Vanessa Redgrave - Biography

Last Editor: BasketBabe034				Vanessa Redgrave Biography -   Name : Vanessa Redgrave Profession : Actress Birth Details : born January 30, 1937 Height : 5' 10" (1.78 m) Personal quotes : Upon accepting her Oscar for "Julia," 1978: "My dear colleagues, I thank you very very much for this tribute to my work. I think that Jane Spouse : Tony Richardson (29 April 1962 - 1967) (divorced) 2 children

Vanessa Redgrave Trivia -

Claims to be on hit-list of neo-Nazi group Combat 18. [February 1997] Daughter of Michael Redgrave & Rachel Kempson, sister of Lynn Redgrave & Corin Redgrave, mother of Natasha Richardson & Joely Richardson. Aunt of Jemma Redgrave. Awarded the C.B.E. in the British Honours list. Granddaughter of Roy Redgrave. Mother-in-law of actor Liam Neeson. Was in a long relationship with famous bachelor and former James Bond, actor Timothy Dalton [1980-1994] Both she and her sister, Lynn Redgrave, were nominated for the 1967 Best Actress Academy Award. Vanessa was nominated for Morgan: A Suitable Case for Treatment (1966), and Lynn was nominated for Georgy Girl (1966). They both lost to Elizabeth Taylor, who won for _Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?_ . Won Broadway's 2003 Tony Award as Best Actress (Play) for a revival of Eugene O'Neill's "Long Day's Journey Into Night." Measurements: 34-26-35 (Source: Celebrity Sleuth magazine) Son, Carlo Gabriel Nero, with Franco Nero. The two actors met while working together in Camelot (1967). She allegedly refused the British honour of Dame of the order of the British Empire in 1999. She was awarded the Laurence Olivier Theatre Award in 1985 (1984 season) for Best Actress in a Revival for The Aspern Papers. She was nominated for a 1997 Laurence Olivier Theatre Award for Best Actress in a Play of 1996 for her performance in John Gabriel Borkman. She was awarded the 1985 London Critics Circle Theatre Award (Drama Theatre Award) for Best Actor in The Seagull. She was awarded the 1991 London Evening Standard Theatre Award for Best Actress for her performance in When She Danced. She was awarded the 1985 London Evening Standard Theatre Award for Best Actor for her performance in The Seagull. She was awarded the 1988 London Critics Circle Theatre Award (Drama Theatre Award) for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in A Touch of the Poet. She was awarded the 1985 London Critics Circle Theatre Award (Drama Theatre Award) for Best Actress in The Seagull. In 1962, she became one of the first celebrities to visit communist Cuba. A longtime member of Britain's Workers Revolutionary Party Appeared on "BBC News 24" Breakfast and stated that the massacre of Russian school children by Chechan rebels was not an act of terrorism. (4 September 2004). In 2003, she became the twelfth performer to win the Triple Crown of acting. Oscar: Best Supporting Actress, Julia (1977), Tony: Best Actress-Play, "Long Day's Journey into Night" (2003), and Emmys: Best Actress-Limited Series/Special, Playing for Time (1980) (TV) & Best Supporting Actress-Miniseries/Movie, If These Walls Could Talk 2 (2000) (TV). Was set to star in Dario Argento's Opera (1987), but dropped out shortly before production was scheduled to commence. By virtue of her Academy Award for Julia (1977), she is the only person in the Academy Awards history to win a Best Supporting Actress Award for playing the title role in a movie. First performer to win two individual Acting Awards at the Cannes Festival. (Dean Stockwell won twice at the festival before, but he had to share both of his awards with his co-stars) On a June 2005 appearance on "Larry King Live" (1984), she expressed her fondness for the movie "Meet the Fockers" (2004) and said that the film should have won an Academy Award. Trained for the stage at the central school for Speech and Drama in London, and in 1959 became a member of the acclaimed Stratford-Upon-Avon Theatre Company.

Vanessa Redgrave Detailed Biography -

Vanessa Redgrave, CBE (born January 30, 1937) is a British actress, member of the Redgrave acting dynasty, and human rights activist. Her parents were Sir Michael Redgrave and Rachel Kempson (Lady Redgrave). Her sister, Lynn Redgrave, from whom she was estranged for a time because of her leftist political views (unpopular with some in the U.S. where Lynn resides as a citizen), and her brother, the equally outspoken Corin Redgrave, are also acclaimed actors. Vanessa Redgrave's daughters, Natasha Richardson and Joely Richardson (by her 1962-1967 marriage to film director Tony Richardson) have also built respected acting careers. Redgrave also has a son, Carlo Nero (né Carlo Sparanero), a writer and film director, by a relationship with Italian actor Franco Nero (né Francesco Sparanero), whom she met while filming Camelot in 1967. During the late 1970s and '80s she had a long-term relationship with actor Timothy Dalton. Vanessa Redgrave Vanessa Redgrave was born in London, England and entered the Central School of Speech and Drama in 1954. She first appeared in the West End, playing opposite her father, in 1958. Highlights of her early film career include her first starring role in "Morgan: A Suitable Case for Treatment" (for which she earned a Golden Globe nomination and a BAFTA Film Award); her portrayal of the cool London swinger, Jane, in 1966’s “Blow Up�, her spirited portrayal of dancer Isadora Duncan in “Isadora� (for which she won a National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Actress, along with a Golden Globe and Oscar nomination in 1969); and various portrayals of historical figures - ranging from Andromache in “The Trojan Women,� to Mary of Scotland in “Mary, Queen of Scots.� Redgrave's Trotskyist political views have been a cause of controversy for some, as has her membership with the Workers' Revolutionary Party (WRP). Redgrave remained loyal to WRP founder Gerry Healy when he was expelled from the WRP in the mid-1980s. She and other Healy loyalists founded the Marxist Party in the 1990s. In 1977, Redgrave funded and narrated a documentary film on the plight of the Palestinian people. That same year she starred in the film Julia, about a woman murdered by the Nazi regime in the years prior to World War II for her anti-Fascist activism. Her performance garnered an Academy Award. At the awards' ceremony in the spring of 1978, however, belligerent members of the extremist organization, the Jewish Defense League (JDL), protested against both Redgrave and her support of the Palestinian cause. Aware of the JDL's presence outside, Redgrave, in her acceptance speech, denounced all forms of totalitarianism, and noted that she would not be intimidated by "a small bunch of Zionist hoodlums whose behavior is an insult to the stature to Jews all over the world." Her statement was greeted by both applause and boos from the audience. Later in the broadcast veteran screenwriter and Oscar presenter Paddy Chayefsky told the audience members that “there's a little matter I'd like to tidy up…at least if I expect to live with myself tomorrow morning. I would like to say that I'm sick and tired of people exploiting the Academy Awards for the propagation of their own personal propaganda. I would like to suggest to Miss Redgrave that her winning an Academy Award is not a pivotal moment in history, does not require a proclamation and a simple ‘Thank you' would have sufficed.� He received thunderous applause. In 1980 Redgrave made her first American TV debut as concentration-camp survivor Fania Fenelon in the Arthur Miller-scripted TV movie “Playing for Time� – a part for which she won an Emmy as Outstanding Lead Actress in 1981. At around the same time she was the recipient of a letter, written on toilet paper and smuggled out of Maze Prison's "H-block", from IRA member and hunger striker Bobby Sands. In her 1994 autobiography, Redgrave shares her conviction that Sands was not a terrorist but "a true hero of our time." About the situation in Northern Ireland she writes, "Every British government, Tory or Labour, has denied the Irish their right to self-determination. We in Britain have a special responsibility to right that wrong, which has been the cause of so much tragedy and suffering." Later film roles of note include those of suffragette Olive Chancellor in “The Bostonians� (1984), transsexual Renee Richards in “Second Serve� (1986); Mrs. Wilcox in “Howard’s End� (1992); crime boss Max in “Mission: Impossible� (1996); Oscar Wilde’s mother in “Wilde� (1997); Clarissa Dalloway in “Mrs. Dalloway� (1997); and Dr. Wick in “Girl, Interrupted� (1999). Many of these roles and others, garnered various accolades for Redgrave. In December, 2002, Redgrave paid £50,000 bail for Chechen separatist Deputy Premier and special envoy Akhmed Zakayev, who had sought political asylum in the United Kingdom and was accused by the Russian government of aiding and abetting hostage-takings in the Moscow Hostage Crisis of 2002, and guerrilla warfare against Russia. At a press conference Redgrave said she feared for the life of Zakayev if he were to be extradited to Russia on terrorism charges. He would "die of a heart attack" or some other mysterious explanation which would be offered by Russia, she said. On November 13, 2003, a London court rejected the Russian government's request for Zakayev's extradition. Instead, the court accepted a plea by lawyers for Mr Zakayev that he would not get a fair trial - and could even face torture - in Russia. "It would be unjust and oppressive to return Mr Zakayev to Russia," Judge Timothy Workman ruled. In 2004, Vanessa Redgrave and her brother Corin Redgrave announced the launch of the Peace and Progress Party which would campaign against the Iraq War and for human rights. The party only ran a handful of candidates and called for votes for candidates from other parties who supported their agenda, mainly the Liberal Democrats but also even individual Tories who claimed to support human rights. The aim of this tactic was to attempt to maximize the possibility of defeat for the Labour Party at the 2005 general election. Redgrave has been an outspoken critic of the so-called "War on Terror" - the US and British response to the terrorist attacks of 9/11. During a June 2005 interview on the Larry King Show, Redgrave was challenged on this criticism and on her "far left" political views. In response she questioned if there can be true democracy if the political leadership of the United States and Britain doesn't "uphold the values for which my father's generation fought the Nazis, millions of people gave their lives against the Soviet Union's regime. because of democracy and what democracy meant: no torture, no camps, no detention forever or without trial... techniques are not just alleged , they have actually been written about by the FBI. I don't think it's being 'far left'...to uphold the rule of law."