Vanessa Redgrave | Biography, Movies, Plays, & Facts | Britannica

Movies from the 21st century

Thereafter Redgrave continued to work steadily. In 2003 she won a Tony Award (for best actress in a play) for her performance in Eugene O’Neill’s Long Day’s Journey into Night. Redgrave was cast in a recurring role (2004–09) on the television series Nip/Tuck and subsequently starred onstage in The Year of Magical Thinking, which was adapted from Joan Didion’s memoir of the same name, and Alfred Uhry’s Driving Miss Daisy. The two plays earned her Tony nominations in 2007 and 2011, respectively. As she entered her 70s, she appeared in the film dramas Atonement (2007), an adaptation of the novel by Ian McEwan, and Evening (2007), in which she starred as a woman who remembers a long-lost love as she lies on her deathbed.

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In 2010 Redgrave had roles in the romantic comedy Letters to Juliet and the drama The Whistleblower, about the United Nations’ role in a sex-trafficking scandal in Bosnia and Herzegovina. In Anonymous (2011), which advanced the theory that the plays attributed to Shakespeare were written by Edward de Vere, 17th earl of Oxford, Redgrave portrayed Elizabeth I. She then appeared as the strong-willed Volumnia in a 2011 film adaptation of Shakespeare’s Coriolanus and played a cancer victim in the uplifting Song for Marion (2012; U.S. title Unfinished Song). From 2012 she was the narrator of the BBC television series Call the Midwife. She returned to the stage as a Polish Holocaust survivor in the Off-Broadway drama The Revisionist (2013) and evinced the mother of disturbed wrestling fanatic (and multimillionaire) John du Pont in the film Foxcatcher (2014).

Redgrave also appeared in the TV movie The Go-Between (2015), an adaptation of L.P. Hartley’s novel of youthful misunderstanding (1953), and the movie Film Stars Don’t Die in Liverpool (2017), playing the mother of American actress Gloria Grahame. She then portrayed Juliana Bordereau, an elderly recluse living in a Venetian palazzo in The Aspern Papers (2018), a drama based on Henry James’s novelette (1888). Redgrave had previously portrayed Tina, Juliana’s skittish niece, in the 1984 revival of her father’s stage adaptation of the work (1959). In the 2018 film Redgrave’s daughter Joely assumed the role of Tina. Vanessa’s later films included Christoph Waltz’s Georgetown (2019), in which she played a wealthy woman married to a grifter, and the romantic drama Finding You (2021).

Quick Facts In full: Dame Vanessa Redgrave (Show more) Born: January 30, 1937, London, England (age 89) (Show more) Awards And Honors: Tony Awards (2003) Academy Award (1978) Academy Award (1978): Actress in a Supporting Role Emmy Award (2000): Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Miniseries or Movie Emmy Award (1981): Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited Series or a Special Golden Globe Award (2001): Best Supporting Actress in a Series, Limited Series, or Motion Picture Made for Television Golden Globe Award (1978): Best Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture Tony Award (2003): Best Actress in a Play (Show more) Notable Works: “The White Countess” (Show more) Notable Family Members: spouse Tony Richardson father Michael Redgrave daughter Natasha Richardson sister Lynn Redgrave (Show more) Married To: Tony Richardson (1962–1967) Franco Nero (2006–present) (Show more) Movies/Tv Shows (Acted In): "Diceria dell'untore" (1990) "The White Countess" (2005) "Mother's Boys" (1993) "The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles" (1992) "The Bostonians" (1984) "Un muro de silencio" (1993) "Isadora" (1968) "Coriolanus" (2011) "Identity of the Soul" (2009) "Mrs. Lowry and Son" (2019) "Agatha" (1979) "Deep Impact" (1998) "Crime and Punishment" (2002) "Faerie Tale Theatre" (1984) "Armchair Theatre" (1964) "Playhouse Presents" (2013) "Déjà Vu" (1997) "Behind the Mask" (1958) "Comrades" (1986) "Sing Sing" (1983) "Cars 2" (2011) "Dropout" (1970) "Cradle Will Rock" (1999) "The Charge of the Light Brigade" (1968) "First Night" (1964) "The Shell Seekers" (2006) "The Seven-Per-Cent Solution" (1976) "Steaming" (1985) "The Sailor from Gibraltar" (1967) "Camelot" (1967) "The Whistleblower" (2010) "The Ballad of the Sad Cafe" (1991) "The 3 Kings" (2000) "BBC Sunday-Night Theatre" (1958) "Out of Season" (1975) "A Man for All Seasons" (1966) "Atonement" (2007) "Black Box" (2014) "The Devils" (1971) "Un tranquillo posto di campagna" (1968) "Lulu on the Bridge" (1998) "La vacanza" (1971) "The Last Will and Testament of Rosalind Leigh" (2012) "Prick Up Your Ears" (1987) "Murder on the Orient Express" (1974) "Little Odessa" (1994) "Girl, Interrupted" (1999) "The Keeper: The Legend of Omar Khayyam" (2005) "Richard III" (2016) "How About You..." (2007) "Wilde" (1997) "Letters to Juliet" (2010) "Political Animals" (2012) "Great Moments in Aviation" (1994) "Nip/Tuck" (2004–2009) "BBC Sunday-Night Play" (1960) "Uninvited" (1999) "Georgetown" (2019) "Short Order" (2005) "Storia di una capinera" (1993) "Theatre Night" (1958–1961) "Mrs Dalloway" (1997) "Smilla's Sense of Snow" (1997) "Call the Midwife" (2012–2020) "The Pledge" (2001) "Animals United" (2010) "Wagner" (1981–1984) "Restraint" (2008) "A Rumor of Angels" (2000) "A Month by the Lake" (1995) "Julia" (1977) "Gud, lukt och henne" (2008) "Jack and the Beanstalk: The Real Story" (2001) "The Day of the Triffids" (2009) "Mirka" (2000) "Consuming Passions" (1988) "Man in an Orange Shirt" (2017) "The Butler" (2013) "Mission: Impossible" (1996) "A Farewell to Arms" (1966) "The Aspern Papers" (2018) "Song for Marion" (2012) "The House of the Spirits" (1993) "Yanks" (1979) "Morgan: A Suitable Case for Treatment" (1966) "Oh! What a Lovely War" (1969) "Bear Island" (1979) "Escape to Life: The Erika and Klaus Mann Story" (2000) "A Picture of Katherine Mansfield" (1973) "The Trojan Women" (1971) "Pokhorony Stalina" (1990) "Mary, Queen of Scots" (1971) "The Thief Lord" (2006) "The Secret Scripture" (2016) "Peter the Great" (1986) "The Sea Gull" (1968) "Blowup" (1966) "Film Stars Don't Die in Liverpool" (2017) "The Fever" (2004) "Evening" (2007) "Foxcatcher" (2014) "Anonymous" (2011) "Love Story" (1965) "Howards End" (1992) "Venus" (2006) "Miral" (2010) "Wetherby" (1985) "Good Boy!" (2003) "American Playhouse" (1985) "Romeo.Juliet" (1990) (Show more) Movies/Tv Shows (Directed): "Sea Sorrow" (2017) (Show more) On the Web: NPR - A Conversation with Lynn and Vanessa Redgrave (Jan. 24, 2026) (Show more) See all related content Show More

Redgrave was created Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 1967, and she advanced to Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) in the 2022 New Year Honours List.

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