Born January 30 1937 in Greenwich, London, Vanessa Redgrave is an English actress of stage, screen and television, as well as political activist. She made her professional debut in the play A Touch of the Sun (1957). She rose to prominence in 1961 playing Rosalind in As You Like It with the Royal Shakespeare Company and has since made more than 35 appearances on London’s West End and Broadway, winning both the Tony and Oliver Awards. In the late 1960s and early 70s, Redgrave showed her mastery of both classical and commercial fare, winning an Oscar and being nominated for two more, and more followed. Arthur Miller and Tennessee Williams proclaimed Redgrave as “the greatest living actress of our times”.
Redgrave came from a distinguished acting family. She is the daughter of Sir Michael Redgrave, one of Britain’s most popular and respected actors, and Rachel Kempson, a noted stage actress. Laurence Olivier announced her birth to the audience at a performance of Hamlet at the Old Vic, when he said that Laertes (played by Sir Michael) had a daughter. She was educated at The Alice Ottley School, Worcester & Queen’s Gate School, London before “coming out” as a debutante. Her late siblings, Lynn Redgrave and Corin Redgrave, were also acclaimed actors.
Vanessa Redgrave entered the Central School of Speech and Drama in 1954. She first appeared in the West End, playing opposite her brother, in 1958. 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 favorite. 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).
Redgrave’s controversial performance as a Nazi concentration camp victim in the television adaptation of Arthur Miller’s Playing for Time (1980) won her an Emmy, though, as a longtime supporter of the Palestine Liberation Organization, she was widely criticized for accepting the role. She received her fifth Oscar nomination for her role in the film adaptation of Henry James’s The Bostonians (1984). Other notable performances include a literary agent in the film Prick Up Your Ears (1987), and for television, Lady Alice More in the remake of A Man for All Seasons (1988), Lady Torrance in Tennessee Williams’ Orpheus Descending (1990), and Blanche Hudson in What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1991), a remake of the Bette Davis–Joan Crawford film, in which Redgrave costarred with her sister, Lynn. She received a sixth Oscar nomination for her work in Howards End (1992).
In 2004, Redgrave joined the second season cast of the hit FX series Nip/Tuck, portraying Dr. Erica Noughton, the mother of Julia McNamara, who is played by her real-life daughter Joely Richardson. She also made appearances in the third and sixth seasons. In 2006, Redgrave starred opposite Peter O’Toole in the acclaimed film Venus. A year later, Redgrave starred in Evening and the acclaimed Atonement, in which she garnered a Broadcast Film Critics Association award nomination for her performance that only took up seven minutes of screen time. In 2008, Redgrave appeared as a narrator in an Arts Alliance production, id – Identity of the Soul. In 2009, Redgrave starred in the BBC remake of The Day of the Triffids, with her daughter Joely.
Redgrave’s daughters, Natasha Richardson (1963–2009) and Joely Richardson (b. 1965) from her 1962–67 marriage to film director Tony Richardson, also built respected acting careers. Redgrave’s son Carlo Gabriel Nero (né Carlo Sparanero), by Italian actor Franco Nero (né Francesco Sparanero), is a writer and film director. She met Franco while filming Camelot in 1967, the year she divorced her husband Tony Richardson, who left her for the French actress Jeanne Moreau. Redgrave and Nero married on 31 December 2006. She is also the grandmother of Michaél and Daniel Neeson, Daisy Bevan, and Raphael and Lilli Sparanero. From 1971 to 1986, she had a long-term relationship with actor Timothy Dalton, with whom she had starred in the film Mary, Queen of Scots.
Within 14 months in 2009-2010, she lost both a daughter and her two younger siblings. Her daughter Natasha Richardson died on 18 March 2009 from a traumatic brain injury caused by a skiing accident. On 6 April 2010, her brother Corin Redgrave died, and on 2 May 2010, her sister Lynn Redgrave died.
Vanessa Redgrave Photo Gallery
