Corin Redgrave was a renowned British actor, born on July 16, 1939, in London, England, to renowned actors Sir Michael Redgrave and Rachel Kempson. He was the middle brother of his more internationally famous sisters, Vanessa Redgrave and Lynn Redgrave, who achieved widespread celebrity on the American stage, film, and TV.
Corin was a treasured actor in England, building an enviable career on the British stage. Like his sister Vanessa, he was a fiery and impassioned political radical, embracing a host of liberal causes during his lifetime. He was a potent member of the Workers' Revolutionary Party and supported a motion to impeach Prime Minister Tony Blair following the British participation in the war in Iraq.
Corin's early political activism impeded his nascent progress as an actor at the time, explaining the late bloom of his career. He founded the Peace and Progress Party in 2004, along with Vanessa, which offered several candidates for the 2005 national election.
Corin's first stage appearance was at the Royal Court Theatre in 1961, portraying Lysander in "A Midsummer Night's Dream." He went on to appear in "Twelfth Night," "Chips with Everything," and "The Right Honourable Gentleman." He joined the Royal Shakespeare Company for the 1972 season, playing Octavius in "Julius Caesar" and "Antony and Cleopatra."
Corin appeared in several of his sisters' films, including "A Man for All Seasons," "The Charge of the Light Brigade," and "Oh! What a Lovely War." He made his debut in the unmemorable "Crooks in Cloisters" (1964) and showed up with Vanessa in "The Deadly Affair" (1967).
Corin enjoyed a rare lead movie role in the Australian-made "Between Wars" (1974) and appeared in the well-received "Excalibur" (1981) before making a strong impression in the Daniel Day-Lewis starrer "In the Name of the Father" (1993).
Corin and his sister Vanessa founded the Moving Theatre company in 1993, which proved an exciting and creative outlet for their acting and directing ambitions. He went on to portray a critically acclaimed King Lear and appeared opposite Vanessa and his second wife Kika Markham in a successful revival of Noël Coward's "A Song at Twilight."
Corin was an occasional playwright and authored a well-received book about his tormented father, "Michael Redgrave: My Father," which was hailed for its candid examination of both his father's bisexuality and BBC "blacklisting" for his alleged ties with the Communist party.
Corin was plagued by illness in the millennium. He was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2000 and suffered a serious heart attack in 2005. Rebounding, he appeared in the one-man play "Tynan" in 2007 and made a triumphant return to the London stage in late March 2009, playing the title role in "Trumbo."
Corin was married twice, first to former model Deirdre Hamilton-Hill, with whom he had two children, and then to actress Kika Markham, with whom he had two more sons. Thriving on stage, TV, and film as late as 2009, Corin died in a London hospital after a short illness in April 2010, at the age of 70.
