Vanessa Redgrave Appreciation Thread

a career on stage – in pictures

She was awfully darned good in the gay-themed Masterpiece Theatre offering, "The Man In The Orange Shirt," from over the weekend.

She was terribly miscast in Man in the Orange Shirt. I like Vanessa Redgrave and thought she stole the show in Atonement when she turned up in the last ten minutes but she does seem to play the same character again and again these days.

She was amazing in The Man In The Orange Shirt,

But she was awfully darned good. Even I think so.

The single greatest performance on stage I’ve ever seen: Redgrave as Mary Tyrone in Long Day’s Journey.

I met her once. I liked her a lot.

It's worth checking out her 2010 film, "Letters to Juliet".

It's pretty light fluff, but Vanessa shines in it.

Plus, it's got beautiful cinematography in Tuscany, and the cute Australian actor Chris Egan plays her grandson.

And her real-life husband Franco Nero also appears.

I remember her in the tiny role of Anne Boleyn in the 1966 "A Man for All Seasons". She somehow created a full character in a few minutes of screen time. She and Robert Shaw as Henry VIII added a lot to that movie, the way great actors in small roles often do.

SO brave!

I saw her once across the street from the Public Theater where she was doing Antony and Cleopatra (which I did see, but I don't remember any of it - I was too young to appreciate it), she was briskly walking uptown. Long beige coat, no hat, very tall, unassuming.

She lives near me in London. Seems to HATE being recognised.

Don't people generally ignore celebrities in London like they do in New York?

The death of Natasha Richardson was shocking. The year after both Lynn Redgrave and Colin Redgrave died. That's a lot of tragedy in less than two years.

R5 Who are you talking about M?

Yes, R14.

Vanessa endured a lot of loss in a short period of time.

Btw, it was CORIN Redgrave.

The evidence of her brillance is on the screen: Blow Up, Morgan, The Devils, Mary Queen of Scots, Isadora, Julia, The Bostonians, Prick Up Your Ears, Howard's End, Wetherby and so on and so on and so on..........though that TV remake of Baby Jane with sister Lynn was not one of her finest moments.

Yes, Corin Redgrave. Thanks.

I admire the way she WORKS. Constantly. Sometimes in crap. But she works. She just does it.

Superb actress. Marvellous woman. Amazing human being.

bump for Vanessa

I like her a lot and of course she's an amazing actress.

She took a lot of shit in America for sticking up for the Palestinians at a time when "that simply wasn't done" here as the Brits would say. At the Oscars in the late 70s the JDL picketed and of course many in Hollywood supported them, so when Redgrave condemned the JDL extremists, some on Hollywood took the JDL's side -- including Paddy Chayefsky right there at the ceremony.

As a result work really dried up in Hollwood, which is a shame, because she was right, and is a great actress.

I could not agree more. Mary, queen of Scots. Incredible. Remember that underrated movie Yanks? She's incredible. And, then there was Julia!

She's very good if she's in her range, but she loves to do that incandescent thing where she's warm and loving and glows from within and steals focus from everyone else. It doesn't work for every character she plays--it worked beautifully in "Isadora" and "Julia," and she she even got away with it in 'Howards End" (though it's not how E. M. Forster wrote the part of Ruth Wilcox), but it's been disastrously wrong for some roles (such as for the title role of "Mrs. Dalloway'). I also saw her do it on stage on Broadway in "Vita and Virginia" (opposite Eileen Atkins as Virginia Woolf), and again it was completely wrong for Vita Sackville-West, even as thrilling as it was seeing Redgrave on stage.

R23 that makes well thought out sense.

Zionist hoodlums!

Yes she certainly is one of the greatest actresses of her time. And a great woman too.

This is a good interview with Redgrave, but look how she ends it. A lovely person.

She's just amazing

She was great in Foxcatcher even though her screen time was limited but she was the best thing about Foxcatcher

She was really great in "Foxcatcher." There's a marvelous scene in it where she comes in to watch her son wrestle, and when she enters the gym all the tension in the room changes (because everyone knows she's got all the money and all the power in the family). As she watches him, she's just disgusted with his pitiful performance, but she does everything not to let it show on her face--but everyone can tell anyway. It's a phenomenal scene, where she utters almost no words, but conveys so much so subtly through expression and body language.

She's still gorgeous

R31 that scene alone deserved Oscar

Steve Carell On Working With Vanessa Redgrave

[quote]Steve Carell On Working With Vanessa Redgrave

Don' t think I'll bother. I hate those gushy interviews of actors talking about working with famous actors. DVD extras are full of them.

Vanessa Redgrave thinks “Foxcatcher” is a masterpiece.

A sassy, but modest Redgrave first asserted that she did not “create the presence” of her character, but rather she channeled it. Redgrave plays du Pont’s icy aristocratic mother, a woman he desperately tries to impress throughout “Foxcatcher.” Having starred in what seems like thousands of roles, Redgrave spoke about the essential things that draw one to a project — the script, role, producers and director. At one point, though, she called “Foxcatcher” “a masterpiece.” High praise from a film legend

Total class, adore her

Say What? Maggie & Vanessa

The best performance I've ever seen

Vanessa Redgrave doubled down on her record of radical pro-Palestinian activism upon winning the best supporting actress Oscar in 1978. Having been the target of protesters herself, Redgrave complimented her audience that they “stood firm and you have refused to be intimidated by the threats of a small bunch of Zionist hoodlums whose behaviour is an insult to the stature of Jews all over the world and their great and heroic record of struggle against fascism and oppression … I salute you and I thank you and I pledge to you that I will continue to fight against antisemitism and fascism.”

Seems reasonable to risk one's kingdom for this Guinevere.

Julie Andrews? Never.

It wasn't very well-received at the time, r40. People were really angry. Americans were totally brainwashed about Israel and the nasty evil Palestinians.

R41, that was the closest I ever came to being sexually attracted to a woman.

Did she EVER do Blanche? She would have been the most perfect Blanche of all!

Was there ever a movie poster as nineteen-sixties as the poster for "Isadora?"

Vanessa reclines with Jason Robards, 1967

In Nothing Like a Dame Jude Dench tells a funny story about a big demonstration in London back in the 60s. Dench was there, Atkins and her first husband (I can't recall if Maggie Smith was there), and of course Vanessa. At some point everyone sat down at Trafalgar Square, then Vanessa was got arrested and remembered she had a matinee. (In the film all four chuckle at that.)

She's a good actress but a total idiot. Her support of the PLO made her look like an antisemite and her atrocious "Zionist hoodlums" Academy Award speech only reinforced the impression that she's an asshole. It also didn't help that a 60 Minutes segment on her showed her at some PLO gathering dancing around with a assault rifle.

[quote]made her look like an antisemite and her atrocious "Zionist hoodlums" Academy Award speech only reinforced the impression that she's an asshole.

First of all, not everyone thought that about her. Where did you get that?

And whatever you may think of her words in 1978, you will have a hard time convincing anyone that she is an asshole.

The end of Atonement brings me to tears. (note THE END if full of major spoilers). Small, but pivotal role. A lesser actor might have ruined it.

R36 The star of the film is required to gush at these publicity events. He describes the ancient Redgrave as "fertile"— which sounds like a euphemism for bored, capricious, 'just doing it for the money', and perhaps, raddled.

R47 There was a time in the drug-addled 70s when she and her Socialist pals had taken over a London theatre and making insane demands. Brits know that she and her father are/were close to mental instability (as well as both being as blind as bats).

Rachel Kempson's memoir puts a brave face on the despair of family life. Despite Michael's and Vanessa's misbehaviour and foolishness they do deserve respect for their work for British theatre and British culture.

"And whatever you may think of her words in 1978, you will have a hard time convincing anyone that she is an asshole."

You don't know much about Vanessa Redgrave, do you? A LOT of people hated her because of her support of the PLO. And only a total asshole would spout off at the Oscars like she did and dance around with a machine gun. Here's some info for you:

When Redgrave was nominated for an Oscar in 1977 for her role in Julia, members of the Jewish Defense League (JDL), led by Rabbi Meir Kahane, burned effigies of Redgrave and picketed the Academy Awards ceremony to protest against her involvement in The Palestinian.[6][7]

Redgrave's performance in Julia received an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. Accepting the award, Redgrave thanked Hollywood for having "refused to be intimidated by the threats of a small bunch of Zionist hoodlums – whose behavior is an insult to the stature of Jews all over the world and to their great and heroic record of struggle against fascism and oppression."

Her remarks brought an outraged on-stage response from screenwriter Paddy Chayefsky, and sparked controversy. One Redgrave biography noted that "The scandal of her awards speech and the negative press it occasioned had a destructive effect on her acting opportunities that would last for years to come."

[quote]Was there ever a movie poster as nineteen-sixties as the poster for "Isadora?"

well yes - many

point made

She does lovely work, yes. Saw her in London in A MADHOUSE IN GOA. By the way, a play well worth seeking out and reading. She elevated it. Saw her leaving the stage door her last NYD appearance, she could not have been more patient with her and, actually listening to what they had to say, looking them in the eyes, she was lovely.

R47 Bullshit, she is golden and everybody hates the murdering zionist hoodlum trash

I adore her. She’s a REAL actress, down to her bones.

In college, a friend of mine used to wait on her every morning in a cafe. When Redgrave found out she was studying acting, she got her a job as an extra for a week. (Redgrave was in town shooting on location.)

I thought that was so kind...it didn’t cost her anything, and was a great thing to do for a waitress/wannabe-actress.

I hear her voice on every episode of Call The Midwife.

She’s really touching in IF THESE WALLS COULD TALK 2, where she plays a lesbian who’s partner dies. All the relatives swoop in and take the house (which isn’t in her name)

So sad ! ! !

[quote]A LOT of people hated her because of her support of the PLO.

Why didn't you say A LOT of people hated her in your original post, R47, instead of making it sound like she's generally hated.

My point was, she is NOT generally hated or thought of as an asshole.

And, yes, I read the Wiki entry you so dutifully copied. (???)

The only thing better than one Smashing Time poster is two of them.

Lynn, though. Not Vanessa.

Take back Vanessa Redgrave

Take back Joe Piscopo

Take back Eddie Murphy

Give 'em all someplace to go . . .

[quote]The only thing better than one Smashing Time poster is two of them.

and better than that - song!

"we look cool though we're all excited, like the in-crowd do"

I adore her. She was brilliant in The Inheritance at the Young Vic earlier this year.

[quote]Her remarks brought an outraged on-stage response from screenwriter Paddy Chayefsky

Paddy Chayefsky died only a few years later.

I saw this at the Crest theater in Denver.

R66 I think that short clip is an accurate portrayal of the pop music industry

She was supernaturally luminous as Andromache in Trojan Women.

Who can forget those Weight Watchers commercials?

She is one lucky bitch to have had Franco Nero throwing her a mean fuck.

I remember being in high school and watching the oscars and thinking Chayevsky’s self-importance was even more insufferable than anything Redgrave said. He was such a hypocrite, doing exactly what he accused her of doing. Plus, other than Marty, his writing was gassy and pretentious.

R56, she ain't "golden", she's a dumb cunt. You sound like quite a piece of trash yourself.

R72 Triggered? Put the gun down and stop shooting children. Oh vey

"I remember being in high school and watching the oscars and thinking Chayevsky’s self-importance was even more insufferable than anything Redgrave said. He was such a hypocrite, doing exactly what he accused her of doing."

Uh, no. Redgrave used the Academy Awards as a political platform. Chayevsky was against using the Academy Awards for that purpose. He was right, and Redgrave came out looking like a total ass. At the after awards parties Redgrave was noticeably avoided by other partygoers. But her dislike of Jews didn't let up. In 1986 she came out in favor of a cultural boycott of Israel. Even Jane Fonda and Tom Haydn took issue with that, releasing a statement that said "We are appalled at Vanessa Redgrave’s attempt to organize a cultural boycott of Israel. We urge all cultural workers to strongly oppose this vicious act and we are confident that it will be rejected by people of conscience everywhere."

[quote]She is one lucky bitch to have had Franco Nero throwing her a mean fuck.

R70, here's Franco Nero as a young man:

Well, R74 - she actually didn't use her speech to promote her political agenda. Once it became apparent she was the frontrunner in the Oscar race in early 1978, a very vocal campaign against her was launched in attempt to intimidate Academy members from voting for her. And yes, Kahana's followers were (and still are) racist hoodlums while being self declared Zionists (Kahana himself was banned by the Knesset, the Israeli Parliament, from being elected by a tailor made law). So, while obviously and rightfully not being happy by those well organized ugly attacks against her, what Redgrave actually did was to congratulated the Academy for not surrendering to political attempts to manipulate its voting. Not a word about the PLO, or North Ireland or any other cause close to her heart. Only celebrating Jews for standing against Fascism. Very classy and gracious.

And in 1982 Jane Fonda actively supported the Israeli Army invading Lebanon (I should remember this - I was in the Israeli army back then - in Lebanon).

Saw her onstage in NY with Eileen Atkins in "Vita and Virginia". Sheer pleasure,

Love this clip from Camelot

R38 Maggie and Vanessa? No comparison. Vanessa is her usual generous self that comes with great artistry.

The Trojan Women put Hormel out of business in the ham department.

Vanessa Redgrave plays Peter O'Toole's ex-wife in the 2006 film, "Venus".

It was O'Toole's final Oscar-nominated performance.

Vanessa, of the actresses nominated for 1968 Oscars, deserved to win, by a mile.

Redgrave is often described as luminescent, incandescent and radiant in a variety of her roles.

For me, she is all that and more as Guinevere in "Camelot". There are scenes in which she is so indescribaby genuine that she lifts the proceedings to the very heights to which Jack Warner aspired for the entire film (despite the silliness of hiring Joshua Logan to direct).

If viewed with an eye only to her participation in the film, she seems to be in a better film being played concurrently from a different universe.

think she's utterly unique and brilliant. And woefully underused.

Evening (2007)

Meryl Streep giving tribute to Vanessa Redgrave - 11/14/11

Vanessa Redgrave Receives BAFTA Fellowship - The British Academy Film Awards 2010

R82, you can't fault the Oscars for giving the win to Katharine Hepburn for 'The Lion In Winter'.

Kate's performance as Eleanor of Aquitaine was probably the best of her career.

Kelly Clarkson gets completely starstruck by Vanessa Redgrave in talk show interview

Singer Kelly Clarkson did not hold back when she visited Scandinavian talk show Skavlan with Oscar winning legendary actress Vanessa Redgrave

Beautifully said, R83.

I met Vanessa Redgrave at the stage door of Driving Miss Daisy. She was so nice, stopped and took my hand in hers talked for a long time. Love her.

Veteran actress Vanessa Redgrave on what inspired her to direct Sea Sorrow

Sea Sorrow (2017)

Not too sure why her Pro PLO stance would shock anyone.

Most Brits who understand the situation are a bit uncomfortable about the Palestinian problem.

Even HM The Queen has never visited Israel.

Maybe she'll send Sparkle for a visit.

R94 No, she won't, cause fuck Israel, says the Queen

Philip and Charles have been. William is there this weekend. But HM Queen is Head of State, so visiting Israel is out.

Thanks for posting that R91.

If she had chosen to take care of herself after her daughter, sister and brother had died, and decided to save energy for her own healing and well-being, it would have been perfectly understandable. That she is still out there giving to the word and sharing with the world is quite moving.

But Prince Philip's mother is buried on the Mount of Olives. My understanding is he has visited her grave once, unofficially.

[bold]On the gayness/bisexuality of her father Michael and her first husband Tony Richardson[/bold]

“Vanessa’s father and her first husband were both extremely influential in the development of her style as an actress. Observing as she did their own personal struggle over their sexuality informs all of her work and particularly the work where she has played gay characters.”

[bold]On her Oscar-nominated performance as the barely repressed lesbian Olive Chancellor in 1984's The Bostonians[/bold]

“This is a beautifully controlled and very suggestive performance. Just look at the way Redgrave’s Olive runs her hand down the breasts of her young charge Verena (Madeleine Potter). In a single gesture, Redgrave epitomizes a whole generation of women who loved other women with all their hearts but could not face the truth about their own sexuality.”

[bold]On her groundbreaking 1986 performance as transgender tennis star Renée Richards in Second Serve[/bold]

“To me, this is her greatest and most empathetic performance on screen. At a time when the struggles of transgender people were only beginning to be understood, Redgrave harnessed all of her own immense imaginative power to portray Richards at all stages of her life with enormous sensitivity.”

[bold]On her performance as literary agent Peggy Ramsay in the classic gay film Prick Up Your Ears[/bold]

“Redgrave gets to be a real earth mother in this picture. I love the naughty-amused way she deals with the cheerful sexual promiscuity of her client Joe Orton (Gary Orton), the acceptance she has of him, and the tender curiosity.”

[bold]On the 1991 TV remake of What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? with her sister Lynn[/bold]

“This movie makes several smart choices, particularly bringing Victor Buono’s mother-dominated character from the original movie out of the closet as an openly gay video clerk played by John Glover.”

[bold]On her appearance with her brother Corin in Noel Coward's A Song at Twilight in 1999[/bold]

“This is a key example of Redgrave’s boldness. She played opposite her own brother as a former lover who attempts to blackmail him about a homosexual affair in his past. What makes this even more dangerous is that Coward was one of their father Michael's major lovers. Michael spent the last night before he left to fight in WWII with Coward, which did not make their mother Rachel happy. Judging from the reviews, the risk here paid off handsomely.”

[bold]On her performance as a lesbian who loses her lover and her home in the “1961” segment of If These Walls Could Talk 2 (2000), which won her a second Emmy[/bold]

“Any person who happens to be against gay marriage for any reason should be shown this 30-minute segment about a woman who loses everything because her relationship has no legal safeguards. Redgrave plays each moment for its maximum impact. She not only illuminates the life of this one martyred woman but all of the lives of all gay and lesbian people who have been shamed and discriminated against. There are many reasons why Redgrave should be a gay icon, but there is none more potent than this.”

Vanessa having a drink with Julian Morris:

Vanessa Redgrave, Imperium, French African artefacts, Sally Rooney

Listen

Vanessa Redgrave receiving Golden Lion Lifetime Achievement Award at Venice, ‘I have this rage inside myself because politicians have lost the understanding of reality in the world. They cannot imagine the reality of being a refugee, being a woman who loses her child at sea.’

The lovely Vanessa has her mother's face but her father's nuttiness.

He declared he was a ‘red-hot Socialist’ in his 20s but came around to accepting a CBE in his 50s.

That picture at R38 is horrendous in its ghastliness.

They look like ancient dinosaurs or characters from Bernard Shaw's "Back To Methuselah"

(Both Maggie and Vanessa played Miss Jean Brodie)

Vanessa Redgrave on why she declined damehood: “I could not and would not accept any honor from Mr. Blair, when he has taken our country, and so many people, to war on the basis of a lie”

Stephen Hawking, Tariq Ali & Vanessa Redgrave, anti-Vietnam war demonstration, Grosvenor Square, London, 1968

I've read that she's incandescent on stage. Wish I had the chance to see her. She could've taken the movie goddess path in her career but that would've been an awful diminution of her talent.

I just hope she gets some more important roles on film before the inevitable end. Her father succumbed to debilitating illness in his sixties.

[quote]That picture at [R38] is horrendous in its ghastliness.

WTF? They look perfectly normal for two elderly ladies.

Vanessa Redgrave....what a lovely, gorgeous, classy lady

She was fucking *FIERCE* on NIP/TUCK... Ryan Murphy wrote her such a delicious part, playing the mother of her real-life daughter Joely Richardson. I will never forget the "plane crash" episode... one of the best eps of a very strong series. The twist when Julia, after having just said her last goodbye to the gruesomely burned corpse of whom she was told was her mother arrives home only to find Redgrave lounging on the couch in a wickedly cruel twist. Her final episode being framed for drug possession at the airport was brilliant, as well. I hope Murphy works with her again and soon (she isn't getting any younger). I wonder if she would be down for AHS? I'd love to see her in a Victorian or Puritan era role, especially (why haven't they done this yet?).

I did love her performance on Nip/Tuck as well. What a great, fascinating character. I feel like Murphy really studied Six Feet Under before doing Nip/Tuck as Redgrave's character was very similar to the monster mother Joanna Cassidy played on Six Feet Under. The twist that had Julia killing an innocent woman, thinking it was her mother, was brilliant but was the first major moment that I can remember where that show began jumping the shark. I don't remember the incident ever being mentioned again after that. Julia just goes back to normal. I found that remarkably lazy.

My first introduction to Redgrave was as a kid watching Shelley Duvall's Faerie Tale Theatre. Redgrave played the evil queen in the Snow White episode and was so deliciously hammy. Vincent Price was her magic mirror and you could tell they were having a ball. I'd love for them to bring that show back. They always got the most exciting and surprising array of actors to star in those and they always seemed to be having so much fun.

Agreed on Redgrave's scenery-chewing on FAERIE TALE THEATRE, R118! Fabulous.

Also, you're spot-on about Murphy/SFU... he has spoken of the influence of that show and cited it as one of his favorite series. Say what you want about him, but you can tell he is a big TV fan and actually does watch a ton of stuff, which is sort of crazy given how many projects he is always working on simultaneously. It was so wise to give Redgrave the biggest reveal of an intentionally over-the-top nighttime soap series (revealing to Sean that Christian was Matt's father, and that Redgrave had also fucked Christian... at Julia & Sean's wedding, no less (!)). So amazing. I'm inspired to re-watch her eps just thinking about it. Sucks that Netflix doesn't carry the series anymore (it was one of their very first series, and my first binge way back when). Hopefully all of his series will be available in perpetuity now that he is there and will have his own "Ryan Murphy" genre/channel. Fingers crossed.

Those first 2 seasons of Nip/Tuck were really something special. 3 was fairly strong, but 4 was when it turned into a glorified Love Boat with a new star appearing in every episode. The later seasons are nearly unwatchable. I'm glad Vanessa wasn't asked to participate in those awful seasons. It was bad enough when they brought back the divine Famke Janssen for that lousy series finale and gave her zilch to do.

I remember seeing her described as the best actress in the world in the early 1970s. It was true then, and true now.

Yes, Redgrave and Janssen's big scene in S2 was *SO* epic. Girl got read! Says a lot about Janssen's abilities that she could own a scene with someone as high caliber as Redgrave... then again, she was the best part and the most fascinating character on the series (which is saying a lot given this show). TBH I actually loved Season 5 (both parts) when they moved to LA and Bradley Cooper became a regular. I found S4 underwhelming. The LA move is when the show become total camp and ridiculously over-the-top, but I totally loved it... especially Eden Lord (what a name) played by AnnaLynne McCord. Too bad she never came back. Murphy totally dropped the ball with the final season, though... Matt the mime? But, Redgrave deigned to come back, actually, if you remember, R120. Murphy was doing GLEE and they waited an entire year before airing the final 10 episodes, which was a mistake and all momentum was lost. The finale was lame, agreed.

R118, Redgrave was great and a side note. When the mirror tells her that Snow White is the fairest in the land, Redgrave throws an orange at him. Apparently, in an outtake, she hit him so hard that they couldn't use it. You can see that she just misses him but Price is definitely scared she's going to hit him again.

Charlton Heston was one of her biggest fans. He said she was the greatest actress in the world and although they were polar opposites on politics, they were also best friends because they never talked politics. She was often in his productions in LA.

Did she return after season 3 for Nip/Tuck? I can't remember her at all after that.

I love Redgrave. She has such incredible charisma, and in a way, I think she'sactually more beautiful in her old age than she was a young actress.

Those blue, blue eyes!

R123 Thanks for the mention about Heston. When I read what he said, many years ago, it redeemed him somewhat in my eyes.

As an elder frau, and as someone who had lived in the Middle East, the 1972 Munich Olympic massacre really poisoned so many minds against Palestinians that it was anathema to say anything critical about Israel. That a monster like Meyer Kahane should have any credibility is atrocious.

One of Redgrave's recent projects was "Man In An Orange Shirt" where Julian Morris played her gay grandson.

There's a photo of them together at R106.

Yes, R124. Redgrave returns in S6 for an ep, married to a (closeted) pedophile.

Aside from Vanessa's speech, notice how when the nominees names are read each one of them looks glum and there's no hooting and hollering and thunderous applause from the audience for each actress. People were so respectful and reserved back then. And I forgot that Leslie Browne was nominated for The Turning Point. She was lovely in that movie.

She fucking sucked, r129!

Woah! How did I not remember Vanessa returning to Nip/Tuck towards the end? Everything after season 4 was such a big, campy blur. I remember Sharon Gless playing a psycho who stuffed an agent like he was a Build-A-Bear and I remember Famke returning and the ending being altogether disappointing and that's about it.

Ryan Murphy wrote the episode, as well. Some very bitchy and biting exchanges, plus the pedophile husband plot is a delightfully ironic twist (remember Vanessa plays a world renown child psychiatrist). The final season wasn't as bad as I remember (just re-watched Vanessa's episodes), but the show had lost its way by then and became too bleak and cruel (Matt as a prison bitch begging Sean for breast implants?). Julia plants coke in Vanessa's bag after a vicious altercation and Vanessa is arrested at the airport and that's her send-off. A truly fitting ending to a cruel and manipulative vampire of a mother.

Oh, I remember Vanessa on that show now. I remember her getting stopped for the coke. By that point, I think I'd be rolling my eyes every episode for 2 seasons. It was easy to miss something.

"Only celebrating Jews for standing against Fascism. Very classy and gracious."

"Zionist hoodlums" isn't exactly a "classy and gracious" expression intended to be "celebrating Jews." She supported an organization that vowed to destroy Israel. She has no love for Jews. What a bitch.

R134 Nobody likes zionists, wake up

The people I admire most are those who struggle for everyone

I love both Vanessa and Michael Redgrave. . . but I have to say that slogan at R136 does seem a little meaningless.

Michael had to be sent to a nursing home in the 70s after he was crippled with illness and his family had to apply for a public pension to keep him there.

Yet Vanessa now has a net worth of $20 million.

Both Vanessa and Michael are (and were) incredibly shortsighted. Short-sighted intellectually and optically.

Neither got eye surgery because neither of them stayed in Hollywood for more than a year. They always had to remove their eyeglasses to be photographed.

Here's the lovely Michael removing his eyeglasses to be photographed in this silent footage at the 3.50 mark

She claims to be against fascism and yet she happily supported NATO's bombing of Serbia in 1999. I lost a lot of respect for her then.

[quote] Yet Vanessa now has a net worth of $20 million.

I don't believe she has that much cash. She gives a lot to charity and she has said herself, many a time, that she had to work because she needs the money. She lives in modest flat.

I understand that bombing a country is not the most noble way to end a conflict, but no one wanted Kosovo to become another Bosnia, R139.

Let me try that again.

She gives a lot to charity and she has said herself, many a time, that she had to work because she needed the money. She lives in a modest flat.

Vanessa is now the eldest in the Redgrave dynasty.

I fear that Death is awaiting and a-stalking.

Well, Death got Burt first.

Respect for, if nothing else, the fact she snagged the hotness that is Franco Nero.

Yes, R145.

Nero & Redgrave starred together in "Letters To Juliet" (2010).

It also features the cute Australian twink, Chris Egan, as her grandson.

I posted a photo at R8.

Worth watching for the Tuscan scenery, too.

Vanessa Redgrave was thrice-blessed at birth.

First. She was daughter to a handsome mother and a beautiful father— whose surname was as poetic and aesthetic as he was.

Second. Vanessa was endowed with a mellifluous name at birth in memory of her father’s idol, the painter Vanessa Bell.

And third. Her birth was announced on stage of the Old Vic Theatre by Laurence Olivier, a man equally blessed, a handsome-beautiful man, a man of quicksilver Promethean energy.

If Vanessa and/or Meryl are the greatest living actresses, why are so few of their films and performances memorable?

I find actresses that are never mentioned in such lofty terms to have many more beloved roles in iconic films on their resumes.

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I can never post a direct link to a Daily Fail photo. How do you do it, R149?

R150 You need to treat the Daily Mail with respect.

It takes an irreverent view on most things and it has the best pictures. One shouldn't rely on it alone as a news source because EVERY single supplier nowadays pushes its own bias.

[post redacted because linking to dailymail.co.uk clearly indicates that the poster is either a troll or an idiot (probably both, honestly.) Our advice is that you just ignore this poster but whatever you do, don't click on any link to this putrid rag.]

[quote]here's Franco Nero as a young man:

Here's an even better one R75 (from the movie A Quiet Place in the Country, costarring Redgrave) . . .

Sharon Gless bear stuffing killing scene is the best part of the NipTuck.

I was lucky enough to see her onstage, twice.

She was wonderful in her solo show, “The Year of Magical Thinking,” on Broadway in 2006. I went, after losing a partner a few months before, and loved her rawness. So valid. I even got the few bits of humor. (Unlike the rest of the sold-out audience, who were oh-so-reverent.)

But the best performance of hers I ever saw was in 1985 in London, when she played Arkadina, in a revival of “The Seagull.” Incredible. Jonathan Pryce was Trigorin, and the two of them did a definitive Act III, when he tries to distance himself away from her. She pulled out all the stops as a desperate, aging woman, terrified of being abandoned. Her final gesture,as her claw-like arms enfold him, and she intoned to the sky, “He’s mine!”, were chilling. Amazing work.

That production at the time was touted more for the debut of Redgrave’s daughter, Natasha Richardson, as Nina, in a role which had brought he mother acclaim back in the 60’s. (Too bad the all-star movie version in 1968, with Vanessa as Nina, turned out to be a turgid bore. TCM shows it now and then.) I barely remember Natasha in that at all. But her mother was superb.

And the poster above was right. Her presence in “Camelot” transcends the film. The only time the film reaches brilliance is the “Love Montage,” following “If Ever I Would Leave You,” ending with an image of them clinging to each other in an ornate metal cage in an abandoned, overgrown aviary. Brilliant image. Immensely helped by the musicianship of music director Alfred Newman. (However, Redgrave was never a singer, and the recordings of her songs were actually a sonic patchwork of bits and pieces of her voice, a nightmare for the sound engineers to accomplish. Nero was simply dubbed, but who cared! He was so gorgeous!)

I would love to have seen Vanessa onstage as Jean Brodie.

R156 I also would love to have seen Vanessa to see if she gave a different interpretation.

Some people say Brodie was a monster who used her pupils to feed her battered-ego. I enjoy watching Maggie Smith in the movie with so much pleasure that I can't even see this negative aspect to her character.

[quote]And the poster above was right. Her presence in “Camelot” transcends the film. The only time the film reaches brilliance is the “Love Montage,” following “If Ever I Would Leave You,” ending with an image of them clinging to each other in an ornate metal cage in an abandoned, overgrown aviary. Brilliant image. Immensely helped by the musicianship of music director Alfred Newman.

The losses in her life were so big, nearly all at once. To have lost Lynne so young, a sister confidant, acting royalty herself was just too much cruelty. The Redgraves were very personally identified with a part of Hells Kitchen - how lucky we were to be able to share the memory Of this wonderful theater royalty. Funny how we think of Vanessa, as much as she would hate those words they certainly fit the best.

Love you Vanessa - you blessed us all with your brilliance.

[R158]: Thanks for the clip, but the sequence in the film continues with a montage of the two of them in different seasons, ending with their virtual captivity in that or ate cage.

Luminous and crazy as a hatter.

One thing I kind of slyly admire about her is she was offered HOWARD’S END many times before they finally came up with enough money for her. Merchant & Ivory put together great films on a shoestring, and paid their actors pennies. Redgrave was older by then, and she wasn’t being a diva, but she simply wasn’t interested in working for free.

I like that she wasn’t willing to be exploited in that way. That’s fine when your young and need exposure, or a prestige credit. But she was VANESSA REDGRAVE already.