Michael Redgrave ranks with Olivier, Gielgud and Richardson as one of the great British actors of the 20th century. Married to the actress Rachel Kempton, he also fathered a dynasty of actors, Vanessa, Corin and Lynn Redgrave and their children including actors Joely and Natasha Richardson. Redgrave played all the great Shakespearean roles, was considered the greatest English actor in Chekhov, and had an impressive film career (that included his debut in Hitchcock's celebrated THE LADY VANISHES). Then, in his prime, he contracted Parkinson's disease and was no longer able to learn new roles. He wrote his memoirs, but these were noted as much for what he left out, including details of his complex and unconventional private life. Strachan had exclusive access to the papers recently sold to the Theatre Museum, enabling him to write this 'splendid, thorough and insightful biography' [Literary Review]