Line #59 Creator/VanessaRedgrave


1	[[quoteright:280:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/vanessa_redgrave_2008.jpg]]
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3	->''"You can't do what you've been asked to do unless you do the best you can. And roughly speaking, the best you can do is to be very available as a character and actor to the people you're acting with. That's equally important, whether the camera's on the other person or on you."''
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5	Dame Vanessa Redgrave [[UsefulNotes/KnightFever DBE]] (born 30 January 1937 in Blackheath, London) is an English actress of stage, screen and television, as well as [[SoapBoxSadie a political activist]].
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7	She's well-known over her membership in the far-left Workers' Revolutionary Party and her advocacy of a purist [[UsefulNotes/LeonTrotsky Trotskyism]]. This was often [[Magazine/PrivateEye mercilessly parodied by satirists]], but it was noted this did not make her difficult to work with and she was always professional in her acting, having enough of a sense of humour to, for instance, appear as a guest with Creator/MorecambeAndWise. Vanessa stood for Parliament several times, unsuccessfully, on a WRP ticket. [[note]] the Workers' Revolutionary Party was derided for the sheer number of prominent film, theatre and TV actors it attracted to what was otherwise a dour and Trotskyist far-left party. For this reason it was dubbed '''The West End Revolutionary Party''' - "no workers as such, just actors". The acronym "TWERP" was noted; Series/TheGoodies played on this and chose to portray Vanessa as a far-left mirror image of UsefulNotes/MargaretThatcher.[[/note]] She has been vocal in advocating for the Palestinians (including the PLO, which stirred great controversy), along with refugees generally, criticizing the War on Terror and human rights violations committed by her native UK along with the US.
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9	Part of a [[ItRunsInTheFamily distinguished English acting family]], she is the daughter of Creator/MichaelRedgrave and Rachel Kempson; the sister of Creator/LynnRedgrave and Corin Redgrave; the aunt of Creator/JemmaRedgrave;[[note]]through her brother Corin[[/note]] the mother of Creator/NatashaRichardson, Creator/JoelyRichardson, and Carlo Nero; and the grandmother of Micheál Richardson.
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12	!!Appearances with pages on this wiki:
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14	* ''WesternAnimation/AnimalsUnited''
15	* ''Film/{{Anonymous\|2011}}''
16	* ''Film/{{Atonement}}''
17	* ''Series/BlackBox''
18	* ''Film/{{Blowup}}''
19	* ''Film/TheButler''
20	* ''Series/CallTheMidwife''
21	* ''Theatre/{{Camelot}}''
22	* ''WesternAnimation/{{Cars 2}}''
23	* ''Film/TheChargeOfTheLightBrigade''
24	* ''Theatre/{{Coriolanus}}''
25	* ''Film/DeepImpact''
26	* ''Film/DejaVu2006''
27	* ''Film/TheDevils''
28	* ''Film/{{Foxcatcher}}''
29	* ''Film/TheGatheringStorm''
30	* ''Film/{{Georgetown}}''
31	* ''Film/GirlInterrupted''
32	* ''Literature/HowardsEnd''
33	* ''Film/IfTheseWallsCouldTalk2''
34	* ''Series/JackAndTheBeanstalkTheRealStory''
35	* ''{{Film/Julia}}''
36	* ''Film/LettersToJuliet''
37	* ''Film/LittleOdessa''
38	* ''Theatre/AManForAllSeasons''
39	* ''Film/MaryQueenOfScots1971''
40	* ''[[Film/MissionImpossible1996 Mission: Impossible]]''
41	* ''Literature/MrsDalloway''
42	* ''Film/MurderOnTheOrientExpress1974''
43	* ''Series/NipTuck''
44	* ''Film/OhWhatALovelyWar''
45	* ''Film/ThePledge''
46	* ''Series/PoliticalAnimals''
47	* ''Theatre/TheSeaGull''
48	* ''Literature/TheSevenPerCentSolution''
49	* ''Literature/TheThiefLord''
50	* ''Literature/TheThirteenthTale''
51	* ''Literature/{{Venus}}''
52	* ''WesternAnimation/TheWindInTheWillows1995''
53	* ''WesternAnimation/TheWillowsInWinter1996''
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56	!!Tropes in her work include:
57	%%* CoolOldLady: Most of her later roles are this.
58	* CreatorCouple: Oddly averted with director Tony Richardson; she appeared in his ''Film/TheChargeOfTheLightBrigade'' a year after their divorce. She appeared with her current husband, Franco Nero, in ''Theater/{{Camelot}}'' and ''Film/LettersToJuliet''.
59	* FakeAmerican: In ''{{Film/Foxcatcher}}'' and the remake of ''Film/WhatEverHappenedToBabyJane''.
60	* OddFriendship: With Creator/CharltonHeston. The two couldn't have been farther apart politically, yet were close friends and even collaborated on Heston's version of ''Theatre/AManForAllSeasons''.
61	* RealLifeRelative: Frequently. Her first major stage role was opposite her father, Sir Creator/MichaelRedgrave, in Creator/RobertBolt's ''The Tiger and the Horse'', and she also appeared onstage with her sister Lynn Redgrave and niece Creator/JemmaRedgrave in Creator/AntonChekhov's ''Theatre/ThreeSisters''. She starred on film with her sister Lynn in the remake of ''Film/WhatEverHappenedToBabyJane''. She appeared with brother Corin Redgrave in several films, notably ''Theatre/AManForAllSeasons'' and ''The Charge of the Light Brigade'', and costarred with her daughter Creator/JoelyRichardson in ''Film/{{Anonymous\|2011}}'' and ''Series/NipTuck''.
62	* RomanceOnTheSet:
63	** Franco Nero, with whom she worked in ''Camelot''.
64	** Timothy Dalton, who she starred alongside in ''Film/MaryQueenOfScots1971''.
65	%%* StatuesqueStunner: At 5'11".
66	* WhatCouldHaveBeen:
67	** Vanessa was supposed to serve as a live action reference model for Disney's ''WesternAnimation/AliceInWonderland''. But because she had started to sleep walk at home, her parents refused to send her. Alice's voice actor Kathryn Beaumont then did the modelling instead.
68	** The stage version of ''Literature/ThePrimeOfMissJeanBrodie'' was set to have Dame Creator/MaggieSmith as the lead. But when she became unavailable, Vanessa got the part. She was also meant to play Jean in the film version, but this time she herself was unavailable, and Maggie Smith came on board.
69	** She was offered the role of Margaret Moore in ''Theatre/AManForAllSeasons'' but was too busy to take it on, and Susannah York signed on instead. Vanessa cameo'd for free as UsefulNotes/AnneBoleyn in the film.
70	** Vanessa signed on to play Eleanor of Aquitaine in ''Film/RobinHood2010''. But after the sudden death of Creator/NatashaRichardson, she dropped out, and Eileen Atkins came on board.
71	** Dropped out of ''Film/TheMagdaleneSisters'' to care for her mother, and the role of Sister Bridget went to Geraldine [=McEwan=].
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Context Creator / VanessaRedgrave