Dame Vanessa Redgrave was born on 30 January 1937 and is an English actress and activist.
63 Facts About Vanessa Redgrave
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Vanessa Redgrave has received various honorary awards, including the BAFTA Fellowship Award, the Golden Lion Honorary Award, and an induction into the American Theatre Hall of Fame.
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Vanessa Redgrave rose to prominence in 1961 playing Rosalind in the Shakespearean comedy As You Like It with the Royal Shakespeare Company and has since starred in more than 35 productions in London's West End and on Broadway, winning the 1984 Olivier Award for Best Actress in a Revival for The Aspern Papers, and the 2003 Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play for the revival of Long Day's Journey into Night.
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Vanessa Redgrave received Tony nominations for The Year of Magical Thinking and Driving Miss Daisy.
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Vanessa Redgrave made her film debut starring opposite her father in the medical drama Behind the Mask, and rose to prominence with the satire Morgan: A Suitable Case for Treatment, which garnered her first of her six Academy Award nominations, winning Best Supporting Actress for Julia.
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Vanessa Redgrave was born on 30 January 1937 in Blackheath, London, the daughter of actors Sir Michael Vanessa Redgrave and Rachel Kempson.
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Vanessa Redgrave was educated at two independent schools for girls: the Alice Ottley School in Worcester, and Queen's Gate School in London, before "coming out" as a debutante.
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Vanessa Redgrave entered the Central School of Speech and Drama in 1954.
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Vanessa Redgrave first appeared in the West End, playing opposite her brother, in 1958.
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In 1960, Vanessa Redgrave had her first starring role in Robert Bolt's The Tiger and the Horse, in which she co-starred with her father.
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In 1966, Vanessa Redgrave created the role of Jean Brodie in the Donald Albery production of The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, adapted for the stage by Jay Presson Allen from the novel by Muriel Spark.
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Vanessa Redgrave had her first credited film role, in which she co-starred with her father, in Brian Desmond Hurst's Behind the Mask.
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In 1970 and 1971, Vanessa Redgrave was directed by Italian filmmaker Tinto Brass in two films: Dropout and La vacanza.
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Vanessa Redgrave portrayed the character of Mother Superior Jeanne des Anges in The Devils, the once controversial film directed by Ken Russell.
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Vanessa Redgrave's voice seems to come from some deep place that knows all suffering and all secrets.
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When Vanessa Redgrave was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress in 1977 for her role in Julia, members of the Jewish Defense League, led by Rabbi Meir Kahane, burned effigies of Vanessa Redgrave and picketed the Academy Awards ceremony to protest against what they saw as her support for the Palestine Liberation Organization.
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Vanessa Redgrave's remarks brought an on-stage response later in the ceremony from Academy Award winning screenwriter and award presenter at that year's ceremony Paddy Chayefsky and sparked controversy.
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Vanessa Redgrave made appearances in the third and sixth seasons.
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In 2006, Vanessa Redgrave starred opposite Peter O'Toole in the film Venus.
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In 2009, Vanessa Redgrave starred in the BBC remake of The Day of the Triffids, with her daughter Joely.
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Vanessa Redgrave was next seen in Letters to Juliet opposite her husband Franco Nero.
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Vanessa Redgrave had small roles in Eva, a Romanian drama film that premiered at the 2010 Cannes Film Festival, as well as in Julian Schnabel's Palestinian drama Miral, which was screened at the 67th Venice International Film Festival.
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Vanessa Redgrave voiced the character of Winnie the Giant Tortoise in the environmental animated film Animals United, and played a supporting role in the Bosnia-set political drama, The Whistleblower, which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival.
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Vanessa Redgrave narrated Patrick Keiller's semi-fictional documentary, Robinson in Ruins.
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Since 2012, Vanessa Redgrave has narrated the BBC series Call The Midwife.
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Vanessa Redgrave played leading roles in two historical films: Shakespeare's Coriolanus, in which she plays Volumnia; and Roland Emmerich's Anonymous, as.
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Vanessa Redgrave appeared with Steve Carell and Channing Tatum in the drama Foxcatcher.
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In 2017, at the age of 80, Vanessa Redgrave made her directorial debut with the feature documentary Sea Sorrow, which covers the plight of child migrants in the Calais refugee camps and the broader European migrant crisis.
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Vanessa Redgrave won four Evening Standard Awards for Best Actress in four decades.
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Vanessa Redgrave was awarded the Laurence Olivier Award for Actress of the Year in a Revival in 1984 for The Aspern Papers.
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In January 2006, Vanessa Redgrave was presented the Ibsen Centennial Award for her "outstanding work in interpreting many of Henrik Ibsen's works over the last decades".
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In 2007, Vanessa Redgrave played Joan Didion in her Broadway stage adaptation of her 2005 book, The Year of Magical Thinking, which played 144 regular performances in a 24-week limited engagement at the Booth Theatre.
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Vanessa Redgrave reprised the role at the Lyttelton Theatre at the Royal National Theatre in London to mixed reviews.
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Vanessa Redgrave spent a week performing the work at the Theatre Royal in Bath in September 2008.
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Vanessa Redgrave performed the role of Joan Didion for a special benefit at Cathedral of St John the Divine in New York on 26 October 2009.
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In 2013, Vanessa Redgrave starred alongside Jesse Eisenberg in Eisenberg's The Revisionist.
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In September 2013, Vanessa Redgrave starred opposite James Earl Jones in a production of Much Ado About Nothing at The Old Vic, London, directed by Mark Rylance.
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In 2016, Vanessa Redgrave played Queen Margaret in Richard III with Ralph Fiennes in the title role, at the Almeida Theatre, London.
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In 1967, the year Vanessa Redgrave divorced Richardson, who left her for the French actress Jeanne Moreau, she became romantically involved with Italian actor Franco Nero when they met on the set of Camelot.
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Vanessa Redgrave later reunited with Franco Nero, and they married on 31 December 2006.
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On 6 April 2010, her brother, Corin Vanessa Redgrave, died, and on 2 May 2010, her sister, Lynn Vanessa Redgrave, died.
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Vanessa Redgrave has described herself as a person of faith and said that she "sometimes" attends a Catholic church.
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In 1961, Vanessa Redgrave was an active member of the Committee of 100 and its working group.
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Vanessa Redgrave ran for parliament several times as a party member but never received more than a few hundred votes.
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On 17 March 1968, Vanessa Redgrave participated in the anti-Vietnam War protest outside United States Embassy in Grosvenor Square.
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Vanessa Redgrave was allowed to enter the embassy to deliver a protest.
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Vanessa Redgrave used her wage from Mary, Queen of Scots to build a nursery school, near her home in west London.
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In 1977, Vanessa Redgrave produced and starred in a controversial documentary film, The Palestinian, about the activities of the Palestine Liberation Organization.
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The president of Actors Equity in the United States criticized the film's interview with the chairman of the PLO, Yasser Arafat, in which he said that the only solution to the Middle East problem is the liquidation of the State of Israel, and Vanessa Redgrave responded with, "Certainly".
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In 1977, Vanessa Redgrave offered a resolution asking the British actors union to boycott Israel, allegedly including the selling of any taped material.
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In 1980, Vanessa Redgrave made her 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.
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The decision to cast Vanessa Redgrave as Fenelon was a source of controversy.
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In 1984, Vanessa Redgrave sued the Boston Symphony Orchestra, claiming that the orchestra had fired her from a performance because of her support of the PLO.
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Vanessa Redgrave won on a count of breach of contract, but did not win on the claim that the Boston orchestra had violated her civil rights by firing her.
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In 1995, Vanessa Redgrave was elected to serve as a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador.
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At a press conference, Vanessa Redgrave said she feared for Zakayev's safety if he were extradited to Russia on terrorism charges.
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Vanessa Redgrave would "die of a heart attack" or some other mysterious explanation offered by Russia, she said.
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Vanessa Redgrave has been an outspoken critic of the "war on terrorism".
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Vanessa Redgrave dedicated the award to a community organisation from Rosia Montana, Romania, which is campaigning against a gold mine that Gabriel Resources was seeking to build near the village.
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Gabriel Resources placed an "open letter" in The Guardian on 23 June 2006, attacking Vanessa Redgrave, arguing the case for the mine.
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In March 2014, Vanessa Redgrave took part in a protest outside Pentonville Prison in North London after new prison regulations were introduced which forbade sending books to prisoners.
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In 2017, Vanessa Redgrave made her directorial debut with the movie Sea Sorrow, a documentary about the European migrant crisis and the plight of migrants encamped outside Calais, France, trying to reach Britain.
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Vanessa Redgrave was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1967.