 |
| Michael Redgrave. Photo courtesy Fandom |
By Albin Krebs
Sir Michael Redgrave, one of Britain's preeminent stage actors and a leading film star since his hero's role in Alfred Hitchcock's 1938 classic ''The Lady Vanishes,'' died yesterday, a day after his 77th birthday.
Sir Michael, the patriarch of the Redgrave acting dynasty that includes his daughters Vanessa and Lynn, his son Corin, a grandson and two granddaughters, had been suffering from Parkinson's disease for 12 years.
The actor, one of the most accomplished of a generation of knighted actors including Lord Olivier, Sir John Gielgud, Sir Alec Guinness and the late Sir Ralph Richardson, entered a nursing home in Denham, west of London, several weeks ago. Corin Redgrave was at his side when he died.
The actress Rachel Kempson, Sir Michael's wife, recently seen on American television in the series ''The Jewel in the Crown,'' was in London rehearsing for a television program.
Family Returning to London
Vanessa Redgrave, a nominee for the Academy Award for best actress for her performance in ''The Bostonians,'' was in Los Angeles for next Monday night's Oscar presentations, but left for London on learning of her father's death. Lynn Redgrave, in New York rehearsing for next month's Broadway opening of ''Aren't We All,'' said she would probably go to London.
A tall, almost gangling, but extremely handsome actor with a sensitive face, a noble bearing and an appealing voice, Sir Michael was described by one critic as having the stage image of ''an aristocratic mien coupled with a tortured sensibility.''
He was self-taught in his profession, but he admired and read the works of Stanislavsky. He wrote two books, ''The Actor's Ways and Means'' and ''Mask or Face,'' about the acting craft. He also wrote a novel, ''The Mountebank,'' and, in 1983, an autobiography, ''In My Mind's Eye.''
After Sir Michael contracted Parkinson's disease, an incurable affliction of the nervous system, his acting career, which had encompassed dozens of stage and film roles, all but ended.
'Amazement and Gratitude'
''I'm not going to pretend that this is an easy and especially happy time for me,'' he said. ''For a long time nobody understood the Parkinson's condition, and doctors thought I was just forgetful or drunk, and even now the work isn't easy. But when I do look back, it's almost always in amazement and gratitude at the way my career has gone and the people I've been allowed to know.''
The grandson of a playwright, Michael Scudamore Redgrave was born March 20, 1908, in Bristol, England. His father, the actor Roy Redgrave, and his mother, the actress Margaret Scudamore, took him on tours of Britain and Australia, and he made his stage debut in his infancy.
When he reached the height of six feet, his mother thought he was too tall to go on the stage, and she sent him to Cambridge. For three years after graduation he taught modern languages and wrote for newspapers, but in 1934 his interest in acting led him to the Liverpool Playhouse Company, where he played opposite and later married Miss Kempson.
In 1936, Sir Michael joined the Old Vic, making his debut in ''Love's Labour's Lost.'' His rise was meteoric, as he received praise for his Orlando to Dame Edith Evans's Rosalind in ''As You Like It,'' Antony to Dame Peggy Ashcroft's Cleopatra, and Laertes to Laurence Olivier's Hamlet.
Birth of 'A Great Actress'
The night of Vanessa Redgrave's birth in 1937, Sir Michael was onstage with Olivier, and at the end of the performance, Olivier told the audience, ''Tonight a great actress has been born.'' In 1978 Sir Michael said he believed Vanessa had proved Lord Olivier right, but added ruefully, in reference to her left-wing enthusiasms, ''there are some days when her politics drive me mad.''
Sir Michael himself had a regrettable ''20 minutes in politics,'' he said in 1941, when he was called briefly ''Red Redgrave'' for endorsing an antiwar Communist-front group. He was banned from the British Broadcasting Corporation, but Prime Minister Winston Churchill quickly overruled the BBC. Sir Michael served in the Navy during the war.
Sir Michael's films included ''A Stolen Life,'' ''The Stars Look Down,'' ''Thunder Rock,'' ''Dead of Night,'' ''The Captive Heart,'' ''Fame Is the Spur,'' ''The Browning Version,'' ''The Quiet American,'' ''The Wreck of the Mary Deare'' and ''The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner.''
Sir Michael was nominated for an Academy Award in 1947 for his role as Orin Mannon in ''Mourning Becomes Electra'' opposite Rosalind Russell. His last films were ''The Go-Between'' and ''Nicholas and Alexandra'' in 1971, at which time his illness forced him to confine his work to radio.
Shakespeare on Stage
Throughout his film career, which flourished in the 1950's and 60's, the distinguished and versatile actor, who was knighted in 1959, continued to play Shakespearean stage roles. His performances in the title role of Chekhov's ''Uncle Vanya'' and in Ibsen's ''Master Builder'' in the 1960's were regarded as definitive.
The Redgrave family's acting torch seems in no danger of being extinguished with Sir Michael's death. Not only are his two daughters and son comfortably established in their profession, but his grandchildren are already out of the wings.
Carlo Redgrave Nero, Vanessa's son by the actor Franco Nero, appeared in the 1978 movie ''Bugsy Malone.'' Natasha Richardson, Vanessa's daughter by her ex-husband, the director John Richardson, appeared recently as Ophelia in the Young Vic company's production of ''Hamlet.'' And Natasha's sister, Joely, recently appeared in the film ''Wetherby,'' in which she played Vanessa Redgrave's character as a child. Lynn Redgrave's daughter has so far shown no interest in acting.
First published at The New York Times, March 22, 1985