VANESSA R EDGR AV E
The revered actress remains a fearless performer, firebrand campaigner and fashion muse. BRITISH ICON
‘Tonight a great actress was born,’ said Laurence Olivier when he announced Vanessa Redgrave’s birth to a packed Old Vic theatre in 1937. His words were prophetic. Over the six decades of her career, Redgrave has been justly acclaimed as one of our greatest living actresses, with more than 35 theatrical productions, 80 films and six Oscar nominations to her name. She won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress playing a young woman battling the Nazi regime in the 1977 film Julia, and a Tony Award for Best Actress for her moving portrayal of Mary Tyrone’s drug-induced decline in the 2003 Broadway revival of Eugene O’Neill’s Long Day’s Journey into Night, among many other prizes. Last month, she was presented with the Gielgud Award for Excellence in the Dramatic Arts, in recognition of her lifelong contribution to British theatre.
Performing is, of course, in her blood: the daughter of Michael and Rachel Redgrave, she belongs to a remarkable acting dynasty that spans five generations. Over the past decade, she and her family have experienced more than their fair share of tragedy: in 2010, Redgrave lost her brother Corin and her sister Lynn – both acclaimed actors – in quick succession, just 14 months after her daughter, Natasha Richardson, died from a traumatic brain injury caused by a skiing accident. Redgrave herself suffered a near-fatal heart attack in April 2015 and has since acknowledged that the accumulation of sorrows almost stopped her persevering (‘Trying to live was getting too tiring’). She attributes her survival to the support of her two remaining children: Natasha’s sister Joely Richardson and Carlo Nero, her son with the Italian actor Franco Nero. ‘I thought I appreciated everything pretty well,’ she said recently. ‘But compared to how I notice and appreciate things now? Before this, I didn’t care at all. Now I find myself thinking what a miracle it all is.’
Despite her fragile health – she suffers from severe emphysema that was only diagnosed after her heart attack – Redgrave shows no signs of slowing down. A dedicated champion of human rights, she travelled to Beirut this autumn to perform in a politically charged production, less than a month after taking part in a London march calling for government action on the refugee crisis. She sees her campaigning as humanitarian rather than overtly political, saying in an interview just a few months ago: ‘I still have to do something to help, however tiny.’
In her 80th year, Redgrave remains a force to be reckoned with on stage and screen, most recently playing the part of Rose, a woman who has spent 50 years living in a mental hospital, in the new film adaptation of Sebastian Barry’s novel The Secret Scripture. It is testament to her timeless appeal that, this year, Gucci has made her the face of its British-inspired cruise campaign. Described by the brand’s creative director Alessandro Michele as a ‘love letter to England’, it presents Redgrave at her most majestic, dressed in Union Jack jumpers and tartan kilts and photographed against the magnificent backdrop of Chatsworth House.
There are few individuals who truly merit the status of icon, but Vanessa Redgrave – leading lady, human-rights campaigner, muse and mother – has more than earned this ultimate accolade.