Dame Vanessa Redgrave is an English actress known for her roles on stage and screen. She has won several accolades including an Academy Award, a BAFTA Award, two Primetime Emmy Awards, two Golden Globe Awards, an Actor Award, a Laurence Olivier Award, and a Tony Award as well as a nomination for a Grammy Award. Redgrave is one of the few actresses to have won the Triple Crown of Acting having won a competitive Oscar, Emmy, and Tony Award. She has been honored with the BFI Fellowship in 1988, the BAFTA Fellowship in 2010 and the Honorary Golden Lion in 2018. In 2022 she made a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth II.
On film, Regrave earned early acclaim and rose to prominence for playing an upper class wife in the British comedy Morgan – A Suitable Case for Treatment (1966) for which she received the Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Actress as well as nominations for the Academy Award, BAFTA Award, Golden Globe Award for Best Actress. She played Guinevere in the musical fantasy romance Camelot (1967) earning a nomination a Golden Globe Award. She portrayed Isadora Duncan in the biographical drama Isadora (1968) for which she won her second Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Actress as well as nominations for the Academy Award and a Golden Globe Award. She played the title role in the historical drama Mary, Queen of Scots (1971) earning nominations for the Academy Award and Golden Globe Award for Best Actress.
She gained acclaim for her portrayed of a wealthy American who becomes involved in anti-Nazi resistance efforts in Europe during the 1930s in the political drama Julia (1977) for which she won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress and the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress – Motion Picture. She played a spinster during the suffrage movement in the Merchant-Ivory costume drama The Bostonians (1984) earning the National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Actress as well as nominations for the Academy Award and the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress. For her portrayal of Peggy Ramsay in the Stephen Frears directed British film Prick Up Your Ears (1987) she was nominated for a BAFTA Award. She played a quiet and wealthy owner of the titular estate in the Merchant-Ivory film Howards End (1992) earning a nomination for an Academy Award. For playing a terminally ill wife in Little Odessa (1994) she won the Volpi Cup for Best Actress. She played the older Briony in the romantic war drama Atonement (2007) for which she was nominated for the Critics' Choice Movie Award.
On television, she gained acclaim for her portrayal of Fania Fénelon in the CBS film Playing for Time (1980) for which she won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Miniseries or Movie. She played part of a elderly lesbian couple in the HBO film If These Walls Could Talk 2 (2000) earning the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Miniseries or Movie, the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress – Series, Miniseries or Television Film, and the Actor Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Miniseries or Television Movie. She portrayed Clementine Churchill, the wife of Winston Churchill in the HBO film The Gathering Storm (2002) for which she was nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award, British Academy Television Award, Golden Globe Award, and Actor Award.
On stage, she started her career on the West End earning the Laurence Olivier Award for Actress of the Year in a Revival for playing Miss Tina, a naive niece in the Henry James play The Aspern Papers (1984). She was Olivier-nominated for her roles in A Touch of the Poet (1988), John Gabriel Borkman (1997), and The Inheritance (2019). On Broadway she earned the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play playing Mary Tyrone in the revival of the Eugene O'Neill play Long Day's Journey into Night (2003). She was Tony-nominated for playing Joan Didion in her memoir play The Year of Magical Thinking (2007) and playing a snooty elderly southern woman in the Alfred Uhry play Driving Miss Daisy (2011).
Major associations Academy Awards Year Category Nominated work Result 1966Best Actress Morgan – A Suitable Case for Treatment 1968 Isadora 1971 Mary, Queen of Scots 1977 Best Supporting Actress Julia 1984 Best Actress 1992 Best Supporting Actress Howards End
BAFTA Awards Year Category Nominated work Result British Academy Film Awards 1966 Best British Actress Morgan – A Suitable Case for Treatment 1987 Best Actress in a Supporting Role Prick Up Your Ears 2010 BAFTA Fellowship British Academy Television Awards 1966Best Actress 2003
Critics' Choice Awards Year Category Nominated work Result Critics' Choice Movie Awards 2007 Best Supporting Actress Atonement
Emmy Awards Year Category Nominated work Result 1981 Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited Series or Special Playing for Time 1986 Outstanding Lead Actress in a Miniseries or Special Second Serve Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Miniseries or Special Peter the Great 1991 Young Catherine 2000Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Miniseries or Movie If These Walls Could Talk 2 2002 Outstanding Lead Actress in a Miniseries or Movie
Golden Globe Awards Year Category Nominated work Result 1966 Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Comedy or Musical Morgan – A Suitable Case for Treatment 1967 Camelot 1968 Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama Isadora 1971 Mary, Queen of Scots 1977 Best Supporting Actress – Motion Picture Julia 1984 Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama 1986 Best Actress – Miniseries or Television Film Second Serve 1987 Best Supporting Actress – Motion Picture Prick Up Your Ears 1988 Best Actress – Miniseries or Television Film 1995 Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Comedy or Musical 1997 Best Actress – Miniseries or Television Film Bella Mafia 2000 Best Supporting Actress – Television If These Walls Could Talk 2 2002 Best Actress – Miniseries or Television Film
Grammy Awards Year Category Nominated work Result 2002 Best Spoken Word Album for Children Oscar Wilde: The Selfish Giant & The Nightingale And The Rose
Actor Awards Year Category Nominated work Result 2000 Outstanding Actress in a Miniseries or Television Movie If These Walls Could Talk 2 2002 2007 2013 Outstanding Cast in a Motion Picture The Butler
Laurence Olivier Awards Year Category Nominated work Result 1984Best Actress in a Revival The Aspern Papers 1988 A Touch of the Poet 1997 Best Actress John Gabriel Borkman 2019 Best Supporting Actress The Inheritance
Tony Awards Year Category Nominated work Result 2003Best Actress in a Play Long Day's Journey into Night 2007 The Year of Magical Thinking 2011 Driving Miss Daisy
Miscellaneous awards Organizations Year Category Nominated work Result Cannes Film Festival 1966Best Actress Morgan – A Suitable Case for Treatment 1969 Isadora 2017 Golden CameraSea Sorrow Golden Eye Venice Film Festival 1994 Volpi Cup for Best Actress Little Odessa 2018 Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement David di Donatello 1972 Best International Actress Mary, Queen of Scots Goldene Kamera 1992 Best International Actress Young Catherine / Howards End London Film Critics Circle 2007 Best British Supporting Actress Atonement Los Angeles Film Critics Association 1977 Best Supporting Actress Julia Satellite Awards 2000 Satellite Award for Best Actress – Miniseries or Television Film If These Walls Could Talk 2 2002 2010 Satellite Award for Best Supporting Actress – Motion Picture Letters to Juliet 2011 Coriolanus National Society of Film Critics 1969 Best Actress Isadora 1977 Best Supporting Actress Julia 1984Best Actress The Bostonians 1985 Wetherby New York Film Critics Circle 1972 Best Actress Mary, Queen of Scots 1977 Best Supporting Actress Julia 1987 Best Supporting Actress Prick Up Your Ears
Other theatre awards Organizations Year Category Nominated work Result Drama Desk Awards 1997Outstanding Actress in a Play Antony and Cleopatra 2003 Long Day's Journey into Night 2007 Outstanding Solo Performance The Year of Magical Thinking 2013 Outstanding Actress in a Play The Revisionist Evening Standard Awards 1961Best Actress As You Like It 1979 The Lady from the Sea 1985 The Seagull 1991 When She Danced
Honorary awards Organization Year Honor Result British Film Institute 1988 BFI Fellowship Boston Film Festival 1995 Film Excellence Award San Sebastian Film Festival 1999 Donostia Award GLAAD Media Award 2001 Excellence in Media Award Hollywood Film Festival 2002 Capri Legend Award American Theatre Hall of Fame 2003 Inductee Bratislava International Film Festival 2005 Artistic Excellence Award British Academy of Film and Television Arts 2010 BAFTA Fellowship Brunel University 2011 Honorary Doctor of Letters International Antalya Film Festival 2015 Lifetime Achievement Award Evening Standard Theatre Award 2015 Editor's Award European Film Academy 2023 Lifetime Achievement Award Venice International Film Festival 2018 Honorary Golden Lion Queen Elizabeth II 2022 Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire
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See also Vanessa Redgrave filmography