Redgraves rocked again as Lynn, 67, dies

ACTRESS Lynn Redgrave died yesterday in New York aged 67, the third member of the famous acting dynasty to die in the past year.

The award-winning British film and stage actress passed away after fighting a long battle with breast cancer.

She had also struggled to come to terms with the recent tragic death of her niece Natasha Richardson and brother Corin, who passed away aged 70 last month.

Redgrave died at her home in Connecticut, her publicist Rick Miramontez said. She had been treated for breast cancer over the past several years after being diagnosed in 2003.

In a joint statement, her three children said: "Our beloved mother Lynn Rachel passed away peacefully after a seven year journey with breast cancer."

Lynn was an introspective and independent player in her family's acting dynasty who became a 1960s sensation as the freethinking title character in the film Georgy Girl. Later she dramatised her troubled past in one-woman stage performances including Shakespeare For My Father and Nightingale.

In 1967 Lynn married the British actor and director John Clark. Together they had three children, Benjamin (born in 1968), Kelly (1970), and Annabel Lucy (1981), a professional photographer in Manhattan. The marriage ended in divorce in December 2000.

The British actress' death comes a year after her niece Natasha Richardson died from head injuries sustained in a skiing accident and just a month after the death of her older brother, Corin Redgrave.

The youngest child of Michael Redgrave and Rachel Kempson, Lynn Redgrave never quite managed the acclaim – or notoriety – of elder sibling Vanessa Redgrave.

However, she received Oscar nominations for Georgy Girl and Gods And Monsters, and Tony nominations for Mrs Warren's Profession, Shakespeare For My Father and The Constant Wife.

Tributes to the actress were paid by leading figures in British film and theatre yesterday.

Director Michael Winner, who cast Redgrave in one of her first movies, said she had been "a joy".

He said: "This is terrible news, I've known her for more than 50 years. She was a phenomenal actress, she could do comedy, tragedy – anything really – with absolute ease.

"I cast her in her first film as an extra in Shoot To Kill in 1960. Even then you could see she had a bubbly quality.

"I couldn't at the time have predicted she would go on to have the huge success she did though.

"She was a wonderful person and a brave woman involved in many causes. She wasn't facile – she didn't only care about fame."

Her death came only weeks after that of her brother Corin Redgrave.

Mr Winner added: "Unfortunately these things often happen in batches."

Her friend Sir Michael Parkinson expressed his sadness at the news.

He said: "She was maybe the jolliest and most likeable of all the family. She was a lovely, funny, open character, she was very easy to get on with.

"She was a good actress, but being a Redgrave I suppose she couldn't help it – it's in their blood, in their marrow.

"She had a great comedic talent."

The family's acting ties span three generations and have produced some of the UK's finest stage and screen talent.

The dynasty began in 1935 with the marriage of Sir Michael Redgrave and Rachel Kempson.

Sir Michael was a celebrated star of both the silver screen and the theatre, and renowned as a director, author and manager.

His marriage to Kempson, an actress, produced three children, Vanessa, Corin and Lynn, who all went on to enjoy celebrated acting careers.