Trivia

Lost her daughter, Natasha Richardson, on March 18, 2009 as the result of a skiing accident at Mont Tremblant, Quebec.

(March 2009 - May 2010) Lost her daughter Natasha Richardson, her younger brother and sister, Corin Redgrave and Lynn Redgrave, in the space of just 14 months. Corin and Lynn died within a month of one another.

(1971-1986) Was in a long relationship with former James Bond actor Timothy Dalton.

First met long time partner Timothy Dalton on the set of Mary, Queen of Scots (1971) in 1970. Their relationship reportedly blossomed after a heated 6 hour argument regarding the true meaning of Hamlet's "To be or not to be" speech.

After filming Mary, Queen of Scots (1971), The Devils (1971) and The Trojan Women (1971), she suffered a miscarriage in 1971. It was a boy and would have been her and Franco Nero's second child.

After filming The Trojan Women (1971), Katharine Hepburn favored Vanessa Redgrave over all actresses and later remarked that she was, "A thrill to look at and to listen to.".

Didn't attend the Academy Awards ceremony, the year her performance in The Bostonians (1984) was nominated because her father had died a few days prior. She was in Los Angeles at the time of his death attending Academy functions and conferences and flew back to the UK.

Her appearance with husband-to-be Franco Nero in Uninvited (1999), marked the only time the couple were directed by their only son Carlo Gabriel Nero.

She speaks Italian and French fluently.

After the death of her daughter, she subsequently dropped out of Ridley Scott's Robin Hood (2010) in which she had a supporting role. Eileen Atkins replaced her.

She allegedly refused the British honour of Dame of the order of the British Empire in 1999.

She suffered a near-fatal heart attack in April 2015 and gave up smoking after being diagnosed with emphysema. She revealed her lungs are only working at 30% capacity.

Both she and sister Lynn Redgrave were nominated for the 1967 Best Actress Academy Award. Vanessa was nominated for Morgan! (1966) and Lynn for Georgy Girl (1966). They both lost to Elizabeth Taylor, who won for Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966).

Refused to accept any money for her role as Anne Boleyn in A Man for All Seasons (1966).

Is one of 17 actresses to have won the Triple Crown of Acting (an Oscar, Emmy and Tony); the others in chronological order are Helen Hayes, Ingrid Bergman, Shirley Booth, Liza Minnelli, Rita Moreno, Maureen Stapleton, Jessica Tandy, Audrey Hepburn, Anne Bancroft, Maggie Smith, Ellen Burstyn, Helen Mirren, Frances McDormand, Jessica Lange, Viola Davis and Glenda Jackson.

Won Broadway's 2003 Tony Award as Best Actress (Play) for a revival of Eugene O'Neill's "Long Day's Journey Into Night."

Both she and her daughter Joely Richardson have played an historical queen who was executed by beheading. Redgrave played the title character in Mary, Queen of Scots (1971) while her daughter played Marie Antoinette in The Affair of the Necklace (2001).

Appeared as an illustration on the cover of Time magazine (March 17, 1967) with sister Lynn Redgrave. Both sisters had just been respectively Oscar-nominated for Morgan! (1966) and Georgy Girl (1966).

Named Jeanne Moreau as co-respondent in her 1967 divorce from Tony Richardson on grounds of adultery.

She was awarded the Laurence Olivier Theatre Award in 1985 (1984 season) for Best Actress in a Revival for "The Aspern Papers".

Picked by Walt Disney to become a Live Reference Model for 'Alice' in Alice in Wonderland (1951). Before leaving London for shooting, Vanessa started to sleepwalk. Due to this, her parents refused to send her. Kathryn Beaumont got the gig instead.

When director David Hare and producers of "The Year of Magical Thinking" were thinking of an actress to cast in their one-woman show, they could only think of one name, and that was Redgrave. They said that only she could tackle the range of emotion created by the character.

She worked with her mother Rachel Kempson in The Charge of the Light Brigade (1968) and Déjà Vu (1997) and her father Michael Redgrave in Oh! What a Lovely War (1969).

In 2003, she became the sixteenth performer to win the Triple Crown of acting. Oscar: Best Supporting Actress, Julia (1977), Tony: Best Actress-Play, "Long Day's Journey into Night" (2003), and Emmys: Best Actress-Limited Series/Special, Playing for Time (1980) & Best Supporting Actress-Miniseries/Movie, If These Walls Could Talk 2 (2000).

Is mentioned, along with Joe Piscopo and Eddie Murphy, in the song "Jammin' Me" by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers.

She and her brother, the late Corin Redgrave, both appeared in films based on the legend of "King Arthur". Vanessa played "Queen Guinevere" in Camelot (1967) while Corin played "Lord Cornwall" in John Boorman's Excalibur (1981).

She and her daughter Joely Richardson played Queen Elizabeth I in Anonymous (2011).

On a June 2005 appearance on Larry King Live (1985), she expressed her fondness for the movie Meet the Fockers (2004) and said that the film should have won an Academy Award.

Claims to be on hit-list of neo-Nazi group Combat 18. (February 1997)

Received The Helen Hayes award nomination for her work in Hecuba. This play was a major success. It was so well received that the BAM theater in New York scheduled it for two weeks and it went on to being performed in Delphi.

Voted by Entertainment Weekly as one of the 25 greatest Actresses

Was offered the role of Margaret More in A Man for All Seasons (1966) but she turned it down due her commitments to the theatre and opted for the cameo role of Anne Boleyn instead. Susannah York was cast as Margaret More instead.

She played the mother of her real life niece Jemma Redgrave in Howards End (1992).

She was made a CBE (Commander of the Order of the British Empire) in the 1967 Queen's Birthday Honours List for services to drama. She later claimed that she deeply regretted accepting this award, and it is believed that she declined the offer of a damehood in 1999. However, she accepted this latter honour when it was offered to her again over twenty years later.

Started own political party in the UK to be focused on human rights violations. It is called Peace and Progress Party, it will field candidates in the next British general election.

She was awarded the 1985 London Critics Circle Theatre Award (Drama Theatre Award) for Best Actor in The Seagull.

In 1962, she became one of the first celebrities to visit communist Cuba.

Appeared on "BBC News 24" Breakfast and stated that the massacre of Russian school children by Chechen guerrillas was not an act of terrorism. (4 September 2004).

She was the first of the only four actresses to win the Best Actress award twice at Cannes Film Festival. She won for Morgan! (1966) in 1966 and Isadora (1968) in 1968. The others are: Isabelle Huppert for Violette (1978) in 1978 and The Piano Teacher (2001) in 2001; Helen Mirren for Cal (1984) in 1984 and The Madness of King George (1994) in 1995; Barbara Hershey for Shy People (1987) in 1987 and A World Apart (1988) in 1988.

Plays mother to real-lifer daughter Joely Richardson in a few episodes of Nip/Tuck (2003).

Fought to stop an open air gold mine in Romania. She was met with protest, but ignored it all.

Was set to star in Dario Argento's Opera (1987), but dropped out shortly before production was scheduled to commence.

Along with Claude Rains ( for Mr. Skeffington (1944)), Kate Winslet (for Iris (2001)), Mare Winningham (for Georgia (1995)) and Philip Seymour Hoffman (for The Master (2012)), she is one of the few performers to be nominated for an Supporting Oscar (for Julia (1977)) for playing the title role in a movie. As of 2013, Redgrave is the only one to win.

Won the Drama Desk award in 2007 for Best Actor in a Solo performance for "The Year of Magical Thinking". She also received her second Tony award nomination for Best Actress for the same play.

She was considered for the role of Tsarina Alexandra in Nicholas and Alexandra (1971) before Janet Suzman was cast. Her father Michael Redgrave played Sergey Sazonov in the film.

First performer to win two individual Acting Awards at the Cannes Festival. (Dean Stockwell won twice at the festival before, but he had to share both of his awards with his co-stars)

Was the 80th actress to receive an Academy Award; she won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for Julia (1977) at The 50th Annual Academy Awards (1978) on April 3, 1978.

Trained for the stage at the Central School for Speech and Drama in London, and in 1959 became a member of the Stratford-Upon-Avon Theatre Company.

Nominated for the 2007 Tony Award (New York City) for Actress in a Drama for "The Year of Magical Thinking".

As of 2016 she is the 10th earliest surviving recipient of a Best Actress Oscar nomination, tied with Anouk Aimée and behind only Olivia de Havilland, Leslie Caron, Carroll Baker, Joanne Woodward, Shirley MacLaine, Doris Day, a tied Piper Laurie and Sophia Loren, Julie Andrews, and a tied Julie Christie and Samantha Eggar.