Famous English actress Vanessa Redgrave was born January 30, 1937 in London, England. During the early to mid 1900s, the Redgrave's were one of the UK's most loved and well respected acting families.

Vanessa's father, Sir Michael Redgrave, was a talented actor who worked alongside such legends as Laurence Olivier.

Vanessa's entire family, past and present, were talented actors. Her sister Lynn appeared in films and on stage, and her brother Corin was a widely successful stage director and stage actor. After marrying actor Tony Richardson in the 1960s, Vanessa had two children, Natasha and Joely Richardson, who are both respected actors.

Growing up in such a family, Vanessa knew acting is what she wanted to do at an early age. Much of her childhood was spent watching her mother and father on the stage, as well as watching her family's friends on the big screen, and by the time she was 20, Vanessa debuted in 1957's play, A Touch of the Sun.

She landed her first acting job in part because her father also starred in it, but in her first feature film, Behind the Mask, Vanessa had to prove her worth. Even though her 1958 film debut was mildly successful, Redgrave chose to stick to stage work throughout much of the 1960s. She was part of the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in 1960.

Vanessa didn't decide to make the big leap into motion pictures until 1966. Within two short years, Redgrave worked nonstop and appeared in four motion pictures that would quickly cement her reputation as a great actress with a commanding screen presence. Among her 1966 films were Morgan, Blow-Up and A Man for All Seasons.

The rest of the 1960s would only offer bigger and better things for a young Redgrave. In 1968, after starring as dancer Isadora Duncan in Isadora, she received an Oscar nomination for Best Actress. She received another nomination in the early 1970s for her role in Mary, Queen of Scots.

Throughout the 70s, Vanessa starred in a handful of successful pictures, and even won her first Oscar for Best Supporting Actress in 1977's Julia. Redgrave continued to act throughout the 1980s and starred in a slue of Oscar-nominated pictures.

Like many actors and actresses of that era, Vanessa was also well known for her political activism. Controversial for a child of privilege in the UK, Redgrave was a very outspoken advocate in favor of the Irish Republican Army (IRA), thought by many to be nothing more than a terrorist organization.

She also ran for British Parliament as a Workers' Revolution Party candidate, and although she was unsuccessful, she continued to remain outspoken on matters close to her heart and produced a bevy of documentaries showcasing her views: The Fifth War, Occupied Palestine, Can't They Put Humans First, and Wake Up, World.

Even though her particular ideology took a toll on her career, Redgrave still continues to act today, starring in the successful television series Nip Tuck, and she even has five new films currently in the works, including an as yet unnamed feature where she'll play Queen Elizabeth.