Born into a distinguished acting family, Vanessa Redgrave knew a lot about acting technique when she started making films in the 1960s. Three decades later she has shown that an actress can improve with age. In his review of A Month by the Lake (1995), Roger Ebert sees Redgrave "at the absolute peak of physical and mental perfection". No one had any idea of what kind of a woman was in the photographs in the park in Blowup (1966). Her rich auburn hair was long, her physique lean, her countenance inscrutable. Three decades later a Redgrave who takes the pictures has hair that is short, the auburn shade muted. The physique is still lean and it is strong from the work it has taken to keep it that way. And the countenance is a lot easier to read. Add expertise with body language and a superb sense of timing and here is a comedienne who should still be carrying films when she is in her 90s.

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.She was awarded the C.B.E. (Commander of the Order of the British Empire) in 1967 for her services to drama.Granddaughter of Roy Redgrave.Mother-in-law of actor Liam Neeson.Was in a long relationship with former James Bond actor Timothy Dalton [1980-1994]Both she and 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 for Georgy Girl (1966). They both lost to Elizabeth Taylor, who won for Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966).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 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.In 1962, she became one of the first celebrities to visit communist Cuba.A longtime member of Britain's Workers Revolutionary PartyAppeared on "BBC News 24" Breakfast and stated that the massacre of Russian school children by Chechen guerrillas was not an act of terrorism. (4 September 2004).In 2003, she became the sixteenth 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.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" (1985), 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.Received The Helen Hayes award nomination for her work in Hecuba. This play was a major success. It was so well received that the BAM theater in New York scheduled it for two weeks and it went on to being performed in Delphi.Plays mother to real-lifer daughter Joely Richardson in a few episodes of "Nip/Tuck" (2003).Spoke at the Scottish Parliment in the summer of 2005.Voted by People magazine (May 8th 2006) as one of the 100 most beautiful people.Voted by Entertainment Weekly as one of the 25 greatest ActressesIs mentioned, along with Joe Piscopo and Eddie Murphy, in the song "Jammin' Me" by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers.When director David Hare and producers of "The Year of Magical Thinking" were thinking of an actress to cast in their one-woman show, they could only think of one name, and that was Redgrave. They said that only she could tackle the range of emotion created by the character.After filming Mary, Queen of Scots (1971), The Devils (1971) and The Trojan Women (1971), she suffered a miscarriage in 1971. It was a boy and would have been her and Franco Nero's second child.After filming The Trojan Women (1971), Katharine Hepburn favored Vanessa Redgrave over all actresses and later remarked that she was, "A thrill to look at and to listen to.".Her three children are actresses Natasha Richardson and Joely Richardson from her marriage to Tony Richardson and Carlo Gabriel Nero with Italian actor Franco Nero.Received rave reviews for originating the role of Jean Brodie in, 'The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie" winning the London Evening Standard award for her work.Along with Kate Winslet (for Iris (2000), Claude Rains (Mr. Skeffington (1944) and Mare Winningham (for Georgia (1995)), she is the only performer to be nominated for an Supporting Oscar (for Julia (1977)) for playing the title role in a movie. Redgrave is the only one to win.She was the first of the only four actresses to win the Best Actress award twice at Cannes Film Festival. She won for Morgan: A Suitable Case for Treatment (1966) in 1966 and Isadora (1968) in 1968. The others are: Isabelle Huppert for Violette Nozière (1978) in 1978 and La pianiste (2001) in 2001; Helen Mirren for Cal (1984) in 1984 and The Madness of King George (1994) in 1995; Barbara Hershey for Shy People (1987) in 1987 and A World Apart (1988) in 1988.Won the Drama Desk award in 2007 for Best Actor in a Solo performance for "The Year of Magical Thinking". She also received her second Tony award nomination for Best Actress for the same play.Former mother-in-law of Working Title films co-producer Tim Bevan.She was made a Fellow of the British Film Institute in recognition of her outstanding contribution to film culture.Both she and her daughter Joely Richardson have played an historical queen who was executed by beheading. Redgrave played the title character in Mary, Queen of Scots (1971) while her daughter played Marie Antoinette in The Affair of the Necklace (2001).Named Jeanne Moreau as co-respondent in her 1967 divorce from Tony Richardson on grounds of adultery.Lost her daughter Natasha Richardson on March 18, 2009 as the result of a skiing accident at Mont Tremblant Quebec.Nominated for the 2007 Tony Award (New York City) for Actress in a Drama for "The Year of Magical Thinking".Refused to accept any money for her role as Anne Boleyn in A Man for All Seasons (1966).Was offered the role of Margaret More in A Man for All Seasons (1966) but she turned it down due her commitments to the theatre and opted for the cameo role of Anne Boleyn instead. Susannah York was cast as Margaret More instead.