Vanessa Redgrave
Birthday:
Birthplace:
London, England, UK
Dignified, passionate Vanessa Redgrave is widely regarded as one of Great Britain's finest modern dramatic actresses. She is perhaps the most internationally famous of the Redgrave dynasty of actors that includes her father Sir Michael Redgrave, mother Rachel Kempson and siblings Corin and Lynn Redgrave. Born January 30, 1937 in London, Redgrave studied drama at London's Central School of Music and Dance. She made her theatrical debut in 1957 and her film debut the following year in the dreadful Behind the Mask, which starred her father. Redgrave would not venture into films again for another eight years, and during the early '60s established herself as a key member of the distinguished Stratford-Upon-Avon Theater Company. During her time with the repertory, she gave life to Shakespeare's works with some of her country's finest performers and met her future husband, the director Tony Richardson.Redgrave returned to films in 1966, making an unbilled appearance as Anne Boleyn in Fred Zinneman's all-star adaptation of A Man for All Seasons, and co-starring in Karel Reisz's comedy Morgan. In the same year, she played a small but key role as the girl in the photograph in Michelangelo Antonioni's first English language film, Blow-Up. In 1967, Redgrave appeared in the first of several films directed by her husband, Red and Blue and The Sailor from Gibralter. Also in 1967, she made a radiant Guenevere opposite Richard Harris' King Arthur in Joshua Logan's adaptation of the stage musical Camelot. That same year, Redgrave divorced Richardson on grounds of adultery. She had two children, Joely and Natasha Richardson, by him, and in 1969 had a child by her Camelot co-star Franco Nero. During these early years of her career, Redgrave hovered on the brink of stardom, due in large part to the uneven quality of the films in which she appeared. In 1968, she played the title role in Isadora, the biography of avant garde dancer Isadora Duncan, earning her first Oscar nomination and her second best actress award at Cannes (her first was for Morgan). The film represented one of Redgrave's first attempts at creating an independent, strong-willed, feminist character with strong socialist leanings. Throughout the 1970s, Redgrave continued to appear in films of varying quality, although her characters were almost always complex and controversial; the highlights from this period include The Trojan Women (1971), her Oscar-nominated turn in Mary Queen of Scotts (1971) and most notably the tragic Julia (1977), which won Redgrave an Oscar for best supporting actress. At the Oscar ceremony, the actress generated considerable controversy during her acceptance speech by using the ceremony as a forum for her tireless campaign for Palestinian rights in Israel. That, coupled with her outspoken support for the communist-oriented Workers' Revolutionary Party, made life difficult for Redgrave, who at one time was considered the British equivalent to actress/social activist Jane Fonda. Though she continued appearing in mainstream as well as politically oriented films and documentaries such as Roy Battersby's The Palestinians (1977), her views cost Redgrave roles on stage and screen and damaged her popularity, particularly in the U.S. Redgrave's television debut in Playing for Time (1980) generated further controversy when Redgrave won an Emmy for her portrayal of a Jewish violinist interned in a Nazi death camp who is ordered to help serenade women on their way to the gas chambers. Due to her anti-Zionist stand, many, including Fana Fenelon, the real-life violinist whom Redgrave was portraying, objected to her playing a Jewish woman. During the '80s, Redgrave came into her own as a leading character actress. She has subsequently appeared in a number of distinguished television movies, including Second Serve (1986) and a remake of Whatever Happened to Baby Jane (1991), which co-starred her sister Lynn Redgrave. Her film work also remains distinguished and she has rec
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Highest Rated Movies
Filmography
MOVIES
RATING | TITLE | CREDIT | BOX OFFICE | YEAR |
---|---|---|---|---|
No Score Yet | Finding You |
|
— | 2021 |
62% | Mrs. Lowry & Son |
|
— | 2019 |
19% | The Aspern Papers |
|
— | 2019 |
45% | Georgetown |
|
— | 2019 |
80% | Film Stars Don't Die in Liverpool |
|
— | 2017 |
36% | The Secret Scripture |
|
— | 2017 |
89% | Joan Didion: The Center Will Not Hold |
|
— | 2017 |
67% | Sea Sorrow |
|
— | 2017 |
87% | Foxcatcher |
|
$9.8M | 2014 |
No Score Yet | The Thirteenth Tale |
|
— | 2014 |
No Score Yet | The Wound And The Gift |
|
— | 2014 |
72% | Lee Daniels' The Butler |
|
$116.7M | 2013 |
65% | Unfinished Song |
|
$1.7M | 2013 |
80% | Robinson in Ruins |
|
— | 2012 |
No Score Yet | The Last Will And Testament Of Rosalind Leigh |
|
— | 2012 |
45% | Anonymous |
|
$4.5M | 2011 |
75% | The Whistleblower |
|
$0.9M | 2011 |
40% | Cars 2 |
|
$191.5M | 2011 |
17% | Miral |
|
$0.4M | 2011 |
92% | Coriolanus |
|
$0.5M | 2011 |
43% | Robin Hood |
|
$105.3M | 2010 |
42% | Letters to Juliet |
|
$53.1M | 2010 |
25% | Animals United (Konferenz der Tiere) |
|
$0.6M | 2010 |
64% | How About You |
|
— | 2008 |
0% | Short Order |
|
— | 2008 |
No Score Yet | The Riddle |
|
— | 2007 |
83% | Atonement |
|
$50.9M | 2007 |
27% | Evening |
|
$12.5M | 2007 |
No Score Yet | The Shell Seekers |
|
— | 2006 |
88% | Venus |
|
$3.3M | 2006 |
50% | Dealing and Wheeling in Small Arms |
|
— | 2006 |
40% | The Thief Lord |
|
— | 2006 |
49% | The White Countess |
|
$1.7M | 2005 |
No Score Yet | Byron |
|
— | 2005 |
41% | The Keeper: The Legend of Omar Khayyam |
|
— | 2005 |
No Score Yet | The Fever |
|
— | 2004 |
44% | Good Boy! |
|
$37.6M | 2003 |
No Score Yet | Locket |
|
— | 2003 |
29% | Escape to Life: The Erika and Klaus Mann Story |
|
— | 2002 |
No Score Yet | Crime and Punishment |
|
— | 2002 |
No Score Yet | The Locket |
|
— | 2002 |
0% | Merci Docteur Rey |
|
— | 2002 |
80% | Searching for Debra Winger |
|
— | 2002 |
83% | The Gathering Storm |
|
— | 2002 |
No Score Yet | Exile in Buyukada |
|
— | 2002 |
No Score Yet | Jack and the Beanstalk: The Real Story |
|
— | 2001 |
78% | The Pledge |
|
$18.9M | 2001 |
34% | A Rumor of Angels |
|
— | 2000 |
No Score Yet | Bear Island |
|
— | 2000 |
No Score Yet | If These Walls Could Talk 2 |
|
— | 2000 |
No Score Yet | Exile in Buyukada |
|
— | 2000 |
53% | Girl, Interrupted |
|
— | 1999 |
64% | Cradle Will Rock |
|
— | 1999 |
No Score Yet | Uninvited |
|
— | 1999 |
45% | Deep Impact |
|
— | 1998 |
71% | Wilde |
|
— | 1998 |
65% | Deja Vu |
|
— | 1998 |
71% | Mrs. Dalloway |
|
— | 1998 |
0% | Lulu on the Bridge |
|
— | 1998 |
No Score Yet | Bella Mafia |
|
— | 1997 |
No Score Yet | Shades of Fear |
|
— | 1997 |
52% | Smilla's Sense of Snow |
|
— | 1997 |
No Score Yet | The Willows in Winter |
|
— | 1996 |
81% | Looking for Richard |
|
— | 1996 |
No Score Yet | Two Mothers for Zachary |
|
— | 1996 |
64% | Mission: Impossible |
|
— | 1996 |
91% | James and the Giant Peach |
|
— | 1996 |
No Score Yet | The Wind in the Willows |
|
— | 1995 |
71% | A Month by the Lake |
|
— | 1995 |
61% | Little Odessa |
|
— | 1995 |
No Score Yet | Down Came a Blackbird |
|
— | 1995 |
30% | The House of the Spirits |
|
— | 1994 |
No Score Yet | Storia di una capinera (Sparrow) |
|
— | 1993 |
43% | Mother's Boys |
|
— | 1993 |
No Score Yet | They |
|
— | 1993 |
94% | Howards End |
|
$0.2M | 1992 |
71% | The Ballad of the Sad Cafe |
|
— | 1991 |
No Score Yet | Whatever Happened To...? |
|
— | 1991 |
No Score Yet | Young Catherine |
|
— | 1991 |
No Score Yet | Orpheus Descending |
|
— | 1990 |
No Score Yet | Comrades |
|
— | 1989 |
No Score Yet | Consuming Passions |
|
— | 1988 |
94% | Prick Up Your Ears |
|
— | 1987 |
No Score Yet | Steaming |
|
— | 1986 |
No Score Yet | Peter the Great |
|
— | 1986 |
No Score Yet | Second Serve |
|
— | 1986 |
No Score Yet | Three Sovereigns for Sarah |
|
— | 1985 |
67% | Wetherby |
|
— | 1985 |
83% | The Bostonians |
|
— | 1984 |
No Score Yet | Wagner |
|
— | 1983 |
No Score Yet | Playing for Time |
|
— | 1980 |
57% | Yanks |
|
— | 1979 |
71% | Agatha |
|
— | 1979 |
76% | Julia |
|
— | 1977 |
79% | The Seven-Per-Cent Solution |
|
— | 1976 |
No Score Yet | Out of Season |
|
— | 1975 |
90% | Murder on the Orient Express |
|
— | 1974 |
80% | Mary, Queen of Scots |
|
— | 1972 |
67% | The Devils |
|
— | 1971 |
No Score Yet | The Trojan Women |
|
— | 1971 |
79% | Oh! What A Lovely War |
|
— | 1969 |
75% | Isadora (The Loves of Isadora) |
|
— | 1969 |
No Score Yet | La Vacanza |
|
— | 1969 |
No Score Yet | Charge of the Light Brigade |
|
— | 1968 |
100% | A Quiet Place in the Country (Un tranquillo posto di campagna) |
|
— | 1968 |
No Score Yet | The Sea Gull |
|
— | 1968 |
100% | Smashing Time |
|
— | 1967 |
41% | Camelot |
|
— | 1967 |
No Score Yet | Tonight Let's All Make Love in London |
|
— | 1967 |
83% | Tonite Let's All Make Love in London |
|
— | 1967 |
88% | Blow-Up |
|
— | 1966 |
83% | A Man for All Seasons |
|
— | 1966 |
68% | Morgan! (Morgan: A Suitable Case for Treatment) |
|
— | 1966 |
TV
RATING | TITLE | CREDIT | YEAR |
---|---|---|---|
89% |
Call the Midwife
2012
|
|
|
92% |
Man in an Orange Shirt
2017
|
|
|
26% |
Black Box
2014
|
|
|
No Score Yet |
Charlie Rose
2013-2017
|
|
|
No Score Yet |
The View
1997
|
|
|
No Score Yet |
Shakespeare Uncovered
2013-2018
|
|
|
63% |
Political Animals
2012
|
|
|
75% |
Nip/Tuck
2003-2009
|
|
|
No Score Yet |
60 Minutes
1992
|
|
|
No Score Yet |
American Experience
1988
|
|
|
Quotes from Vanessa Redgrave's Characters
Clarissa Dalloway: | You want to say to each moment, "Stay! Stay! Stay!" |
Clarissa Dalloway: | Why do I do these things? Why seek pinnacles and stand drenched in fire? I feel burned to a cinder. |
Claire: | Don't wait fifty years like I did. Go, go, go! |
Claire: | I think you understand why I'm telling you you're a total idiot. |
Charlie: | Okay, okay, then don't sugarcoat it gran. |
Claire: | I won't. How many Sophie's do you think there are on this planet? |
Claire: | How many Sophies do you think there are on this planet? Don't wait fifty years like I did to find out. |
Valerie: | When you die everyone's your friend. |
Valerie: | What were you playing? |
Maurice: | A corpse, more or less. |
Valerie: | Typecasting. |
Narrator: | A dangerous trade, being kept from the public eye... |
Tribune Brutus: | Anger's my meat; I sup upon myself, And so shall starve with feeding |
Tribune Brutus: | Anger's my meat; I sup upon myself, and so shall starve with feeding. |
Volumnia: | Anger's my meat; I sup upon myself, and so shall starve with feeding. |
Susanna Kaysen: | I'm ambivalent. In fact, that's my new favorite word. |
Dr. Wick: | Do you know what that means, ambivalence? |
Susanna Kaysen: | I don't care. |
Older Briony: | So, my sister and Robbie were never able to have the time together they both so longed for... and deserved. Which ever since I've... ever since I've always felt I prevented. But what sense of hope or satisfaction could a reader derive from an ending like that? So in the book, I wanted to give Robbie and Cecilia what they lost out on in life. I'd like to think this isn't weakness or... evasion... but a final act of kindness. I gave them their happiness. |
The Greater Dane: | All of you, come with me. |
Queen Elizabeth I: | Are you the gift, my gracious little man? |
Kittridge: | Hello, Max. |
Max: | My lawyers are going to have a field day with this. Entrapment, jurisdictional conflict... |
Kittridge: | Well, maybe we'll just leave the courts out of this one. |
Max: | I'm sure we can find something I have that you need. |
Robin Lerner: | Daddy! (a primal scream) |
Peggy Ramsay: | Ken was the first wife. He did all the work and the waiting and then... |
John Lahr: | Well, first wives don't usually beat their husbands' heads in. |
Peggy Ramsay: | No. Though why I can't think. |
John Lahr: | So what does that make you? The second wife? |
Peggy Ramsay: | Better than that, dear. The widow. |