Vanessa Redgrave

Biography

Vanessa Redgrave (born in London in 1937) is a British actress of stage, film and television, widely regarded by English-speaking critics as one of the great performers of her generation. She belongs to the Redgrave family of actors, and her career now spans more than six decades on stage and screen. Her importance lies both in her craft and in the way many of her roles engaged with the political ideas of their time.

Trained at the Central School of Speech and Drama, she first appeared in the West End in 1958, alongside her brother Corin, and in 1961 she became known as Rosalind in As You Like It with the Royal Shakespeare Company. Her breakthrough on film came with Morgan – A Suitable Case for Treatment (1966), which won her the Best Actress prize at the Cannes Film Festival. That same year she worked with Michelangelo Antonioni on Blowup, whose photography sequence made her a symbol of the sexual revolution. Mary, Queen of Scots, Isadora, Camelot and Murder on the Orient Express followed, in roles that moved between historical and literary figures.

In the early 1970s her public life became more overtly political. She stood in British general elections between 1974 and 1979 for the Trotskyist Revolutionary Workers Party. In 1977 she won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for Julia, directed by Fred Zinnemann, a role that coincided with a bitter controversy over her support for the Palestinian cause. Her acceptance speech divided the audience, and the row, by many accounts, affected the work offered to her for several years.

In the 1980s and 1990s she moved between stage and screen with films such as The Bostonians, Howards End, Wilde, Mission: Impossible and Girl, Interrupted, in which she played Dr Wick. She worked with directors including Sidney Lumet and James Ivory, and with Tony Richardson, her first husband. On stage she won the Olivier Award for The Aspern Papers and the Tony Award for Long Day's Journey into Night.

All told, she has received six Academy Award nominations, and her filmography reaches into the twenty-first century with titles such as Letters to Juliet and Foxcatcher. Her daughters Natasha Richardson and Joely Richardson are also actresses, extending the family's presence in British film history.

Key films

• Morgan – A Suitable Case for Treatment (1966): her first leading film role, which won her the Best Actress prize at Cannes.
• Mary, Queen of Scots (1971): one of her portrayals of historical figures, earning an Oscar nomination.
• Julia (1977): the role of the revolutionary that won her the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.
• Howards End (1992): her sixth Oscar nomination, this time in a supporting role.
• Mission: Impossible (1996): she plays Max, an arms dealer, in the franchise's first film.