Vanessa Redgrave

Dame Vanessa Redgrave (born 30 January 1937) is an English actress and activist. Throughout her career spanning over seven decades, Redgrave has garnered numerous accolades, including an Academy Award, a British Academy Television Award, two Golden Globe Awards, two Cannes Film Festival Awards, two Primetime Emmy Awards, two Screen Actors Guild Awards, a Volpi Cup and a Tony Award, making her one of the few performers to achieve the Triple Crown of Acting. She has also received various honorary awards, including the BAFTA Fellowship Award, the Golden Lion Honorary Award, and an induction into the American Theatre Hall of Fame.

Redgrave made her acting debut on stage with the production of ' in 1958. She rose to prominence in 1961 playing Rosalind in the Shakespearean comedy ''As You Like It'' with the Royal Shakespeare Company and has since starred in more than 35 productions in London's West End and on Broadway, winning the 1984 Olivier Award for Best Actress in a Revival for '' The Aspern Papers'', and the 2003 Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play for the revival of '' Long Day's Journey into Night''. She also received Tony nominations for ''The Year of Magical Thinking'' and ''Driving Miss Daisy''.

Redgrave made her film debut starring opposite her father in the medical drama '' Behind the Mask'' (1958), and rose to prominence with the satire '' Morgan: A Suitable Case for Treatment'' (1966), which garnered her first of her six Academy Award nominations, winning Best Supporting Actress for ''Julia'' (1977). Her other nominations were for ''Isadora'' (1968), ''Mary, Queen of Scots'' (1971), ''The Bostonians'' (1984), and ''Howards End'' (1992). Among her other films are '' A Man for All Seasons'' (1966), ''Blowup'' (1966), ''Camelot'' (1967), '' The Devils'' (1971), ''Murder on the Orient Express'' (1974), ''Prick Up Your Ears'' (1987), '' Mission: Impossible'' (1996), ''Atonement'' (2007), ''Letters to Juliet'' (2010), ''Coriolanus'' (2011), and ''The Butler'' (2013).

A member of the Redgrave family of actors, she is the daughter of Sir Michael Redgrave and Lady Redgrave (Rachel Kempson), the sister of Lynn Redgrave and Corin Redgrave, the wife of Italian actor Franco Nero, the mother of actresses Joely Richardson and Natasha Richardson and of screenwriter and director Carlo Gabriel Nero, the aunt of British actress Jemma Redgrave, the mother-in-law of actor Liam Neeson and film producer Tim Bevan, and the grandmother of Daisy Bevan and Micheál and Daniel Neeson.

Early life

Redgrave was born on 30 January 1937 in Blackheath, London, the daughter of actors Sir Michael Redgrave and Rachel Kempson. 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. Accounts say Olivier announced, "A great actress has been born this night."

In her autobiography, Redgrave recalls the East End and Coventry Blitzes among her earliest memories. Following the East End Blitz, Redgrave relocated with her family to Herefordshire before returning to London in 1943. She was educated at two independent schools for girls: the Alice Ottley School in Worcester, and Queen's Gate School in London, before "coming out" as a debutante. Her siblings Lynn Redgrave and Corin Redgrave were also actors.

Career

Early stage and film career

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.

In 1959, she appeared at the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre under the direction of Peter Hall as Helena in ''A Midsummer Night's Dream'' opposite Charles Laughton as Bottom and ''Coriolanus'' opposite Laurence Olivier (in the title role), Albert Finney and Edith Evans.

In 1960, Redgrave had her first starring role in Robert Bolt's ''The Tiger and the Horse'', in which she co-starred with her father. In 1961, she played Rosalind in ''As You Like It'' for the Royal Shakespeare Company. In 1962, she played Imogen in William Gaskill's production of ''Cymbeline'' for the RSC. In 1966, Redgrave created the role of Jean Brodie in the Donald Albery production of '' The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie'', adapted for the stage by Jay Presson Allen from the novel by Muriel Spark.

Redgrave had her first credited film role, in which she co-starred with her father, in Brian Desmond Hurst's '' Behind the Mask'' (1958). Redgrave's first starring film role was in ''Morgan – A Suitable Case for Treatment'' (1966), co-starring David Warner and directed by Karel Reisz, for which she received an Oscar nomination, a Cannes award, a Golden Globe nomination and a BAFTA Film Award nomination. Following this, she portrayed a mysterious woman in ''Blowup'' (1966). Co-starring David Hemmings, it was the first English-language film of the Italian director Michelangelo Antonioni. Reunited with Karel Reisz for the biographical film of dancer Isadora Duncan in ''Isadora'' (1968), her portrayal of Duncan led her gaining a National Society of Film Critics' Award for Best Actress, a second Prize for the Best Female Performance at the Cannes Film Festival, along with a Golden Globe and an Oscar nomination. In 1970 and 1971, Vanessa was directed by Italian filmmaker Tinto Brass in two films: '' Dropout'' and ''La vacanza''.
In the same period came other portrayals of historical (or semi-mythical) figures – ranging from Andromache in ''The Trojan Women'' (1971) to the lead in ''Mary, Queen of Scots'' (1971), the latter earning her a third Oscar nomination. She also played the role of Guinevere in the film ''Camelot'' (1967) with Richard Harris and Franco Nero, and briefly as Sylvia Pankhurst in ''Oh! What a Lovely War'' (1969). She portrayed the character of Mother Superior Jeanne des Anges (Joan of the Angels) in '' The Devils'' (1971), the once controversial film directed by Ken Russell.

''Julia'' (1977)

In the film ''Julia'' (1977), she starred in the title role as a woman murdered by the Nazi German regime in the years prior to World War II for her anti-Fascist activism. Her co-star in the film was Jane Fonda (playing writer Lillian Hellman). In her 2005 autobiography, Fonda wrote that:

When Redgrave was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress in 1977 for her role in ''Julia'', members of the Jewish Defense League (JDL), led by Rabbi Meir Kahane, burned effigies of Redgrave and picketed the Academy Awards ceremony to protest against what they saw as her support for the Palestine Liberation Organization.

This film opened in 1977, the same year she produced and appeared in the film '' The Palestinian'', which followed the activities of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) in Lebanon. The film was criticized by many Jewish groups for its perceived anti-Israel slant, and members of the Jewish Defense League (JDL) picketed Redgrave's nomination outside the Academy Awards ceremony while counter-protestors waved PLO flags. Redgrave won the Oscar and in her acceptance speech, she thanked Hollywood for having "refused to be intimidated by the threats of a small bunch of Zionist hoodlums – 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". Her remarks brought an on-stage response later in the ceremony from Academy Award winning screenwriter and award presenter at that year's ceremony Paddy Chayefsky and sparked controversy. In his biography of Redgrave, Dan Callahan wrote, "The scandal of her awards speech and the negative press it occasioned had a destructive effect on her acting opportunities that would last for years to come".

Later career

Film and television

Later film roles include those of Agatha Christie in '' Agatha'' (1979), Helen in ''Yanks'' (1979), a Holocaust survivor in '' Playing for Time'' (1980), Leenie Cabrezi in ''My Body, My Child'' (1982), The Queen in '' Sing, Sing'' (1983), suffragist Olive Chancellor in ''The Bostonians'' (1984, a fourth Best Actress Academy Award nomination), transsexual tennis player Renée Richards in ''Second Serve'' (1986), Blanche Hudson in the television remake of ''What Ever Happened to Baby Jane'' (1991), Mrs. Wilcox in ''Howards End'' (1992, her sixth Academy Award nomination, this time in a supporting role); crime boss Max in '' Mission: Impossible'' (1996, when discussing the role of Max, Brian DePalma and Tom Cruise thought it would be fun to cast an actor like Redgrave; they then decided to go with the real thing); Oscar Wilde's mother in ''Wilde'' (1997); Clarissa Dalloway in ''Mrs. Dalloway'' (1997); and Dr. Sonia Wick in '' Girl, Interrupted'' (1999). Many of these roles and others garnered her widespread accolades.

Her performance as a lesbian mourning the loss of her longtime partner in the HBO series ''If These Walls Could Talk 2'' (2000) earned her a Golden Globe for Best TV Series Supporting Actress, as well as earning an Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a TV Film or Miniseries. This same performance also led to an Excellence in Media Award from the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD). In 2004, Redgrave joined the second-season cast of the FX series ''Nip/Tuck'', portraying Dr. Erica Noughton, the mother of Julia McNamara, who was 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 film ''Venus''. A year later, Redgrave starred in ''Evening'' and ''Atonement'', in which she received a Broadcast Film Critics Association award nomination for a performance that took up only 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
...