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Lynn Redgrave

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Lynn Redgrave
OBE
Redgrave in 1999
Born
Lynn Rachel Redgrave

(1943-03-08)8 March 1943
Marylebone, London, England
Died2 May 2010(2010-05-02) (aged 67)
Kent, Connecticut, US
Resting placeSt. Peter's Episcopal Cemetery
Lithgow, New York, US
CitizenshipUnited Kingdom
United States
Alma materRoyal Central School of Speech and Drama
OccupationActress
Years active1962–2010
Spouse
​
​
(m. 1967; div. 2000)​
Children3
Parents
FamilyVanessa Redgrave (sister)
Corin Redgrave (brother)
Natasha Richardson (niece)
Joely Richardson (niece) Jemma Redgrave (niece)
Websitewww.redgrave.com

Lynn Rachel Redgrave OBE (8 March 1943 – 2 May 2010) was a British-American actress. She won two Golden Globe Awards during her career.

A member of the Redgrave family of actors, Lynn 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 a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Musical/Comedy, as well as earning her a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actress.

Redgrave made her Broadway debut in 1967 and performed in several stage productions in New York City while making frequent returns to London's West End. Redgrave performed with her sister Vanessa in Three Sisters in London and in the title role of Baby Jane Hudson in a television production of What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? in 1991.

Redgrave made a return to cinema in the late 1990s, in films such as Shine (1996) and Gods 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 and Tony, collectively known when all four have been won as "EGOT") – without winning any of them.[1]

Early life and theatrical family

[edit]
Main article: Redgrave family

Redgrave was born in Marylebone, London, the youngest child of actors Sir Michael Redgrave and Rachel Kempson.[2] Her sister is actress Vanessa Redgrave; her brother was actor and political activist Corin Redgrave. She was the aunt of writer/director Carlo Gabriel Nero and of actresses Joely Richardson, Jemma Redgrave and Natasha Richardson, and the sister-in-law of director Tony Richardson, actress Kika Markham and Italian actor Franco Nero. Her grandfather was silent screen leading man Roy Redgrave.

Redgrave dropped out early in 1959 from Queensgate School which she had joined to train as a professional show jumper.[3]

Career

[edit]
Redgrave family (l. to r. Jemma, Corin, Lynn and Vanessa Redgrave) bowing after reading "Poems from Guantánamo: The Detainees Speak"

After training at 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.[4] 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 Noël Coward in roles like 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, and which featured her mother, Rachel Kempson). 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.

Redgrave returned to Broadway in 1974, 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. During 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, Redgrave 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. She starred with Stewart Granger and Ricardo Montalbán in a Hollywood production of Don Juan in Hell in the early winter of 1991.

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* (*But Were Afraid to Ask), The Happy Hooker and Getting It Right. In the United States she was seen in 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 premiere 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 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 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, Not Dieting!". She wrote a book of her life experiences with the same title,[5] which included a selection of Weight Watchers recipes. The autobiographical section later became the basis of her one-woman play Shakespeare for My Father.

In 1989, she appeared on Broadway in Love Letters with her husband John Clark, and thereafter they performed the play around the country, 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 1993, she was elected president of the Players' Club.

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.[6] 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.[7]

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. In 2007, she appeared in an episode of Desperate Housewives as Dahlia Hainsworth, the mother of Susan Delfino's boyfriend Ian Hainsworth.

Redgrave at the 2009 Toronto International Film Festival

In 2009, she was inducted into the American Theatre Hall of Fame.[8]

Voice work

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Redgrave narrated approximately 20 audiobooks, including Prince Caspian: The Chronicles of Narnia by C. S. Lewis for Harper Audio[9] and Inkheart by Cornelia Funke for Listening Library.[10]

Personal life

[edit]

On 2 April 1967, Lynn Redgrave married actor John Clark.[11][12] 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 Regrave's son.[2] The divorce proceedings were acrimonious and became front-page news, with Clark alleging that Redgrave had also been unfaithful.[13][14]

On 5 January 1998, Redgrave became a naturalised citizen of the United States.[15]

Redgrave was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in the 2002 New Year Honours for services to acting and the cinema and to the British community in Los Angeles.[16]

Death

[edit]

Redgrave discussed her health problems associated with bulimia and breast cancer. She was diagnosed with breast cancer in December 2002, had a mastectomy in January 2003 and underwent chemotherapy.[17] She ultimately died from the cancer[18] at her home in Kent, Connecticut on 2 May 2010, aged 67.[19]

Redgrave's funeral was held on 8 May 2010 at the First Congregational Church in Kent. She was interred in St Peter's Episcopal Cemetery in the hamlet of Lithgow, New York, where her mother Rachel Kempson and her niece Natasha Richardson are also interred.[20]

In 2012, the Folger Shakespeare Library acquired Redgrave's collection of personal papers and photographs.[21]

Legacy

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In 2001, Lynn Redgrave received a LIVING LEGEND honor at The WINFemme Film Festival and The Women's Network Image Awards.[22]

In 2013, the Bleecker Street Theater (Off-Broadway) was renamed the Lynn Redgrave Theater.[23][24]

Filmography

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Film

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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 1990The Great American Sex Scandal(film) 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

Television

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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
1979–1981 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 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"

Theatre

[edit]
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

Awards and nominations

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Awards
Year Award Category Production Result
1965 BAFTA Film Award Most Promising Newcomer to Leading Film Roles Girl with Green Eyes Nominated
1966 NYFCC Award Best Actress Georgy Girl Won
1967 BAFTA Film Award Best British Actress Nominated
Golden Globe Award Most Promising Newcomer - Female Nominated
Golden Globe Award Best Motion Picture Actress - Musical/Comedy Won
Academy Award Best Actress in a Leading Role Nominated
Laurel Awards Female New Face Nominated
1968 KCFCC Award Best Actress Georgy Girl Won
1976 Tony Award Best Actress in a Play Mrs. Warren's Profession Nominated
1981 Golden Globe Award Best Performance by an Actress in a TV Series - Musical/Comedy House Calls Nominated
Primetime Emmy Award Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series Nominated
1983 Daytime Emmy Award Outstanding Performer in Children's Programming CBS Afternoon Playhouse Nominated
1993 Tony Award Best Actress in a Play Shakespeare for My Father Nominated
1997 BAFTA Film Award Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role Shine Nominated
Screen Actors Guild Award Outstanding Performance by a Cast Nominated
1998 Gemini Award Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in a Dramatic Program or Miniseries White Lies Nominated
1999 Satellite Award Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture - Drama Gods and Monsters Nominated
Screen Actors Guild Award Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role Nominated
BAFTA Film Award Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role Nominated
Independent Spirit Awards Best Supporting Female Won
Academy Award Best Actress in a Supporting Role Nominated
Golden Globe Award Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture Won
2000 ALFS Award British Supporting Actress of the Year Won
2003 Palm Springs International Film Festival Career Achievement Award Won
2006 Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award Best Solo Performance Nightingale Won
Tony Award Best Actress in a Play The Constant Wife Nominated
2007 Grammy Award Best Spoken Word Album for Children The Witches Nominated

References

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  1. ^ Potter, Steve (3 August 2016). "City Scene: Gone but not forgotten". The Telegraph. Alton, Illinois: Civitas Media. Retrieved 30 November 2016. ...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.
  2. ^ a b Coveney, Michael (3 May 2010). "Lynn Redgrave obituary". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 2 August 2010.
  3. ^ "The dramatic life and times of the 'normal' Redgrave". The Sydney Morning Herald. 4 May 2010. Retrieved 25 October 2024.
  4. ^ The production was not well reviewed in general, but Bernard Levin, writing in the London Daily Express under the headline Are there any more at home like Lynn Redgrave?, wrote that her performance as Helena was "an outrageous and unforgivable atrocity on the poor Bard, and it is utterly delightful and almost wholly successful. And this astonishing infant is only 18 years old!" (25 January 1962). The fact that the critic Levin was actively courting Redgrave's elder sister Vanessa may have been significant.
  5. ^ Redgrave, Lynn. This Is Living, Dutton, May 1991. ISBN 978-0-87923-333-4.
  6. ^ Eleanor Charles (27 March 2005). "A Redgrave in Four Roles". The New York Times. Retrieved 24 April 2008.
  7. ^ "Breast Cancer Research Foundation". Breast Cancer Research Foundation.
  8. ^ "Playbill.com". Archived from the original on 3 December 2013.
  9. ^ Prince Caspian – via audible.com.
  10. ^ Inkheart – via audible.com.
  11. ^ "Lynn Redgrave Wed to John Clark". The New York Times. 3 April 1967. Retrieved 2 August 2010.
  12. ^ "Newsfronts: New actor in the cast of Redgraves". Life. 7 April 1967.
  13. ^ "Lynn Redgrave obituary". The Daily Telegraph. London. 3 May 2010. Archived from the original on 12 January 2022. Retrieved 2 August 2010.
  14. ^ "Lynn Redgrave obituary". The Times. London. 4 May 2010. Archived from the original on 25 May 2010. Retrieved 2 August 2010.
  15. ^ Actress Lynn Redgrave becomes a U.S. citizen, upi.com. Accessed 27 December 2023.
  16. ^ "No. 56430". The London Gazette (Supplement). 31 December 2001. p. 24.
  17. ^ "Actress Lynn Redgrave has died at age 67". Archived from the original on 6 May 2010. Retrieved 3 May 2010.
  18. ^ "Actress Lynn Redgrave dies at 67". BBC News. 3 May 2010.
  19. ^ McLellan, Dennis (4 May 2010). "Lynn Redgrave dies at 67; member of famed acting family". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 17 January 2022.
  20. ^ "Family, friends say goodbye to Redgrave", CBC News, 8 May 2010
  21. ^ Judkis, Maura (25 April 2012). "Lynn Redgrave archive acquired by Folger Shakespeare Library". The Washington Post.
  22. ^ "Elizabeth Taylor, Selena Gomez Honored at WIN Awards". Look to the Stars. 20 January 2011. Retrieved 6 December 2015.
  23. ^ Off Broadway Theater To Be Named After Lynn Redgrave The New York Times. 19 March 2013. Retrieved 29 January 2010.
  24. ^ "45 Bleecker Street Theatre Becomes The Lynn Redgrave Theatre". 1 June 2013.
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