Corin Redgrave Biography

Corin William Redgrave (16 July 19396 April 2010) was an English actor and far-left political activist.

Early life

Redgrave was born on 16 July 1939 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 noted for performances by Shakespeare (such as Much Ado About Nothing, Henry IV, Part 1, Antony and Cleopatra, and The Tempest) and Nol 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 is best known for his roles in such acclaimed and diverse films as A Man for All Seasons (1966) as Thomas More's son-in-law; William Roper, Excalibur (1981) as the doomed Cornwall, In the Name of the Father (1993) as the corrupt lead police investigator, Persuasion and Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994) as Hamish, the fiance 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. (review The Mail on Sunday, 28 July 2002)

Politics

Redgrave was a lifelong activist in far-left politics. With his elder sister Vanessa, he was a prominent member of the Workers' Revolutionary Party. Later, after the collapse of the WRP, he was involved with the Marxist Party, which the two siblings founded.

Both Redgrave and his second wife, Kika Markham, expressed support for activist group Viva Palestina, led by British MP George Galloway, attempting to break the siege of the Gaza Strip. He was also a defender of the interests of the Romani people.

Family

See Redgrave family for more information Corin 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 (1939–1981). They had a daughter, actress Jemma Redgrave, and a son, Luke, a camera operator and production assistant. 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, Harvey (born 1979) and Arden (born 1983).

He wrote a memoir about his strained relationship with his father entitled Michael Redgrave - My Father, which incorporates passages from Michael's diaries. It also revealed 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, he was described by his family as being in a 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 West London. His funeral was held on 12 April 2010 at St Paul's, Covent Garden, London and was interred at Highgate Cemetery.

His ex-wife Deirdre died of cancer in 1997. His sister Lynn Redgrave died of breast cancer on 2 May 2010, less than a month after her brother. Kika 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

Filmography

Year	Film	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	The Deadly Affair	David
	A Man For All Seasons	Roper
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	Srail	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 - Wedding Two
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)
	Doctor Sleep	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 television appearance)