Lynn Redgrave
1943-2010

Beaks here...

Lynn Redgrave - daughter of Michael, sister of Vanessa and Corin - has passed away at the age of sixty-seven. Her family has released the following statement...

Our beloved mother Lynn Rachel passed away peacefully after a seven-year journey with breast cancer. She lived, loved and worked harder than ever before. The endless memories she created as a mother, grandmother, writer, actor and friend will sustain us for the rest of our lives. Our entire family asks for privacy through this difficult time.

Redgrave worked steadily in theater and film throughout her brilliant career, and turned in so many indelible performances that it's impossible to name one as her defining moment. She became an international star on the strength of her sympathetic portrayal as the homely main character in GEORGY GIRL - which also earned her an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress. Thirty-two years later, she received a Best Supporting Actress nomination for Bill Condon's GODS AND MONSTERS, in which she played the loyal (and deeply religious) housekeeper Hanna opposite Ian McKellen's openly gay James Whale. She should've won for this performance (probably my favorite of hers), but the Academy was bound and determined to honor Judi Dench for her SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE cameo that year. They had a chance to make it right several years later, when Redgrave provided the emotionally devastating denouement to Condon's KINSEY, but not enough people saw it. If you want to see Redgrave at the height of her powers, you should absolutely watch this underrated film. Redgrave's vivacious willingness to work brought her into some interesting projects. I'll never forget watching her as Xaviera Hollander in THE HAPPY HOOKER at a woefully inappropriate age; even though the film was quite awful (while failing to deliver on the smutty promise of the material), Redgrave somehow managed to emerge from the debacle cheerfully unscathed. This was one of her gifts: though she appeared in a number of terrible films, she was never terrible in them. Theatrically, she fared much better. If one were to pick a career highlight, it would probably be her 1993 one-woman show SHAKESPEARE FOR MY FATHER, which detailed her relationship with papa Sir Michael Redgrave. There was also a 1991 reunion with sister Vanessa for Chekov's THREE SISTERS at the Queen's Theatre in London. But this is just a small sampling of five decade's worth of stellar work. I've also forgot to mention her talent as a comedienne, so, in the interest in leaving off on an upbeat note, I give you this...