Lynn Redgrave | |
|---|---|
 Redgrave in 1999 | |
| Born | Lynn Rachel Redgrave (1943-03-08)8 March 1943 Marylebone, London, England |
| Died | 2 May 2010(2010-05-02) (aged 67) |
| Resting place | St. Peter's Episcopal Cemetery Lithgow, New York, US |
| Citizenship | United Kingdom United States |
| Alma mater | Royal Central School of Speech and Drama |
| Occupation | Actress |
| Years active | 1962–2010 |
| Spouse | |
| Children | 3 |
| Parents | |
| Family | Vanessa Redgrave (sister) Corin Redgrave (brother) Natasha Richardson (niece) Joely Richardson (niece) Jemma Redgrave (niece) |
| Website | www |
Lynn Rachel Redgrave (8 March 1943 – 2 May 2010) was a British and American actress. During a career that spanned five decades, she won twoGolden Globe Awards and was nominated for twoAcademy Awards, fourBritish Academy Film Awards, twoEmmy Awards, twoScreen Actors Guild Awards, threeTony Awards, and aGrammy Award.
A member of theRedgrave family of actors, Lynn trained in London before making her theatrical debut in 1962. By the mid-1960s, she had appeared in several films, includingTom Jones (1963) andGeorgy Girl (1966), which won her aNew York Film Critics Award and aGolden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Musical/Comedy, as well as earning her a nomination for theAcademy Award for Best Actress.
Redgrave made herBroadway debut in 1967 and performed in several stage productions in New York City while making frequent returns to London'sWest End. Redgrave performed with her sisterVanessa inThree Sisters in London and in the title role ofBaby Jane Hudson in a television production ofWhat Ever Happened to Baby Jane? in 1991.
Redgrave made a return to cinema in the late 1990s, in films such asShine (1996) andGods and Monsters (1998), for which she received her second Academy Award nomination and won a Golden Globe Award For Best Supporting Actress. Lynn Redgrave is the only person to have been nominated for all of the 'Big Four' American entertainment awards (Emmy,Grammy,Oscar andTony, collectively known when all four have been won as "EGOT") without winning any of them.[1]
Redgrave was born on 8 March 1943, inMarylebone, London, as the youngest child of actorsSir Michael Redgrave andRachel Kempson.[2] Her siblings included actressVanessa Redgrave and actor/political activistCorin Redgrave. She was also the aunt of writer/directorCarlo Gabriel Nero and actressesJoely Richardson,Jemma Redgrave, andNatasha Richardson, and the sister-in-law of directorTony Richardson, actressKika Markham, and Italian actorFranco Nero. Her grandfather wassilent screenleading manRoy Redgrave.
Redgrave attendedQueen's Gate School in London, where she initially trained to become a professionalshow jumper. However, she left the school in 1959 and later studied at theRoyal Central School of Speech and Drama in London.
After training at London'sRoyal Central School of Speech and Drama, Redgrave made her professional debut in a 1962 production ofA Midsummer Night's Dream at theRoyal Court Theatre.[3] Following a tour ofBilly Liar andrepertory work inDundee, she made herWest End debut at theHaymarket, inN. C. Hunter'sThe Tulip Tree withCelia Johnson andJohn Clements.
She was invited to join theNational Theatre for its inaugural season at theOld Vic, working with such directors asLaurence Olivier,Franco Zeffirelli andNoël Coward in roles like Rose inThe Recruiting Officer, Barblin inAndorra, Jackie inHay Fever, Kattrin inMother Courage, Miss Prue inLove for Love and Margaret inMuch Ado About Nothing, which kept her busy for the next three years. During that time, she appeared in films such asTom Jones (1963),Girl with Green Eyes (1964),The Deadly Affair (1966), and the title role inGeorgy Girl (also 1966, and which featured her mother, Rachel Kempson). For the last of these roles, she gained theNew York Film Critics Award, the Golden Globe and an Oscar nomination. In 1967, she made her Broadway debut inBlack Comedy withMichael Crawford andGeraldine Page. London appearances includedMichael Frayn'sThe Two of Us withRichard Briers at theGarrick,David Hare'sSlag at the Royal Court andBorn Yesterday, directed byTom Stoppard atGreenwich in 1973.
Redgrave returned to Broadway in 1974, inMy Fat Friend. There soon followedKnock Knock withCharles Durning,Mrs. Warren's Profession (for aTony nomination) withRuth Gordon andSaint Joan. During the 1985–86 season she appeared withRex Harrison,Claudette Colbert andJeremy Brett inAren't We All?, and withMary Tyler Moore inA. R. Gurney'sSweet Sue. In 1983, Redgrave playedCleopatra in an American television version ofAntony and Cleopatra oppositeTimothy Dalton. She was inMisalliance in Chicago withIrene 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 andThe Cherry Orchard. In 1988, she narrated a dramatised television documentary,Silent Mouse, which told the story of the creation of the Christmas carolSilent Night. She starred withStewart Granger andRicardo Montalbán in a Hollywood production ofDon Juan in Hell in the early winter of 1991.
With her sister Vanessa as Olga, she returned to the London stage playing Masha inThree Sisters in 1991 at theQueen's Theatre, London, and later played the title role in a television production ofWhatever Happened to Baby Jane? again with her sister. Highlights of her early film career also includeThe National Health,Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex* (*But Were Afraid to Ask),The Happy Hooker andGetting It Right. In the United States she was seen in such television series asTeachers Only,House Calls,Centennial andChicken Soup. She also starred inBBC productions such asThe Faint-Hearted Feminist,A Woman Alone,Death of a Son,Calling the Shots andFighting Back. She played Broadway again inMoon Over Buffalo (1996) with co-starRobert Goulet and starred in the world premiere ofTennessee Williams'The Notebook of Trigorin, based onAnton Chekhov'sThe Seagull. She won theDrama Desk Award for Outstanding Featured Actress in a Play for her performance inTalking Heads.
Redgrave became well-known in the United States after appearing in the television seriesHouse Calls, for which she received an Emmy nomination. She was fired from the series after she insisted on bringing her child to rehearsals so as to continue a breastfeeding schedule. A lawsuit ensued but was dismissed a few years later. Following that, she appeared in a long-running series of television commercials forH. J. Heinz Company, then the manufacturer of the weight loss foods forWeight Watchers, a Heinz subsidiary. Her signature line for the ads was "This Is Living, Not Dieting!". She wrote a book of her life experiences with the same title,[4] which included a selection of Weight Watchers recipes. The autobiographical section later became the basis of her one-woman playShakespeare for My Father.
In 1989, she appeared on Broadway inLove Letters with her husbandJohn Clark, and thereafter they performed the play around the country, on one occasion for the jury in theO. J. Simpson case. In 1993, she appeared on Broadway in the one-woman playShakespeare for My Father, which Clark produced and directed. She was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play. In 1993, she was elected president of thePlayers' Club.
In 2005, Redgrave appeared atQuinnipiac University andConnecticut College in the playSisters of the Garden, about the sistersFanny and Rebekka Mendelssohn andNadia andLili Boulanger.[5] She was also reported to be writing a one-woman play about her battle with breast cancer and her 2003mastectomy, based on her bookJournal: A Mother and Daughter's Recovery from Breast Cancer with photos by her daughter Annabel and text by Redgrave herself.[6]
In September 2006, she appeared inNightingale, 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 inHartford, Connecticut. In 2007, she appeared in an episode ofDesperate Housewives as Dahlia Hainsworth, the mother ofSusan Delfino's boyfriend Ian Hainsworth.
In 2009, she was inducted into theAmerican Theatre Hall of Fame.[7]
Redgrave narrated approximately 20 audiobooks, includingPrince Caspian: The Chronicles of Narnia byC. S. Lewis for Harper Audio[8] andInkheart byCornelia Funke for Listening Library.[9]
On 2 April 1967, Lynn Redgrave married actorJohn Clark.[10][11] Together they had three children. Her marriage to Clark was dissolved in 2000, two years after he revealed that he had had an affair with her personal assistant, and that Lynn's supposed grandson was in fact Clark's own son by the personal assistant, who had married (and subsequently divorced) Clark and Redgrave's son.[2] The divorce proceedings were acrimonious and became front-page news, with Clark alleging that Redgrave had also been unfaithful.[12][13]
On 5 January 1998, Redgrave became anaturalised citizen of the United States.[14]
Redgrave was appointed anOfficer of the Order of the British Empire in the2002 New Year Honours for services to acting and the cinema and to the British community in Los Angeles.[15]
Redgrave discussed her health problems associated withbulimia and breast cancer. She was diagnosed with breast cancer in December 2002, had amastectomy in January 2003 and underwentchemotherapy.[16] She ultimately died from the cancer[17] at her home inKent, Connecticut on 2 May 2010, aged 67.[18]
Redgrave's funeral was held on 8 May 2010 at the FirstCongregational Church in Kent. She was interred in St Peter's Episcopal Cemetery in the hamlet ofLithgow, New York, where her mother Rachel Kempson and her niece Natasha Richardson are also interred.[19]
In 2012, theFolger Shakespeare Library acquired Redgrave's collection of personal papers and photographs.[20]
In 2001, Lynn Redgrave received a LIVING LEGEND honor at The WINFemme Film Festival and The Women's Network Image Awards.[21]
In 2013, the Bleecker Street Theater (Off-Broadway) was renamed theLynn Redgrave Theater.[22][23]
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1960 | Shoot to Kill | Minor Role | Uncredited |
| 1963 | Tom Jones | Susan | |
| 1964 | Girl with Green Eyes | Baba Brennan | |
| 1966 | Georgy Girl | Georgy | |
| 1966 | The Family Way | Uncredited | |
| 1967 | The Deadly Affair | Virgin | |
| 1967 | Smashing Time | Yvonne | |
| 1969 | The Virgin Soldiers | Phillipa Raskin | |
| 1970 | Last of the Mobile Hot Shots | Myrtle Kane | |
| 1971 | Long Live Your Death | Mary O'Donnell | AKA,Don't Turn the Other Cheek! |
| 1972 | Every Little Crook and Nanny | Miss Poole | |
| 1972 | Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex* (*But Were Afraid to Ask) | The Queen | |
| 1973 | The National Health | Nurse Betty Martin | |
| 1975 | The Happy Hooker | Xaviera Hollander | |
| 1976 | The Big Bus | Camille Levy | |
| 1980 | Sunday Lovers | Lady Davina | (segment "An Englishman's Home") |
| 1987 | Morgan Stewart's Coming Home | Nancy Stewart | |
| 1989 | Getting It Right | Joan | |
| 1989 | Midnight | Midnight | |
| 1990 | The Great American Sex Scandal | Abby Greyhouwsky | |
| 1996 | Shine | Gillian | |
| 1998 | Gods and Monsters | Hanna | |
| 1998 | The Hairy Bird | Miss McVane | AKA,All I Wanna Do |
| 1999 | Touched | Carrie | |
| 1999 | The Annihilation of Fish | Poinsettia | |
| 2000 | The Simian Line | Katharine | |
| 2000 | The Next Best Thing | Helen Whittaker | |
| 2000 | Deeply | Celia | |
| 2000 | How to Kill Your Neighbor's Dog | Edna | |
| 2000 | Lion of Oz | Wicked Witch of the East | Voice |
| 2001 | Venus and Mars | Emily Vogel | |
| 2001 | My Kingdom | Mandy | |
| 2002 | Spider | Mrs. Wilkinson | |
| 2002 | Unconditional Love | Nola Fox | |
| 2002 | The Wild Thornberrys Movie | Cordelia Thornberry | Voice |
| 2002 | Hansel and 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 | The White Countess | Olga Belinskya | |
| 2007 | The Jane Austen Book Club | Mama Sky | |
| 2009 | Confessions of a Shopaholic | Drunken Lady at Ball | |
| 2009 | My Dog Tulip | Nancy / Greengrocer's Wife | Voice |
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1965 | Sunday Out of Season | Elaine | TV film |
| 1966 | Comedy Playhouse | Sheila | Episode: "The End of the Tunnel" |
| 1966 | Love Story | Rosemarie | Episode: "Ain't Afraid to Dance" |
| 1966 | Armchair Theatre | Polly Barlow | Episode: "Pretty Polly" |
| 1967 | Armchair Theatre | Ivy Toft Caroline | Episode: "I Am Osango" Episode: "What's Wrong with Humpty Dumpty?" |
| 1968 | Love Story | Mary Downey | Episode: "The Egg on the Face of the Tiger" |
| 1971 | Play of the Month | Helena | Episode: "A Midsummer Night's Dream" |
| 1973 | Play of the Month | Eliza Doolittle | Episode: "Pygmalion" |
| 1974 | Vienna 1900 | Berta Garlan | Episode: "The Spring Sonata" |
| 1974 | The Turn of the Screw | Miss Jane Cubberly | TV film |
| 1976 | Kojak | Claire | Episode: "A Hair-Trigger Away" |
| 1978 | Disco Beaver from Outer Space | Dr. Van Helsing | TV film |
| 1978–1979 | Centennial | Charlotte Buckland Seccombe | TV miniseries |
| 1979 | Sooner or Later | The teacher | TV film |
| 1979 | Beggarman, Thief | Kate Jordache | TV miniseries |
| 1979 | The Muppet Show | Herself | Episode: "Lynn Redgrave" |
| 1979–1981 | House Calls | Ann Anderson | Main role (41 episodes) |
| 1980 | Gauguin the Savage | Mette Gad | TV film |
| 1980 | The Seduction of Miss Leona | Miss Leona de Vose | TV film |
| 1982 | Rehearsal for Murder | Monica Welles | TV film |
| 1982 | CBS Schoolbreak Special | Sarah Cotter | Episode: "The Shooting" |
| 1982 | The Love Boat | Patti White | 1 episode |
| 1982–1983 | Teachers Only | Diana Swanson | Main role (21 episodes) |
| 1983 | Hotel | Cathy Knight | Episode: "Relative Loss" |
| 1983 | Antony and Cleopatra | Cleopatra | TV film |
| 1984 | Fantasy Island | Kristen Robbins | 1 episode |
| 1984 | The Fainthearted Feminist | Martha | TV series |
| 1984 | Murder, She Wrote | Abby Benton Freestone | Episode: "It's a Dog's Life" |
| 1985 | The Bad Seed | Monica Breedlove | TV film |
| 1986 | My Two Loves | Marjorie Lloyd | TV film |
| 1986 | Hotel | Audrey Beck | Episode: "Restless Nights" |
| 1988 | A Woman Alone | The Woman | TV film |
| 1989 | Screen Two | Pauline Williams | Episode: "Death of a Son" |
| 1989 | Chicken Soup | Maddie Peerce | Main role (12 episodes) |
| 1990 | Silent Mouse | Narrator | TV film |
| 1990 | The Great American Sex Scandal | Abby Greyhouwsky | TV film |
| 1991 | What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? | Jane Hudson | TV film |
| 1993 | Calling the Shots | Maggie Donnelly | |
| 1997 | Toothless | Rogers | TV film |
| 1997 | Indefensible: The Truth About Edward Brannigan | Monica Brannigan | TV film |
| 1998 | White Lies | Inga Kolneder | TV film |
| 1998–2001 | Rude Awakening | Trudy Frank | Main role (55 episodes) |
| 1999 | The Nanny | Herself | Episode: "The Yummy Mummy" |
| 1999 | Different | Amanda Talmadge | TV film |
| 1999 | A Season for Miracles | Hon. Judge Nancy Jakes | TV film |
| 2001 | Varian's War | Alma Werfel-Mahler | TV film |
| 2002 | My Sister's Keeper | Helen Margaret Chapman | TV film |
| 2003 | The Wild Thornberrys | Cordelia Thornberry | Voice, Episodes: "Sir Nigel: Parts 1 & 2" |
| 2006–2007 | Eloise: The Animated Series | Nanny | Voice, Regular role (6 episodes) |
| 2007 | Desperate Housewives | Dahlia Hainsworth | Episode: "Dress Big" |
| 2007 | Nurses | Peggy Rice | TV film |
| 2009 | Law & Order: Criminal Intent | Emily Huntford | Episode: "Folie a Deux" |
| 2009 | Ugly Betty | Olivia Guillemette | Episode: "The Butterfly Effect: Part 1" |
| Year | Title | Role | House | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1962 | A Midsummer Night's Dream | Helena | Royal Court | |
| 1962 | Billy Liar | Dundee | ||
| 1962 | The Tulip Tree | Haymarket | ||
| 1963 | The Recruiting Officer | Rose | National | |
| 1963 | Andorra | Barblin | National | |
| 1963 | Hamlet | |||
| 1964 | Hay Fever | Jackie | National | |
| 1965 | Much Ado About Nothing | Margaret | National | |
| 1965–1966 | Love for Love | |||
| 1967 | Black Comedy / The White Liars | Carol Melkett | National | |
| 1970 | The Two of Us | |||
| 1971 | Slag | |||
| 1974 | My Fat Friend | Vicky | ||
| 1976 | Mrs. Warren's Profession | Vivie Warren | ||
| 1976 | Knock Knock | Joan | Replacement | |
| 1976 | Misalliance | |||
| 1977–1978 | Saint Joan | Joan | ||
| 1985 | Aren't We All? | Hon. Mrs. W. Tatham | ||
| 1987 | Sweet Sue | Susan Too | ||
| 1989–1990 | Love Letters | Melissa Gardner | Replacement | |
| 1992 | A Little Hotel on the Side | Angelique Pinglet | ||
| 1992 | The Master Builder | Mrs. Aline Solness | ||
| 1993–1994 | Shakespeare for My Father | Performer | ||
| 1995–1996 | Moon Over Buffalo | Charlotte Hay | Replacement | |
| 2001 | Noises Off | |||
| 2002 | Company | Joanne | ||
| 2005 | The Constant Wife | Mrs. Culver | ||
| 2006 | The Lost Colony (play) | Queen Elizabeth I | Waterside Theatre at Fort Raleigh | |
| 2009 | The Importance of Being Earnest | Lady Bracknell | Touring |
...Actress Lynn Redgrave...credited as the only person to have been nominated for all of the "Big Four" awards...without ever winning any of them.
