Vanessa Redgrave

Dame Vanessa Redgrave, born on 30 January 1937, is a British actress and political activist whose career has stretched across eight decades. She has won an Academy Award, a Tony Award, two Primetime Emmy Awards, a Volpi Cup, and an Olivier Award, placing her among the select group of performers who have achieved the Triple Crown of Acting. In addition, she has received honorary recognitions such as the BAFTA Fellowship, the Golden Lion Honorary Award, and a place in the American Theatre Hall of Fame.

Redgrave first stepped onto the stage in 1958, and her breakthrough came in 1961 when she played Rosalind in *As You Like It* with the Royal Shakespeare Company. Since then, she has appeared in numerous West End and Broadway productions. She won the Olivier Award for Best Actress in a Revival for *The Aspern Papers* in 1984, and earned Olivier nominations for *A Touch of the Poet* (1988), *John Gabriel Borkman* (1997), and *The Inheritance* (2019). On Broadway, she took home the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play for the 2003 revival of *Long Day's Journey into Night*, and was nominated for *The Year of Magical Thinking* (2007) and *Driving Miss Daisy* (2011).

Her film debut came in 1958, co-starring with her father in the medical drama *Behind the Mask*. She gained prominence as a film actor with the satire *Morgan – A Suitable Case for Treatment* (1966), which earned her the first of six Academy Award nominations. She won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for *Julia* (1977). Her other Oscar-nominated performances were in *Isadora* (1968), *Mary, Queen of Scots* (1971), *The Bostonians* (1984), and *Howards End* (1992). Her other notable films include *A Man for All Seasons* (1966), *Blowup* (1966), *Camelot* (1967), *The Devils* (1971), *Murder on the Orient Express* (1974), *Agatha* (1979), *Prick Up Your Ears* (1987), *Mission: Impossible* (1996), *Venus* (2006), *Atonement* (2007), *Coriolanus* (2011), and *Foxcatcher* (2014).

Redgrave comes from a celebrated acting family. She is the daughter of Sir Michael Redgrave and Rachel Kempson, and the sister of Lynn Redgrave and Corin Redgrave. She married Italian actor Franco Nero, and is the mother of actresses Joely Richardson and Natasha Richardson, as well as screenwriter and director Carlo Gabriel Nero. She is also 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, Micheál Richardson, and Daniel Neeson.

Born on 30 January 1937 in Blackheath, London, her birth was announced to an audience at the Old Vic by Laurence Olivier, who was playing Hamlet at the time. Olivier reportedly said, "A great actress has been born this night," referring to the fact that her father, Sir Michael, was playing Laertes in the production. In her autobiography, Redgrave recalls the East End and Coventry Blitzes among her earliest memories. After the East End Blitz, her family moved to Bromyard, Herefordshire, returning to London in 1943. She was educated at two independent girls' schools—the Alice Ottley School in Worcester and Queen's Gate School in London—before being presented as a debutante. Her siblings, Lynn and Corin, also became actors.

Redgrave entered the Central School of Speech and Drama in 1954. Her first West End appearance was in 1958, acting opposite her brother. In 1959, she performed at the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre under Peter Hall, playing Helena in *A Midsummer Night's Dream* opposite Charles Laughton, and Coriolanus opposite Laurence Olivier, Albert Finney, and Edith Evans. In 1960, she had her first starring role in Robert Bolt's *The Tiger and the Horse*, co-starring with her father. The following year, she played Rosalind in *As You Like It* for the Royal Shakespeare Company, and in 1962, she played Imogen in William Gaskill's production of *Cymbeline* for the RSC. In 1966, she originated the role of Jean Brodie in the stage adaptation of *The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie*.

Her first credited film role was in *Behind the Mask* (1958), again co-starring with her father. Her first starring film role was in *Morgan – A Suitable Case for Treatment* (1966), with David Warner, directed by Karel Reisz. That performance brought her an Oscar nomination, a Cannes award, a Golden Globe nomination, and a BAFTA Film Award nomination. She then played a mysterious woman in *Blowup* (1966), the first English-language film by Italian director Michelangelo Antonioni. Reunited with Reisz for the biographical film *Isadora* (1968), her portrayal of dancer Isadora Duncan earned her a National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Actress, a second Best Female Performance prize at Cannes, and both a Golden Globe and Oscar nomination. In 1970 and 1971, she worked with Italian filmmaker Tinto Brass on *Dropout* and *La vacanza*. During this period, she also played historical or semi-mythical figures, including Andromache in *The Trojan Women* (1971) and the lead in *Mary, Queen of Scots* (1971), which earned her a third Oscar nomination. She played Guinevere in *Camelot* (1967) with Richard Harris and Franco Nero, and briefly portrayed Sylvia Pankhurst in *Oh! What a Lovely War* (1969). She also took on the role of Mother Superior Jeanne des Anges in Ken Russell's controversial film *The Devils* (1971).

In the 1977 film *Julia*, she played the title role of a woman murdered by the Nazi regime for her anti-Fascist activism, co-starring with Jane Fonda.