Redgrave played a wide range of character roles on film, television and stage. On stage, he was noted for performances by Shakespeare and Noël Coward. For his role as the prison warden Boss Whalen in the Royal National Theatre production of Tennessee Williams's Not About Nightingales, Redgrave was nominated for an Evening Standard Award, and after a successful transfer of the production to New York, he received a Tony Award nomination for Best Actor in a Play, in 1999. Two years later he starred in the original London production of The General from America as Benedict Arnold. When the play transferred to Broadway the following season Redgrave switched roles and portrayed George Washington. In 2005, Redgrave had just finished an engagement playing the lead inKing Lear with the Royal Shakespeare Company in London when he suffered a severe heart attack. In 2008, he returned to the stage in a highly praised portrayal of Oscar Wilde in the one-man-play De Profundis. In 2009, he starred in Trumbo, which opened only hours after the death of his niece, Natasha Richardson. On screen he is best known for his roles in such acclaimed and diverse films as A Man for All Seasons as Thomas More's son-in-law, William Roper; Excalibur as the doomed Cornwall; In the Name of the Father as the corrupt lead police investigator; Persuasion as the foolish Sir Walter Eliot; and Four Weddings and a Funeral as Hamish, the fiancée of Andie MacDowell's character. Redgrave appeared in British television programmes such as Ultraviolet, The Vice, Trial & Retribution, Shameless, Foyle's War, The Relief of Belsen, The Ice House and the Emmy Award-winning telefilm The Girl in the Cafe, in which he played the prime minister. He took the lead part of Sir George Grey in the New ZealandTV miniseriesThe Governor. He wrote a play called Blunt Speaking, in which he performed at the Minerva Theatre between 23 July - 10 August 2002.
Corin Redgrave was part of the third generation of a theatrical dynasty spanning four generations. His parents were Sir Michael Redgrave and Rachel Kempson; Vanessa and Lynn Redgrave were his sisters. His first marriage was to Deirdre Deline Hamilton-Hill. They had a daughter, actress Jemma Redgrave, and a son, Luke, a camera operator and production assistant. Redgrave and Hamilton-Hill divorced in 1975. Redgrave and Kika Markham married in 1985 in Wandsworth, London, and remained together until Redgrave's death. The couple had two sons, Harvey and Arden. He wrote a memoir about his strained relationship with his father entitled Michael Redgrave - My Father, which incorporates passages from Michael's diaries. It also revealed his father's bisexuality.
Health problems and death
Redgrave was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2000, which continued to affect him until he died in 2010. In June 2005, he was described by his family as being in a critical but stable condition in hospital following a severe heart attack at a public meeting in Basildon, Essex. In March 2009, Redgrave returned to the London stage playing the title role in Trumbo, based on the life of the blacklisted Hollywood screenwriter Dalton Trumbo. On the opening night, Redgrave dedicated his performance to the memory of his niece Natasha Richardson who had died earlier that week in a skiing accident. He died on 6 April 2010 in St George's Hospital, Tooting, South West London. His funeral was held on 12 April 2010 at St Paul's, Covent Garden, London, and he was interred at Highgate Cemetery. His ex-wife Deirdre died of cancer in 1997. His sister Lynn Redgrave died of breast cancer on 2 May 2010, less than a month after her brother. Kika Markham's memoir of her husband, Our Time of Day: My Life with Corin Redgrave, was published in 2014.
