Biography for
Vanessa Redgrave More at IMDbPro »

Date of Birth

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Mini Biography

Born into a distinguished acting family, Vanessa Redgrave knew a lot about acting technique when she started making films in the 1960s. Three decades later she has shown that an actress can improve with age. In his review of A Month by the Lake (1995), Roger Ebert sees Redgrave "at the absolute peak of physical and mental perfection". No one had any idea of what kind of a woman was in the photographs in the park in Blowup (1966). Her rich auburn hair was long, her physique lean, her countenance inscrutable. Three decades later a Redgrave who takes the pictures has hair that is short, the auburn shade muted. The physique is still lean and it is strong from the work it has taken to keep it that way. And the countenance is a lot easier to read. Add expertise with body language and a superb sense of timing and here is a comedienne who should still be carrying films when she is in her 90s.

Spouse

Trade Mark

Often chooses roles that are difficult or controversial, not roles that will bring her more money or a higher status.

Trivia

Claims to be on hit-list of neo-Nazi group Combat 18. [February 1997]

Daughter of Michael Redgrave & Rachel Kempson, sister of Lynn Redgrave & Corin Redgrave, mother of Natasha Richardson & Joely Richardson.

Aunt of Jemma Redgrave.

She was awarded the C.B.E. (Commander of the Order of the British Empire) in 1967 for her services to drama.

Granddaughter of Roy Redgrave.

Mother-in-law of actor Liam Neeson.

Was in a long relationship with former James Bond actor Timothy Dalton [1980-1994]

Both she and sister Lynn Redgrave were nominated for the 1967 Best Actress Academy Award. Vanessa was nominated for Morgan: A Suitable Case for Treatment (1966) and Lynn for Georgy Girl (1966). They both lost to Elizabeth Taylor, who won for Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966).

Won Broadway's 2003 Tony Award as Best Actress (Play) for a revival of Eugene O'Neill's "Long Day's Journey Into Night."

Measurements: 34-26-35 (Source: Celebrity Sleuth magazine)

Son, Carlo Gabriel Nero, with Franco Nero. The two met while working together in Camelot (1967).

She allegedly refused the British honour of Dame of the order of the British Empire in 1999.

She was awarded the Laurence Olivier Theatre Award in 1985 (1984 season) for Best Actress in a Revival for The Aspern Papers.

She was nominated for a 1997 Laurence Olivier Theatre Award for Best Actress in a Play of 1996 for her performance in John Gabriel Borkman.

She was awarded the 1985 London Critics Circle Theatre Award (Drama Theatre Award) for Best Actor in The Seagull.

She was awarded the 1991 London Evening Standard Theatre Award for Best Actress for her performance in When She Danced.

She was awarded the 1985 London Evening Standard Theatre Award for Best Actor for her performance in The Seagull.

She was awarded the 1988 London Critics Circle Theatre Award (Drama Theatre Award) for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in A Touch of the Poet.

In 1962, she became one of the first celebrities to visit communist Cuba.

A longtime member of Britain's Workers Revolutionary Party

Appeared on "BBC News 24" Breakfast and stated that the massacre of Russian school children by Chechen guerrillas was not an act of terrorism. (4 September 2004).

In 2003, she became the sixteenth performer to win the Triple Crown of acting. Oscar: Best Supporting Actress, Julia (1977), Tony: Best Actress-Play, "Long Day's Journey into Night" (2003), and Emmys: Best Actress-Limited Series/Special, Playing for Time (1980) (TV) & Best Supporting Actress-Miniseries/Movie, If These Walls Could Talk 2 (2000) (TV).

Was set to star in Dario Argento's Opera (1987), but dropped out shortly before production was scheduled to commence.

First performer to win two individual Acting Awards at the Cannes Festival. (Dean Stockwell won twice at the festival before, but he had to share both of his awards with his co-stars)

On a June 2005 appearance on "Larry King Live" (1985), she expressed her fondness for the movie Meet the Fockers (2004) and said that the film should have won an Academy Award.

Trained for the stage at the central school for Speech and Drama in London, and in 1959 became a member of the acclaimed Stratford-Upon-Avon Theatre Company.

Received The Helen Hayes award nomination for her work in Hecuba. This play was a major success. It was so well received that the BAM theater in New York scheduled it for two weeks and it went on to being performed in Delphi.

Plays mother to real-lifer daughter Joely Richardson in a few episodes of "Nip/Tuck" (2003).

Spoke at the Scottish Parliment in the summer of 2005.

Voted by People magazine (May 8th 2006) as one of the 100 most beautiful people.

Voted by Entertainment Weekly as one of the 25 greatest Actresses

Is mentioned, along with Joe Piscopo and Eddie Murphy, in the song "Jammin' Me" by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers.

When director David Hare and producers of "The Year of Magical Thinking" were thinking of an actress to cast in their one-woman show, they could only think of one name, and that was Redgrave. They said that only she could tackle the range of emotion created by the character.

After filming Mary, Queen of Scots (1971), The Devils (1971) and The Trojan Women (1971), she suffered a miscarriage in 1971. It was a boy and would have been her and Franco Nero's second child.

After filming The Trojan Women (1971), Katharine Hepburn favored Vanessa Redgrave over all actresses and later remarked that she was, "A thrill to look at and to listen to.".

Her three children are actresses Natasha Richardson and Joely Richardson from her marriage to Tony Richardson and Carlo Gabriel Nero with Italian actor Franco Nero.

Received rave reviews for originating the role of Jean Brodie in, 'The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie" winning the London Evening Standard award for her work.

Along with Kate Winslet (for Iris (2000), Claude Rains (Mr. Skeffington (1944) and Mare Winningham (for Georgia (1995)), she is the only performer to be nominated for an Supporting Oscar (for Julia (1977)) for playing the title role in a movie. Redgrave is the only one to win.

She was the first of the only four actresses to win the Best Actress award twice at Cannes Film Festival. She won for Morgan: A Suitable Case for Treatment (1966) in 1966 and Isadora (1968) in 1968. The others are: Isabelle Huppert for Violette Nozière (1978) in 1978 and La pianiste (2001) in 2001; Helen Mirren for Cal (1984) in 1984 and The Madness of King George (1994) in 1995; Barbara Hershey for Shy People (1987) in 1987 and A World Apart (1988) in 1988.

Won the Drama Desk award in 2007 for Best Actor in a Solo performance for "The Year of Magical Thinking". She also received her second Tony award nomination for Best Actress for the same play.

Former mother-in-law of Working Title films co-producer Tim Bevan.

She was made a Fellow of the British Film Institute in recognition of her outstanding contribution to film culture.

Both she and her daughter Joely Richardson have played an historical queen who was executed by beheading. Redgrave played the title character in Mary, Queen of Scots (1971) while her daughter played Marie Antoinette in The Affair of the Necklace (2001).

Named Jeanne Moreau as co-respondent in her 1967 divorce from Tony Richardson on grounds of adultery.

Lost her daughter Natasha Richardson on March 18, 2009 as the result of a skiing accident at Mont Tremblant Quebec.

Nominated for the 2007 Tony Award (New York City) for Actress in a Drama for "The Year of Magical Thinking".

Refused to accept any money for her role as Anne Boleyn in A Man for All Seasons (1966).

Was offered the role of Margaret More in A Man for All Seasons (1966) but she turned it down due her commitments to the theatre and opted for the cameo role of Anne Boleyn instead. Susannah York was cast as Margaret More instead.

Personal Quotes

[accepting her Oscar for Julia (1977)] My dear colleagues, I thank you very, very much for this tribute to my work. I think that Jane Fonda and I have done the best work of our lives, and I salute you and I pay tribute to you, and I think you should be very proud that in the last few weeks you have stood firm and you have refused to be intimidated by the threats of a small bunch of Zionist hoodlums [interrupted by boos] whose behavior is an insult to the stature of Jews all over the world and to their great and heroic record of struggle against fascism and oppression. And I pledge to you that I will continue to fight against anti-Semitism and fascism. Thank you.

I choose all my roles very carefully so that when my career is finished I will have covered all our recent history of oppression.

I've opened my mouth on a lot of subjects. And I thought the more prestige you get, I'd have the power to do what I like. It's not true.

I don't think I ever felt beautiful until I was pregnant and when I gave birth to my children. I had terrible acne when I was a teenager and I was very tall, so tall I couldn't see myself in my mother's long mirror.

I don't consider myself beautiful at all, I'm usually running around like a scruff.

Of course, I am misrepresented very often, but so is everybody who has got something to say.

I would have liked to have more children. I had always wanted five children when I was younger. That was my dream, I wanted five and I don't think I would have been bothered if it had turned out to be six. In the end, I had four, but I lost one of them, the fourth one. I had a miscarriage.

Anybody can lose their job and have nothing. And people mind having nothing.

Ask the right questions if you're to find the right answers

How can we help the people in the audience--and ourselves--remove the cobwebs that prevents us all from being able to reach and touch things?

Analyzing the problem is vital. It's the only way you're going to arrive at the right thing to do.

A theater is being given over to market forces, which means that a whole generation that should be able to do theater as well as see it is being completely deprived.

I have a tremendous use for passionate statement.

It's a kinky part of my nature -- to meddle.

I give myself to my parts as to a lover.

America is gangsterism for the private profit of the few.

Where Are They Now

(May 2003) Appearing on Broadway in "Long Day's Journey Into Night".

(November 2004) Just started own political party in the UK to be focused on human rights violations. It is called Peace and Progress Party, it will field candidates in the next British general election.

(June 2006) Fighting to stop an open air gold mine in Romania. She has been met with protest, but ignores it all.

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