Lynn Redgrave Biography
Summary
"Lynn Rachel Redgrave", OBE (born 8 March, 1943) is a twice Academy Award-nominated and Golden Globe-winning English actress born into the famous Redgrave acting family.
Biography
Early life and family
Redgrave was born in London, England. Her parents were actors Sir Michael Redgrave and Rachel Kempson, Lady Redgrave; her brother is Corin Redgrave and her sister is Vanessa Redgrave. She is the aunt of Natasha Richardson, Joely Richardson and Jemma Redgrave.
Career
After training in London's Central School, 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", "Girl With Green Eyes" and "The Deadly Affair".In 1966, she appeared in the title role in "Georgy Girl", which earned her 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 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". Outside New York, 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 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 movie career also include "The National Health", "Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex", "The Happy Hooker" and "Getting It Right". For American television she was seen in the series "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".
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 performed the play, only with her husband, around the country, and on one occasion for the jury in the OJ Simpson case. In 1993 she appeared on Broadway in the one-woman play "Shakespeare For My Father" devised and co-written with her husband, who also produced and directed. She was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play.
On March 30, 2005, the website of Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Connecticut stated that she appeared in the play "Sisters of the Garden", about the Mendelssohn and Boulanger sisters. As of early 2005, she is reported to be writing a one-woman play about her battle with breast cancer, from which she is evidently in remission, and her 2002 mastectomy, based on her book "Journal: A Mother and Daughter's Recovery from Breast Cancer" with photos by Annabel Clark (Redgrave and Clark's youngest daughter) and text by Redgrave herself.
In September 2006, she appeared in "Nightingale", the U.S. premier of her new one-woman play based upon her maternal grandmother Beatrice, at Los Angeles' Mark Taper Forum. This is her third play to concern itself with a family member. She also performed the play in May 2007 at Hartford Stage in Hartford, Connecticut. In 2007, Redgrave appeared in an episode of "Desperate Housewives" as Dahlia Hainsworth.
Personal life
In 1983, Redgrave became very well known in the United States when she began starring in a long-running series of television commercials for Weight Watchers. Prior to this, she had suffered from bulimia, telling "People Magazine" in 1992, '(Bingeing and purging) felt like a great discovery, as I suppose it is to most people. People complimented me on my weight, but inside I felt like shit.'
In 2000, Redgrave divorced her husband of 33 years when he revealed that he had fathered a child for a family friend in need. At the family's suggestion, the friend married, then divorced, Redgrave and Clark's son Benjamin in order to gain a green card, after which she sued the family. Details are made available at Clark's website (... more) , in which he reveals his legal fights.
Redgrave was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire, after she became a naturalized citizen of the United States. She narrated "Prince Caspian" by C.S. Lewis for Harper Audio.
External links
(Lynn Redgrave official website)
(Lynn Redgrave) - "Downstage Center" interview at American Theatre Wing.org, July 2005.
(Actors On Performing) "Working in the Theatre" seminar video at American Theatre Wing, April 2006
(Performance) "Working in the Theatre" seminar video at American Theatre Wing, April 1992
(Performance) "Working in the Theatre" seminar video at American Theatre Wing, April 1987
Credit
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article about Lynn Redgrave.
