Corin Redgrave

Corin William Redgrave (born 16 July 1939) is an English actor and political activist.

Biography

Family

Redgrave was born in Marylebone, London, the son of actors Sir Michael Redgrave and Rachel Kempson (Lady Redgrave). He represents the third generation of an acting dynasty that includes his daughter Jemma Redgrave, an actress and a son, Luke, a camera operator and production assistant.

Career

He has played a wide range of character roles on film, television and stage. He has written a biography of his father and a play Bluntly Speaking, which has been produced at the Chichester Festival Theatre.

Corin won the Olivier Award for his performance as Boss Whalen in Tennessee Williams' Not about Nightingales. He later repeated the role on Broadway, where he won a Tony Award nomination. He has appeared in Shakespearean plays such as Much Ado About Nothing, Henry IV, Part 1, and The Tempest. He also gained critical and popular approval in the works of Noel Coward, notably a highly successful revival of A Song At Twilight co-starring his sister Vanessa Redgrave and wife Kika Markham.

On screen he is best known for his roles in such acclaimed and diverse films as A Man for All Seasons, Excalibur, and Four Weddings and a Funeral.

Family

He has a son Luke Redgrave and a daughter Jemma Redgrave by his first wife, Deirdre Hamilton-Hill (1943-1997). He also has two sons, Arden and Harvey Redgrave, by his second wife, actress Kika Markham. His daughter Jemma is best known for her title role in the British television series Bramwell.

Politics

Redgrave has been a lifelong activist in left-wing politics. With his elder sister Vanessa, he was a prominent member of the Workers' Revolutionary Party. Much more recently, he has also become a defender of the interests of the Romani people.

Health problems

In June 2005, he was described by his family as being in a "critical but stable" condition in hospital following a severe heart attack. Redgrave had also been undergoing treatment for an unspecified form of cancer (his first wife, Deirdre Redgrave, died of cancer and his sister, Lynn, is in remission from breast cancer for which she was treated in recent years).

In March 2009 Corin made his return to the London stage playing the title role in Trumbo, based on the life of the blacklisted Hollywood screen writer of the same name. On opening night Corin dedicated his performance to the memory of Natasha Richardson, his niece, who had died earlier that week following a skiing accident.

External links

• Corin Redgrave at the Internet Movie Database