RACHEL KEMPSONRachel Kempson, who died on 24 May, 2003 five days short of her 93rd birthday, was a fine actress on her own right, but it is as the founder of an acting dynasty that she will be remembered.Her marriage to actor Sir Michael Redgrave bore three of the most respected actors of our time, and she left both stage and screen a little less bright with her demise.Many will also remember her for her role as Lady Manners in hit mini-series ‘The Jewel in the Crown,’ and for the classic ‘Out of Africa’ which swept the board at the 1986 Academy Awards.Although her husband’s assorted infidelities and bisexuality inevitably brought some distress, she remained forever devoted to her family and often sacrificed her career in order to care for their unusually talented three children.Born on 28 May, 1910, in Dartmouth, England, Ms Kempson was encouraged to act at an early age by neighbour and retired actor, Cyril Maude.She trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) and proved so capable that, after her graduation, went on to make her stage debut at the revered Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford-Upon-Avon. She stayed for two seasons, winning critical acclaim for her performances as Shakespeare favourites, Ophelia, Juliet and Hero.It was with a move to Liverpool Playhouse in 1935 where she met future husband Michael Redgrave, a former schoolmaster in his first year on stage. They were married that very same year and Ms Kempson took a break from her career to have three children, Vanessa, Corin and Lynn.Her film debut came in 1941 in the romantic comedy ‘Jeannie’, which also starred husband Redgrave, who, later that year, was called up for the Navy. He was later released, however, on medical grounds and, in 1944, he and Ms Kempson appeared together on-stage in ‘Uncle Harry’ at the Garrick Theatre.By 1953, she was back at the RSC where she played Queen Elizabeth II in Richard III. Two further roles here in Anthony and Cleopatra and King Lear secured her place as one of Britain’s best-loved talents.In the latter years of his life, Sir Redgrave (knighted in 1959) suffered from Parkinson’s disease and died in 1985, aged 77, only four months before the couple’s 50th wedding anniversary.Ms Kempson herself died suddenly of a stroke at the New York home of granddaughter, Natasha Richardson, on 24 May 2003.Of Ms Kempson’s relatively few film performances, the most notable and best-loved were ‘Tom Jones’ alongside daughter Lynn, ‘The Charge of the Light Brigade’ and ‘Out of Africa.’She published her autobiography, ‘Life Among the Redgraves’, in 1986, detailing her loving but difficult marriage to Michael Redgrave.Today, her family’s acting legacy has continued to expand into the next generation, with grandchildren Natasha Richardson, Joely Richardson and Jemma Redgrave all prominent actors.With her death, son Corin Redgrave remarked that Ms Kempson would always be remembered as a, “shiningly beautiful woman both in face and spirit.”
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