English actor and director Michael Redgrave was BOTD in 1908. Born in Bristol to a family of actors, he studied at Clifton College and Cambridge University, performing in student theatre. He made his professional acting debut in 1934 with the Liverpool Repertory Company, where he met his wife, actress Rachel Kempson. He worked extensively with Laurence Olivier at the Old Vic and in John Gielgud’s theatre company, joining the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre in the 1950s. A leading man with the face of a character actor, he moved fluently between comedy and tragedy, specialising in Shakespeare, Restoration comedies and Chekhov. His first major film role was in Alfred Hitchcock’s 1938 thriller The Lady Vanishes, and made his Hollywood debut 1947’s Mourning Becomes Electra, earning him an Oscar nomination. He is best known for playing a repressed schoolteacher in Anthony Asquith‘s 1951 film The Browning Version, based on Terence Rattigan’s play. He and Asquith reunited for a celebrated 1952 film of Oscar Wilde‘s comedy The Importance of Being Earnest, in which Redgrave played Jack Worthing. He made vivid appearances in films The Dambusters, The Quiet American, The Innocents, The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner and The Go-Between. Redgrave and Kempson had three children, Vanessa, Corin and Lynn, who all became successful actors. He had affairs with men and women throughout his marriage, with Kempson’s knowledge. His longest relationship was with Bob Michell, who lived near the Redgraves and became a surrogate uncle to the Redgrave children. He later had a relationship with his assistant Fred Sadoff, living together in New York and London. Later in life, while working on his memoirs, he revealed his bisexuality to Corin, who encouraged him to come out. He chose to remain in the closet, dying in 1985 aged 77. After his death, Corin published a memoir Michael Redgrave: My Father, discussing his father’s bisexuality in depth.