
Vanessa Redgrave
Biography
Vanessa Redgrave CBE (born 30 January 1937) is an English actress and political activist. Redgrave rose to prominence in 1961 playing Rosalind in the Shakespeare 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. She also received Tony nominations for The Year of Magical Thinking and Driving Miss Daisy.
On screen she has starred in scores of films and is a six-time Oscar nominee, winning the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for the title role in the film Julia (1977). Her other nominations were for Morgan: A Suitable Case for Treatment (1966), Isadora (1968), Mary, Queen of Scots (1971), The Bostonians (1984), and Howards End (1992). Among her other films are A Man for All Seasons (1966), Blowup (1966), Camelot (1967), The Devils (1971), Murder on the Orient Express (1974), Prick Up Your Ears (1987), Mission: Impossible (1996), Atonement (2007), Coriolanus (2011), and The Butler (2013). Redgrave was proclaimed by Arthur Miller and Tennessee Williams as "the greatest living actress of our times", and has won the Oscar, Emmy, Tony, BAFTA, Olivier, Cannes, Golden Globe, and the Screen Actors Guild awards.
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Known For
Acting History
2026
Cold Storage as Ma Rooney
2025The Estate
2025Common Wealth as Self
2024Merchant Ivory as Self
2023On Our Way
2022The Ghost of Richard Harris as Self
2022The Lost Girls as Great Nana
2021Alice, Through the Looking as Narrator
2021Alida Valli: In Her Own Words as Self
2021Finding You as Cathleen Sweeney
2020Katherine Jenkins Christmas Spectacular as Self
2020The 52nd Annual Emmy Awards as Self - Winner
2020Entree Des Artists as Henry's Grandmother
2019Mrs Lowry & Son as Elizabeth Lowry
2019Georgetown as Elsa Brecht
2019The Aspern Papers as Juliana Bordereau
2018Nothing Like a Dame as Self (archive footage)
2017Film Stars Don't Die in Liverpool as Jeanne McDougall
2017Sea Sorrow as Self
2017Joan Didion: The Center Will Not Hold as Self
2017Man in an Orange Shirt as Flora Berryman
2017The Secret Scripture as Old Roseanne McNulty
2016Electric Burma: The Concert for Aung San Suu Kyi - Words I Never Said as Self
2016Almeida Theatre Live: Richard III as Queen Margaret
2015The Go-Between as Older Marian
2014Foxcatcher as Jean du Pont
2014The Wound and the Gift
2014Black Box as Dr. Hartramph
2013The Thirteenth Tale as Vida Winter
2013The Butler as Annabeth Westfall
2012The Last Will and Testament of Rosalind Leigh as Rosalind Leigh
2012Last Will. & Testament
2012Song for Marion as Marion
2012Political Animals as Diane Nash
2012Shakespeare Uncovered as Herself
2012Playhouse Presents
2012Call the Midwife as Jennifer Worth (voice)
2011Anonymous as Queen Elizabeth I
2011Cars 2 as The Queen / Mama Topolino (voice)
2011Coriolanus as Volumnia
2010Robinson in Ruins as Narrator
2010Miral as Bertha Spafford
2010The Whistleblower as Madeleine Rees
2010Letters to Juliet as Claire
2009The Day of the Triffids as Durrant
2009God, Smell and Her
2008Ein Job as Hannah Silbergrau
2008Restraint as Sky News Reader #2
2007How About You... as Georgia Platts
2007The Shell Seekers as Penelope Keeling
2007The Riddle as Roberta Elliot
2007The Fever as The woman
2007Evening as Ann Lord
2007Atonement as Briony Tallis (Age 77)
2007Dealing and Wheeling in Small Arms as Narrator
2006Venus as Valerie
2006Eugene O’Neill: A Documentary Film as Self
2006The Thief Lord as Sister Antonia
2005The White Countess as Princess Vera Belinskya
2005Elio Petri: Notes About a Filmmaker as Self
2005The Keeper: The Legend of Omar Khayyam as Miss Sangorski
2005Short Order
2004Thank You, Doctor Rey as herself
2003Good Boy! as The Greater Dane (voice)
2003Byron as Lady Melbourne
2003Nip/Tuck as Dr.Erica Noughton
2003Nip/Tuck as Dr. Erica Noughton
2003Byron as Lady Melbourne
2002The Locket as Esther Huish
2002Hell on Earth: The Desecration & Resurrection of The Devils as Self
2002Searching for Debra Winger as Self
2002Crime and Punishment as Rodion's mother
2002The Gathering Storm as Clemmie Churchill
2001Jack and the Beanstalk: The Real Story as Countess Wilhelmina
2001Escape to Life: The Erika and Klaus Mann Story as (voice)
2001The Pledge as Annalise Hansen
2000A Rumor of Angels as Maddy Bennett
2000The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones: Love's Sweet Song as Vicky's Mother
2000Uninvited as Mrs. Rutterburn
2000Mirka as Kalsan
2000If These Walls Could Talk 2 as Edith Tree
20001961 as Edith Tree
2000Exile in Buyukada as Narrator
1999Girl, Interrupted as Dr. Wick
1999Cradle Will Rock as Countess Constance La Grave
1999The Early Show as Self
1998Lulu on the Bridge as Catherine Moore
1998Deep Impact as Robin Lerner
1998Déjà Vu as Skelly
1998Sabine Christiansen as Self
1997Bella Mafia as Graziella Luciano
1997Behind The Mask as Self
1997Wilde as Lady Speranza Wilde
1997Mrs. Dalloway as Mrs. Clarissa Dalloway
1997The View as Self
1997Michael Redgrave: My Father as Self
1997Smilla's Sense of Snow as Elsa Lübing
1996The Willows in Winter as Grandmother / Narrator
1996Looking for Richard as Self - Interviewee
1996Two Mothers for Zachary as Nancy Shaffell
1996Mission: Impossible as Max
1995The Wind in the Willows as Grandmother / Narrator
1995Down Came a Blackbird as Anna Lenke
1995A Month by the Lake as Miss Bentley
1994Little Odessa as Irina Shapira
1994Inside the Actors Studio as Self
1994Great Moments in Aviation as Dr. Angela Bead
1994Sparrow as Suor Agata
1993Intimate Portrait as Self
1993They as Florence Latimer
1993The House of the Spirits as Nivea del Valle
1993Mother's Boys as Lydia
1993Hollywood U.K.: British Cinema in the Sixties as Self
1993A Wall of Silence as Kate Benson
1992Howards End as Ruth Wilcox
1991The Ballad of the Sad Cafe as Miss Amelia
1991What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? as Blanche Hudson
1991Young Catherine as Empress Elizabeth
1990Breath of Life as Suor Crocifissa
1990Orpheus Descending as Lady Torrance
1990Stalin's Funeral as English journalist
1990Romeo.Juliet as Mother Capulet (voice)
1988A Man for All Seasons as Lady Alice More
1988Consuming Passions as Mrs. Garza
1987Seitenblicke as self
1987Comrades as Mrs. Carlyle
1987Prick Up Your Ears as Peggy Ramsay
1986Peter the Great as Sophia
1986Second Serve as Renee Richards
1985Wetherby as Jean Travers
1985Steaming as Nancy
1985Three Sovereigns for Sarah as Sarah Cloyce
1985Three Sovereigns for Sarah as Sarah Cloyce
1984Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs as The Evil Queen
1984The Bostonians as Olive Chancellor
1984Goldene Kamera as Self
1983Sing Sing as la Regina
1983Wagner as Cosima von Bulow
1982Faerie Tale Theatre as The Evil Queen
1982My Body, My Child as Leenie Cabrezi
1981Wetten, dass..? as Self
1980Playing for Time as Fania Fenelon
1980The Fifth War
1979Bear Island as Heddi Lindquist
1979Yanks as Helen
1979NDR Talk Show as Self
1979Agatha as Agatha Christie
1977Julia as Julia
1977The Palestinian as Self
1976The Seven-Per-Cent Solution as Lola Deveraux
1975Out of Season as Ann
1974Murder on the Orient Express as Mary Debenham
1973A Picture of Katherine Mansfield as Katherine Mansfield
1972Right to Work March
1971Mary, Queen of Scots as Mary, Queen of Scots
1971Vacation as Immacolata Meneghelli
1971The Devils as Sister Jeanne des Anges
1971The Trojan Women as Andromache
1970Dropout as Mary
1970The Body as Narrator
1970A Mother with Two Children Expecting Her Third as Herself
1969No Arks as Narrator
1969Oh! What a Lovely War as Sylvia Pankhurst
1968The Sea Gull as Nina
1968A Quiet Place in the Country as Flavia
1968Isadora as Isadora Duncan
1968Red and Blue as Jacky
1968The Charge of the Light Brigade as Mrs Clarissa Morris
1968Red, White, and Zero as Jacky
1967Camelot as Guenevere
1967Omnibus as Self
1967Tonite Let's All Make Love in London as Self
1967The Sailor from Gibraltar as Sheila
1966Blow-Up as Jane
1966A Man for All Seasons as Anne Boleyn
1966Morgan: A Suitable Case for Treatment as Leonie Delt
1964Maggie as Maggie
1963As You Like It as Rosalind
1961A Sunday in September as Self
1961Circus at Clopton Hall as Narrator
1960Sunday-Night Play as Monica Claverton-Ferry
1958Behind the Mask as Pamela Benson-Gray
1957Theatre Night as Caroline Lester
1956Tony Awards as Self - Winner
1956Tony Awards as Self - Presenter
1956Tony Awards as Self - Nominee
1953The Oscars as Self
1952Today as Self
1951Hallmark Hall of Fame as Esther Huish
1944Golden Globe Awards as Self - Nominee
—All That I Am
—The Boy at the Back of the Class as Queen
—The Crystal Planet as The Matriarch (voice)






