
  • 1967 Camelot
  • 1968 The Charge of the Light Brigade
  • 1968 Isadora
  • 1968 The Sea Gull
  • 1971 The Devils
  • 1971 Mary, Queen of Scots
  • 1971 The Trojan Women
  • 1974 Murder on the Orient Express
  • 1975 Out of Season
  • 1976 The Seven Per Cent Solution
  • 1977 Julia
  • 1979 Agatha
  • 1979 Bear Island
  • 1979 Yanks
  • 1984 The Bostonians
  • 1985 Wetherby
  • 1985 Steaming
  • 1987 Comrades
  • 1987 Prick Up Your Ears
  • 1988 Consuming Passions
  • 1991 The Ballad of the Sad Café
  • 1992 Howard's End
  • 1993 The House of the Spirits
  • 1993 Wall of Silence
  • 1994 Mother's Boys
  • 1994 Little Odessa
  • 1996 Mission Impossible
  • 1997 Wilde
  • 1998 Mrs Dalloway
  • 1998 Celebrity
  • 1999 Girl, Interrupted
  • 1999 The Cradle Will Rock
  • 2005 The White Countess
  • Television
  • 1980 Playing for Time
  • 1982 My Body, My Child
  • 1985 Wetherby
  • 1986 Three Sovereigns for Sarah
  • 2002 The Gathering Storm
» More

(born January 30, 1937, London, England) British actress of stage and screen and longtime political activist.

Called “the greatest actress of our time” by the playwright Tennessee Williams, Vanessa Redgrave came from a legendary theatrical family. Her father, Sir Michael Redgrave, was one of Britain's most popular and respected actors, and her mother, Rachel Kempson, was a noted stage actress. Her sister, Lynn, did both stage and film work—most notably in Georgy Girl (1966) and Shine (1996)—and her brother, Corin, was a successful stage director and actor. Redgrave is also the mother of actresses Natasha and Joely Richardson from her marriage in the 1960s to director Tony Richardson.

Redgrave made her professional debut in the play A Touch of the Sun (1957), in which she costarred with her father. She appeared in her first film, Behind the Mask, in 1958 but concentrated mostly on stage work throughout the late '50s and early '60s and was a member of the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon during the 1959–60 season. Her film career began in earnest in 1966; within the space of two years, she appeared in four films that established her reputation as an intelligent actress with a commanding presence. The first of her six Academy Award nominations was for Morgan! (1966), her first motion picture in eight years. She then had a role in Michelangelo Antonioni's Blow-Up (1966), a psychological mystery that became a cult favourite. Redgrave's unbilled cameo as Anne Boleyn in A Man for All Seasons (1966) and her performance as Guinevere in Camelot (1967) further secured her status as one of the most popular and respected actresses of the era.

In the late 1960s and early '70s Redgrave showed her mastery of both classical and commercial fare. She received an Oscar nomination for her portrayal of dancer Isadora Duncan in Isadora (1968), and she appeared as Nina in Sidney Lumet's adaptation of Anton Chekhov's The Sea Gull (1968). In 1971 Redgrave took on the role of Andromache in The Trojan Women and received another Oscar nomination for her work as the title character in Mary, Queen of Scots, playing opposite Glenda Jackson's Queen Elizabeth I. Redgrave also appeared in such popular mainstream vehicles as Murder on the Orient Express (1974) and The Seven-Per-Cent Solution (1976), and she won an Oscar for best supporting actress for her performance in Julia (1977).

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