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Lynn Rachel Redgrave, OBE (8 March 1943 – 2 May 2010) was an English actress.

A member of the well-known British family of actors, Redgrave trained in London before making her theatrical debut in 1962. By the mid-1960s she had appeared in several films, including Tom Jones (1963), and Georgy Girl (1966) which won her a New York Film Critics Award and nominations for an Academy Award and a Golden Globe Award.

In 1967, she made her Broadway debut, and performed in several stage productions in New York while making frequent returns to London's West End. She performed with her sister Vanessa in Three Sisters in London, and in the title role in a television production of Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? in 1991. She made a return to films in the late 1990s in films such as Shine (1996) and Gods and Monsters (1998), for which she received another Academy Award nomination.

Early life and theatrical family[]

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Main article: Redgrave family

Redgrave was born in Marylebone, London, to actors Sir Michael Redgrave and Rachel Kempson. Her sister is actress Vanessa Redgrave; her brother was actor and political activist Corin Redgrave. She was the aunt of actor Carlo Gabriel Nero and actresses Joely Richardson, Jemma Redgrave and Natasha Richardson.

Career[]

After training in London's Central School of Speech and Drama, Redgrave made her professional debut in a 1962 production of A Midsummer Night's Dream at the Royal Court Theatre. Following a tour of Billy Liar and repertory work in Dundee, she made her West End debut at the Haymarket, in N.C. Hunter's The Tulip Tree with Celia Johnson and John Clements.

She was invited to join The National Theatre for its inaugural season at the Old Vic, working with such directors as Laurence Olivier, Franco Zeffirelli, and Noel Coward in roles such as Rose in The Recruiting Officer, Barblin in Andorra, Jackie in Hay Fever, Kattrin in Mother Courage, Miss Prue in Love for Love, and Margaret in Much Ado About Nothing which kept her busy for the next three years.

During that time she appeared in films such as Tom Jones (1963), Girl with Green Eyes (1964), The Deadly Affair (1966) and the title role in Georgy Girl (also 1966). For the last of these roles she gained the New York Film Critics Award, the Golden Globe and an Oscar nomination.

In 1967 she made her Broadway debut in Black Comedy with Michael Crawford and Geraldine Page. London appearances included Michael Frayn's The Two of Us with Richard Briers at the Garrick, David Hare's Slag at the Royal Court, and Born Yesterday, directed by Tom Stoppard at Greenwich in 1973.

In 1974, she returned to Broadway in My Fat Friend. There soon followed Knock Knock with Charles Durning, Mrs Warren's Profession (for a Tony nomination) with Ruth Gordon, and Saint Joan. In the 1985/86 season she appeared with Rex Harrison, Claudette Colbert, and Jeremy Brett in Aren't We All? and with Mary Tyler Moore in A. R. Gurney's Sweet Sue.

In 1983, she played Cleopatra in an American television version of Antony and Cleopatra opposite Timothy Dalton. She was in Misalliance in Chicago with Irene Worth, (earning the Sarah Siddons and Joseph Jefferson awards), Twelfth Night at the American Shakespeare Festival, California Suite, The King and I, Hellzapoppin', Les Dames du Jeudi, Les Liaisons Dangereuses, and The Cherry Orchard. In 1988 she narrated a dramatised television documentary, Silent Mouse, which told the story of the creation of the Christmas carol Silent Night. In the early winter of 1991 she starred with Stewart Granger and Ricardo Montalban in a Hollywood production of Don Juan in Hell.

With her sister Vanessa as Olga, she returned to the London stage playing Masha in Three Sisters in 1991 at the Queen's Theatre, London, and later played the title role in a television production of Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?, again with her sister. Highlights of her early film career also include The National Health, Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex, The Happy Hooker and Getting It Right. In the United States she was seen on such television series as Teachers Only, House Calls, Centennial and Chicken Soup.

She also starred in BBC productions such as The Faint-Hearted Feminist, A Woman Alone, Death of a Son, Calling the Shots and Fighting Back. She played Broadway again in Moon Over Buffalo (1996) with co-star Robert Goulet, and starred in the world premier of Tennessee Williams' The Notebook of Trigorin, based on Anton Chekhov's The Seagull. She won the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Featured Actress in a Play for her performance in Talking Heads.

Redgrave became well known in the United States after appearing in the television series House Calls, for which she received an Emmy nomination. She was fired from the show after she insisted on bringing her child to rehearsals so as to continue a breast-feeding schedule. A lawsuit ensued but was dismissed a few years after. Following that, she appeared in a long-running series of television commercials for H. J. Heinz Company, then the manufacturer of the weight loss foods for Weight Watchers, a Heinz subsidiary. Her signature line for the ads was "This Is Living". She wrote a book of her life experiences with the same title,[1] which included a selection of Weight Watcher recipes. The autobiographical section later became the basis of her one-woman play Shakespeare For My Father.

In 1993 she was elected President of The Players, the famous theatrical club and historic bastion of American theatre history. In 1989 she appeared on Broadway in Love Letters with her husband John Clark, and thereafter they performed the play around the country, and on one occasion for the jury in the O. J. Simpson case. In 1993 she appeared on Broadway in the one-woman play Shakespeare for My Father, which Clark produced and directed. She was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play.

In 2005, Redgrave appeared at Quinnipiac University and Connecticut College in the play Sisters of the Garden, about the sisters Fanny and Rebekka Mendelssohn and Nadia and Lili Boulanger.[2] She was also reported to be writing a one-woman play about her battle with breast cancer and her 2003 mastectomy, based on her book Journal: A Mother and Daughter's Recovery from Breast Cancer with photos by her daughter Annabel and text by Redgrave herself.[3]

In September 2006, she appeared in Nightingale, the U.S. premiere of her new one-woman play based upon her maternal grandmother Beatrice, at Los Angeles' Mark Taper Forum. She also performed the play in May 2007 at Hartford Stage in Hartford, Connecticut. On both occasions she earned excellent reviews but was forced to perform seated at a table rather than standing on stage due to unspecified health problems, which critics found distracting.[4] In 2007, she appeared in an episode of Desperate Housewives as Dahlia Hainsworth.

She most recently appeared on an episode of ABC's Ugly Betty.

Voice work[]

Redgrave narrated the audiobook Prince Caspian by C. S. Lewis for Harper Audio, and Inkheart by Cornelia Funke for Listening Library.

Personal life and death[]

On 2 April 1967, Lynn Redgrave married the English actor John Clark.[5] Together they had three children, airline pilot Benjamin Clark (born 1968), singer-songwriter Pema (originally Kelly) Clark (born 1970), and author and photographer Annabel Lucy Clark (born 1981).[6]. The marriage ended in 2000 after Clark revealed to Redgrave that he had fathered a child with her personal assistant, who later married (and subsequently divorced) their son Benjamin.[7][8] The divorce proceedings were acrimonious and became front page news, with Clark alleging that Redgrave had also been unfaithful.[9][10]

Lynn Redgrave was appointed OBE in 2001. She was a naturalised citizen of the United States.[11]

She discussed her health problems associated with bulimia and breast cancer. She was diagnosed with the latter in December 2002, had a mastectomy in January 2003, and chemotherapy.[12] She died from breast cancer[13] in her Kent, Connecticut home[14] on 2 May 2010, aged 67.[15] Her brother, actor Corin Redgrave, also a cancer patient, had died on 6 April 2010, aged 70.

Redgrave's funeral was held on 8 May at First Congregational Church in Kent, Connecticut. She was buried at Saint Peter's Episcopal Cemetery in Lithgow, New York; her mother Rachel Kempson and niece Natasha Richardson are also buried there.[16]

Filmography[]

Film and Television
Year Title Role Notes
1963 Tom Jones Susan
1964 Girl with Green Eyes Baba Brennan Nominated— BAFTA Award for Most Promising Newcomer to Leading Film Roles
1966 Georgy Girl Georgy Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy
Kansas City Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actress
New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actress
Nominated—Academy Award for Best Actress
Nominated—BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role
Nominated— Golden Globe Award for Most Promising Newcomer – Female
1966 Deadly Affair, TheThe Deadly Affair Virgin in "Edward II"
1967 Smashing Time Yvonne
1969 Virgin Soldiers, TheThe Virgin Soldiers Phillipa Raskin
1970 Last of the Mobile Hot Shots Myrtle
1971 ¡Viva la muerte... tua! Mary O'Donnell
1972 Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex (But Were Afraid to Ask) The Queen
1972 Every Little Crook and Nanny Nanny
1973 National Health, TheThe National Health Nurse Sweet/Nurse Betty Martin
1975 Happy Hooker, TheThe Happy Hooker Xaviera Hollander
1976 Big Bus, TheThe Big Bus Camille Levy
1978 Centennial Charlotte Buckland Seccombe (later Charlotte Lloyd) Television miniseries
1979 House Calls Ann Anderson Nominated—Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series
Nominated—Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Television Series Musical or Comedy
1980 Sunday Lovers Lady Davina Segment: "An Englishman's Home"
1985 Bad Seed, TheThe Bad Seed Monica Breedlove
1986 Antony and Cleopatra Cleopatra
1987 Morgan Stewart's Coming Home Nancy Stewart
1989 Midnight Midnight
1989 Getting It Right Joan
1996 Shine Gillian Nominated—BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role
Nominated—Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture
1997 Toothless Rogers
1998 Gods and Monsters Hanna Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress – Motion Picture
Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Female
London Critics Circle Film Award for British Supporting Actress of the Year
Nominated—Academy Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role
Nominated—BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role
Nominated—Chlotrudis Award for Best Supporting Actress
Nominated—Satellite Award for Best Supporting Actress – Motion Picture
Nominated—Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role
1998 White Lies Nominated— Gemini Award for Best Performance by an Actress in a Featured Supporting Role in a Dramatic Program or Mini-Series
1998 Strike! Miss McVane
1999 Touched Carrie
1999 Annihilation of Fish, TheThe Annihilation of Fish Poinsettia
2000 Lion of Oz The Wicked Witch of the East voice
2000 Simian Line, TheThe Simian Line Katharine
2000 Next Best Thing, TheThe Next Best Thing Helen Whittaker
2000 Deeply Celia
2000 How to Kill Your Neighbor's Dog Edna
2001 Venus and Mars Emily Vogel
2001 My Kingdom Mandy
2002 Spider Mrs. Wilkinson
2002 Unconditional Love Nola Fox
2002 Wild Thornberrys Movie, TheThe Wild Thornberrys Movie Cordelia Thornberry voice
2002 Hansel & Gretel Woman/Witch
2002 Anita and Me Mrs. Ormerod
2003 Charlie's War Grandma Lewis
2003 Peter Pan Aunt Millicent
2004 Kinsey Final Interview Subject
2005 White Countess, TheThe White Countess Olga Belinskya
2007 Jane Austen Book Club, TheThe Jane Austen Book Club Mama Sky
2009 Confessions of a Shopaholic Drunken Lady at Ball
2009 My Dog Tulip Nancy voice

References[]

  1. Redgrave, Lynn. This Is Living, Dutton, May 1991. ISBN 978-0879233334.
  2. Eleanor Charles (27 Mar. 2005). "A Redgrave in Four Roles". New York Times. Retrieved 24 Apr. 2008.  Check date values in: |access-date=, |date= (help)
  3. http://www.bcrfcure.org/ab_10_redgrave.html
  4. Nightingale review, "Lynn Redgrave’s less-than-completely-truthful memoir of women’s lives", Lucy Komisar November 20, 2009
  5. "Lynn Redgrave Wed to John Clark". The New York Times Company. 3 April 1967. Retrieved 2 August 2010. 
  6. Daily Mail obituary: "Actress Lynn Redgrave dies at 67 after losing battle with breast cancer"
  7. Boshoff, Alison (8 May 2010). "The love child who broke Lynn Redgrave's heart: In the week the actress died, her ex-husband tells of his shame and regret". Associated Newspapers Limited. Retrieved 2 August 2010. 
  8. Coveney, Michael (3 May 2010). "Lynn Redgrave obituary". Guardian News and Media Limited. Retrieved 2 August 2010. 
  9. "Lynn Redgrave obituary". Telegraph Media Group Limited. 3 May 2010. Retrieved 2 August 2010. 
  10. "Lynn Redgrave obituary". Times Newspapers Limited. 4 May 2010. Retrieved 2 August 2010. 
  11. Lynn Redgrave Film Reference biography
  12. MSN.com notice of Redgrave's death at age 67
  13. Actress Lynn Redgrave dies at 67
  14. Vanessa Redgrave says final goodbye to sister Lynn as family gathers for Connecticut funeral
  15. AP report on Notice of Lynn Redgrave's death
  16. Family, friends say goodbye to Redgrave CBC News 8 May 2010 Retrieved:8 May 2010.

External links[]

Template:DramaDesk PlayOutstandingFeaturedActress 2000-2025

  1. REDIRECT Template:Golden Globe Award Best Actress Motion Picture Musical or Comedy
  2. REDIRECT Template:GoldenGlobeBestSuppActressMotionPicture 1981–2000

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