Lynn Redgrave, 1943-2010. R.I.P.

Actress Lynn Redgrave died yesterday after a long battle with breast cancer. She was 67.

She was, of course, part of the Redgrave acting dynasty and enjoyed an acting career that lasted nearly half a century. Redgrave would earn two Academy Award nominations more than three decades apart. She was nominated for Best Actress for the 1966 film Georgy Girl and in 1998 would receive a Best Supporting Actress nomination for Gods & Monsters. Redgrave also starred in the CBS TV series House Calls from 1979 to 1982.

But Redgrave did most of her work on the stage both in London and in New York. In 1992, she would co-write a play with her husband John Clark (with whom she would later divorce acrimoniously) called Shakespeare For My Father, a one woman play documenting her relationship with her father Sir Michael Redgrave.

When I think of Lynn Redgrave I think of when she spoke out against her older sister Vanessa Redgrave in 1991 for her stance on the Gulf War. At the time, the Redgraves were appearing together in Chekov's Three Sisters in London and Vanessa had been outspoken against the U.S. led incursion into Kuwait. On top of that, the elder Redgrave had blamed Israel for the conflict. It proved to be too much for Lynn who told New York Post gossip columnist Cindy Adams, "[We are] not one person, one voice. We are two separate people. I'm thinking of changing my name to add my husband John Clark's name. The waters are being muddied. I want them not to muddy me."

This is the second time death has hit the Redgrave family in a month. Redgrave's older brother Corin died suddenly on April 6th.