Audiobook: Vanessa Redgrave In Her Own Words

Vanessa Redgrave was born into the celebrated Redgrave acting dynasty, whose members included her father Michael and brothers Lyn and Corin. She started studying at the Central School of Speech and Drama in 1954 and performed in her first West End role four years later. Her first starring role was in 1960, in Robert Bolt's The Tiger and the Horse, but it was her performance as Rosalind in As You Like It the following year that brought her to the attention of the public and critics. She became one of the most celebrated stars of the stage during the Sixties, and it was merely the start of a theatre career that was to last over five decades. Her performance in the title role of The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie was highly acclaimed, as were her numerous Shakespeare roles, and in 1984 she won the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actress in a Revival for her role in The Aspern Papers. She won a Tony Award in 2003 for her performance in Long Day's Journey Into Night on Broadway, and in 2006 she was awarded the Ibsen Centennial Award for her many outstanding performances in Ibsen plays. Her 2007 performance as Joan Didion in The Year of Magical Thinking won her the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding One-Person Show, and in 2010 she was voted the ninth greatest stage actor of all time in a poll for The Stage. She made her film debut in 1966 in Morgan: A Suitable Case for Treatment, which saw her nominated for an Oscar. Other notable film roles followed, including Blow-Up, Isadora and Mary, Queen of Scots. In 1977, she starred in Julia, playing an anti-Fascist murdered by the Nazis in the run-up to World War II, and the same year made a documentary, The Palestinian, about the Palestinian Liberation Organisation. The latter film was highly controversial, leading to Redgrave being threatened by the Jewish Defence League. When she won an Oscar for Julia, members of the JDL picketed the ceremony and burned effigies of Redgrave to protest against her for supporting the Palestinian cause. However, Redgrave was undaunted and continued to appear on screen. Among her later films are The Bostonians, Howards End, Atonement and Lee Daniels' The Butler. On television, she has been seen in If These Walls Could Talk 2, which won her a Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actress in a TV series; as Clemmie Churchill in The Gathering Storm; as Dr. Erica Noughton in Nip/Tuck and as the mature Jenny in Call the Midwife. In her long and distinguished career, Vanessa Redgrave has won over 40 awards, including the 'Triple Crown' (Academy Award, Emmy Award and Tony Award wins). In 2010, she was presented with a lifetime achievement award, the BAFTA Fellowship, by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts.