Michael Redgrave

Sir Michael Scudamore Redgrave CBE (20 March 1908 – 21 March 1985) was an English actor and filmmaker.

He graduated with a third-class degree in 1931.

Redgrave taught modern languages at Cranleigh School in Surrey for three years before becoming an actor in 1934.

He directed the boys in Hamlet, King Lear and The Tempest, but played all the leading roles himself.

Redgrave made his first professional appearance at the Playhouse in Liverpool on 30 August 1934 as Roy Darwin in Counsellor-at-Law (by Elmer Rice), then spent two years with its Liverpool Repertory Company where he met his future wife Rachel Kempson.

They married on 18 July 1935.

Offered a job by Tyrone Guthrie, Redgrave made his professional debut in London at the Old Vic on 14 September 1936, playing Ferdinand in Love's Labours Lost.

During 1936–37 he also played Mr Horner in The Country Wife, Orlando in As You Like It, Warbeck in The Witch of Edmonton and Laertes to Laurence Olivier's Hamlet.

His hit of the season was Orlando.

Edith Evans was his Rosalind and the two fell very much in love.

As he later explained: "Edith always had a habit of falling in love with her leading men; with us it just went rather further."

As You Like It transferred to the New Theatre in February 1937 and Redgrave again played Orlando.

At the Embassy Theatre in March 1937, he played Anderson in a mystery play, The Bat, before returning to the Old Vic in April, succeeding Marius Goring as Chorus in Henry V.

Other roles that year included Christopher Drew in Daisy Fisher's comedy A Ship Comes Home at the St Martin's Theatre in May and Larry Starr in Philip Leaver's comedy Three Set Out at the Embassy in June, before joining John Gielgud's Company at the Queen's Theatre, September 1937 to April 1938, where he played Bolingbroke in Richard II, Charles Surface in The School for Scandal and Baron Tusenbach in Three Sisters.

Other roles included:

Once the London theatres were re-opened, after the outbreak of war, he played:

Redgrave joined the Royal Navy as an ordinary seaman in July 1941, (HMS Illustrious (87)) but was discharged on medical grounds in November 1942.

Having spent most of 1942 in the Reserve he managed to direct Lifeline (Norman Armstrong) starring Frank Pettingell at the Duchess Theatre in July; and The Duke in Darkness (Patrick Hamilton) starring Leslie Banks at the St James's Theatre in October, also taking the role of Gribaud.

Resuming his stage career he played/directed:

He received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance in Mourning Becomes Electra (1947), as well as two BAFTA nominations for Best British Actor for his performances in The Night My Number Came Up (1955) and Time Without Pity (1957).

Joining the Old Vic Company at the New Theatre for its 1949–50 season, he played:

At the 4th Cannes Film Festival, he won Best Actor for his performance in The Browning Version (1951).

Redgrave was born in Bristol, England, the son of actress Margaret Scudamore and the silent film actor Roy Redgrave.

Roy left when Redgrave was six months old to pursue a career in Australia.

He died when Redgrave was 14.

His mother subsequently married Captain James Anderson, a tea planter.

Redgrave greatly disliked his stepfather.

Redgrave attended Clifton College in Bristol.

Redgrave joined the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre company at Stratford-upon-Avon and for the 1951 season appeared as Prospero in The Tempest as well as playing Richard II, Hotspur and Chorus in the Cycle of Histories, for which he also directed Henry IV Part Two.

After appearing as Frank Elgin in Winter Journey at the St James's April 1952, he rejoined the Stratford company in 1953 (together with his actress wife Rachel Kempson) appearing as Shylock, King Lear and Antony in Antony and Cleopatra, also playing Antony when the company transferred to the Prince's Theatre in November 1953 before touring in the Netherlands, Belgium and Paris, in 1958 he played Hamlet with Googie Withers appearing as his mother at Stratford on Avon.

At the Apollo in June 1955 he played Hector in Tiger at the Gates, appearing in the same role at the Plymouth Theatre, New York City in October 1955 for which he received the New York Critics' Award.

While in New York he directed A Month in the Country at the Phoenix Theatre in April 1956, and directed and played the Prince Regent in The Sleeping Prince with Barbara Bel Geddes at the Coronet Theatre in November 1956.

Returning to London in January 1958, Redgrave appeared as Philip Lester in A Touch of the Sun (N. C. Hunter) at the Saville Theatre.

He won Best Actor in the Evening Standard Awards 1958 for this role.

He rejoined the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre Company in June 1958, to play Hamlet and Benedick, also playing Hamlet with the company in Leningrad and Moscow in December 1958.

Clifton College Theatre was opened in 1966 by Redgrave as the first purpose-built school theatre in the country.

After his death, the building was renamed The Redgrave Theatre in his honour.

Upon leaving Clifton, Redgrave went on to study the modern languages and English triposes at Magdalene College, Cambridge.

Under the direction of Dadie Rylands, he garnered great acclaim for his starring roles on the Cambridge stage as Edgar, Prince Hal and Captain Brassbound.

Alongside the art historian Anthony Blunt and schoolfriend Robin Fedden, Redgrave also edited an avant-garde literary magazine called The Venture, which published work by Louis MacNeice, Julian Bell and John Lehmann.