Boston Globe (22/Mar/1985) - Obituary: Sir Michael Redgrave

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• article: Obituary: Sir Michael Redgrave
• author(s): Matt Wolf
• newspaper: Boston Globe (22/Mar/1985)
• keywords: Alfred Hitchcock, John Gielgud, Laurence Olivier, Michael Redgrave, Peggy Ashcroft, The Lady Vanishes (1938)

Article

Obituary: Sir Michael Redgrave

Sir Michael Redgrave, the British film and stage actor, died yesterday. He was 77.

Sir Michael, who had suffered 12 years from Parkinson's disease, died in The Nursing Home at Denham in the county of Buckinghamshire, west of London, said his agent, Anne Hutton.

Sir Michael, one of the most accomplished actors of a generation that includes Sir Laurence Olivier and Sir John Gielgud, starred in dozens of plays and movies. Sir Michael's film career ranged from Alfred Hitchcock's "The Lady Vanishes" to the classic thriller "Dead of Night" in which he played a ventriloquist haunted by his own dummy.

"The Go-Between" and "Nicholas and Alexandra" marked the end of his film career with the onset of Parkinson's disease, a degenerative disorder characterized by tremors and muscular rigidity.

Sir Michael was esteemed for his performances in the plays of Shakespeare, Chekhov and T.S. Eliot. His stage work included many Shakespearean triumphs, while his performances as Vanya in Chekhov's "Uncle Vanya" and Solness in Ibsen's "The Master Builder" in the 1960s were regarded as the definitiveinterpretations.

Illness had kept him off the stage since the 1970s, but in 1983 he published his autobiography, "In My Mind's Eye."

Born Michael Scudamore Redgrave in Bristol on March 20, 1908, he was the son of actors George Ellworthy Redgrave and Margaret Scudamore, and became the father of actresses Vanessa and Lynn Redgrave, as well as a son, Corin, who was an actor before going into politics.

Vanessa Redgrave's daughters by director Tony Richardson, Joely and Natasha Richardson, carry on the acting tradition. Natasha Richardson played Ophelia in a 1985 Young Vic "Hamlet." Joely Richardson appeared opposite her mother in the 1985 film "Wetherby," playing her mother's character as a young woman. A grandson, Carlo Redgrave Nero, had a part in the 1976 film "Bugsy Malone."

Sir Michael served in the Royal Navy during World War II, but not before he faced, as he put it, "my 20 minutes in politics." The actor became known, briefly, as "Red Redgrave" in 1941 for endorsing an antiwar, Communist-front organization. He was banned by the British Broadcasting Corp. until Prime Minister Winston Churchill opposed the ban.

The actor was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 1959.

Sir Michael made his first stage appearance as a babe in arms in Melbourne when his parents were touring Australia.

Discouraged from acting by his mother who — Sir Michael recounted in an interview with the Times of London — thought him "too tall to make a success," the six-footer graduated from Cambridge University and began teaching modern languages.

In 1934, an amateur interest in the theater turned professional and Sir Michael joined the Liverpool Playhouse Company in Northern England. There he played opposite — and later married — actress Rachel Kempson.

In 1936, the couple moved to London and Sir Michael began a career in the classics. He made his debut in London as Ferdinand in a 1936 Old Vic production of "Love's Labors Lost," and received early praise for many of his partnerships: as Orlando to Dame Edith Evans's Rosalind in "As You Like It," Laertes to Lord Olivier's Hamlet, and Antony to Dame Peggy Ashcroft's Cleopatra.

In an interview on his 70th birthday, Sir Michael said: "I'm not going to pretend that this is an easy or especially happy time for me. 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."

In 1977, critic Sheridan Morley characterized Sir Michael as one of a generation of actors who "played as if it was their duty to light up the sky around their theaters." His stage image was "an aristocratic mein coupled with tortured sensibility," the Times of London wrote.

In addition to adapting Henry James to the stage and dictating his autobiography to his son, Sir Michael wrote a novel called "The Mountebank" as well as two books on acting, "Mask or Face" and "The Actor's Ways and Means."

Directing assignments in the theater and in opera included "Werther" and "La Boheme" at England's distinguished summer opera festival in Glyndebourne.