Corin William Redgrave (16 July 19396 April 2010) was an English actor. He was also a left-wing activist, co-founding the Marxist Party with his sister Vanessa Redgrave.
Early life Redgrave was born in Marylebone, London, the only son and middle child of actors Michael Redgrave and Rachel Kempson. He was educated at Westminster School and King's College, Cambridge.
Career Redgrave played a wide range of character roles on film, television and stage.
On stage, he was known for performances of Shakespeare (such as Much Ado About Nothing, Henry IV, Part 1, Antony and Cleopatra, and The Tempest) and Noël Coward (a highly successful revival of A Song At Twilight co-starring his sister Vanessa Redgrave and his second wife, Kika Markham).
For his role as the prison warden Boss Whalen in the Royal National Theatre production of Tennessee Williams's Not About Nightingales, Redgrave was nominated for an Evening Standard Award, and after a successful transfer of the production to New York, he received a Tony Award nomination for Best Actor in a Play, in 1999. Two years later he starred in the original London production of The General from America as Benedict Arnold. When the play transferred to Broadway the following season Redgrave switched roles and portrayed George Washington.
In 2005, Redgrave had just finished an engagement playing the lead in King Lear with the Royal Shakespeare Company in London when he suffered a severe heart attack. In 2008, he returned to the stage in a highly praised portrayal of Oscar Wilde in the one-man-play De Profundis. In 2009, he starred in Trumbo, which opened only hours after the death of his niece, Natasha Richardson.
On screen, he was cast in such films as A Man for All Seasons (1966) as Thomas More's son-in-law, William Roper; the highly praised Australian "flop" Between Wars (1974) as a renegade psychiatrist; Excalibur (1981) as the doomed Cornwall; In the Name of the Father (1993) as the corrupt lead police investigator; Persuasion (TV, 1995) as the foolish Sir Walter Eliot; and Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994) as Hamish, the fiancé and sometime husband of Andie MacDowell's character.
Redgrave appeared in British television programmes such as Ultraviolet, The Vice, Trial & Retribution, Shameless, Foyle's War, The Relief of Belsen, The Ice House and the Emmy Award-winning telefilm The Girl in the Cafe, in which he played the prime minister. He took the lead part of Sir George Grey in the New Zealand TV miniseries The Governor (1977).
He wrote a play called Blunt Speaking, in which he performed at the Minerva Theatre (a second stage of the Chichester Festival Theatre) between 23 July - 10 August 2002.
Politics Redgrave was a lifelong activist in left-wing politics. With his elder sister Vanessa, he was a prominent member of the Workers' Revolutionary Party. After the WRP's collapse, he was involved with the Marxist Party, which the two siblings founded.
Redgrave and his second wife, Kika Markham, expressed support for activist group Viva Palestina, led by British MP George Galloway, attempting to break the blockade of the Gaza Strip. He was also a defender of the interests of the Romani people.
Family
Redgrave was part of the third generation of a theatrical dynasty spanning four generations. His parents were Sir Michael Redgrave and Rachel Kempson; Vanessa and Lynn Redgrave were his sisters. His first marriage was to Deirdre Deline Hamilton-Hill (1939–1997). They had a daughter, actress Jemma Redgrave, and a son. Redgrave and Hamilton-Hill divorced in 1975. Redgrave and Kika Markham married in 1985 in Wandsworth, London, and remained together until Redgrave's death. The couple had two sons.
He wrote a memoir about his strained relationship with his father, Michael Redgrave - My Father, which incorporates passages from Michael's diaries. It also reveals his father's bisexuality.
Health problems and death
Redgrave was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2000, which continued to affect him until he died in 2010. In June 2005, his family said he was in critical but stable condition in hospital following a severe heart attack at a public meeting in Basildon, Essex. In March 2009, Redgrave returned to the London stage playing the title role in Trumbo, based on the life of the blacklisted Hollywood screenwriter Dalton Trumbo. On the opening night, Redgrave dedicated his performance to the memory of his niece Natasha Richardson, who had died earlier that week in a skiing accident.
He died on 6 April 2010 in St George's Hospital, Tooting, south London. His funeral was held on 12 April 2010 at St Paul's, Covent Garden, London, and he was interred on the eastern side of Highgate Cemetery.
His sister Lynn Redgrave died of breast cancer on 2 May 2010, less than a month after her brother. Markham's memoir of her husband, Our Time of Day: My Life with Corin Redgrave, was published in 2014.
Select stage work
Henry IV Part I Anthony and Cleopatra The Seagull Not About Nightingales A Song at Twilight The General From America De Profundis Trumbo The Norman Conquests
Filmography Year Title Role Notes 1964 Camera Three Pilot Officer TV series (1 episode: "Chips with Everything") The Avengers Quentin Slim TV series (1 episode: "Lobster Quadrille") Crooks in Cloisters Brother Lucius 1965 A Study in Terror Rupert's Friend Uncredited The Big Spender Copley TV series 1966 A Man For All Seasons Roper 1967 The Deadly Affair Terry 1968 The Gambler Mr. Astley TV mini-series (1 episode: "Episode No. 1.1") The Charge of the Light Brigade Cpt. Featherstonhaugh Theatre 625 Kelvin Walker TV series (1 episode: "The Fall of Kelvin Walker") The Girl with the Pistol Frank Hogan Mystery and Imagination Jonathan Harker TV series (1 episode: "Dracula") The Magus Captain Wimmel 1969 The Tenant of Wildfell Hall Arthur Huntingdon TV series (3 episodes) Oh! What a Lovely War Bertie Smith Tower of London: The Innocent Perkin Warbeck TV film Canterbury Tales Nicholas TV series (1 episode: "Episode No. 1.2") ITV Sunday Night Theatre Willie Tatham TV series (1 episode: "Aren't We All?") 1970 David Copperfield James Steerforth TV film The Wednesday Play Richard TV series (1 episode: "Rest in Peace, Uncle Fred") Callan Amos Green TV series (1 episode: "Amos Green Must Live") Paul Temple Rolf TV series (2 episodes) 1971 When Eight Bells Toll Hunslett Von Richthofen and Brown Major Lanoe Hawker VC La vacanza Gigi Hassan TV film 1972 Thick as Thieves Trevor TV film 1974 Anthony and Cleopatra Octavius Between Wars Dr. Edward Trenbow 1976 Sérail Eric Sange 1976 The Governor Governor George Grey New Zealand mini-series 1981 Excalibur Cornwall 1982 L'ombre sur la plage Harry 1983 Eureka Worsley Wagner Dr. Pusinelli TV series (1 episode: "Episode No. 1.1") 1990 The Fool Sir Thomas Neathouse 1993 In The Name of The Father Robert Dixon 1994 Four Weddings and a Funeral Hamish 1995 Persuasion Sir Walter Eliot Performance Angelo / Earl of Worcestor TV series (2 episodes) Dangerfield Patrick Hooper TV series (1 episode: "The Unfaithful Husband") Circles of Deceit: Dark Secret Harry Summers TV film England, My England William of Orange 1996 Indecent Acts Oscar Wilde 1997 The Woman in White Dr. Kitson TV film The Ice House D.C.I. George Walsh TV film Prime Suspects Commissioner Trial & Retribution Robert Rylands QC TV series (5 episodes: 1997–2002) The Opium War William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Melbourne 1998 Ultraviolet Dr. Paul Hoyle / John Doe TV series (2 episodes) 1999 The Vice Lord Buller TV series (2 episodes) Kavanagh QC John Woodley TV series (1 episode: "The More Loving One") The Strange Case of Delphina Potocka or The Mystery of Chopin Judge 2000 Honest Duggie Ord Escape to Life: The Erika and Klaus Mann Story Narrator 2001 Enigma Admiral Trowbridge Gypsy Woman Devine 2002 Shackleton Lord Curzon TV film Sunday Edward Heath TV film Bertie and Elizabeth General Montgomery TV film The Forsyte Saga Jolyon Forsyte Sr. TV mini-series (4 episodes) Close Your Eyes Chief Inspector Clements Waking the Dead Sir James Beatty TV series (2 episodes) 2003 To Kill a King Baron Vere Imagine Sir John Soane TV series (1 episode: "Entertaining Mr. Soane") Foyle's War ACC Rose TV series (2 episodes) 2004 Shameless Mr. Hammersley TV series (1 episode: "Episode No. 1.5") Enduring Love Professor Spooks David Swift TV series (1 episode: "Episode No. 3.4") 2005 The Trial of the King Killers Sir Orlando Bridgman The Girl in the Cafe Prime Minister TV film 2006 Welcome to World War One short 2007 The Relief of Belsen Glyn Hughes TV film 2008 La rabbia Producer 1 2009 The Calling The Bishop Glorious 39 Oliver The Turn of the Screw Professor TV film 2010 Eva Moving On Gabe TV series (1 episode: "The Test") (final appearance)
See also List of British actors References
External links
BBC Radio Plays by Corin Redgrave
BBC News obituary Obituary in Socialist Worker Obituary on the World Socialist Web Site