Tony Richardson | |
---|---|
Born |
Cecil Antonio Richardson 5 June 1928 Shipley, West Riding of Yorkshire, England |
Died | 14 November 1991 Los Angeles, California, United States |
(aged 63)
Cause of death | AIDS |
Occupation | Director, producer |
Years active | 1952–1991 |
Spouse(s) | Vanessa Redgrave (m. 1962; div. 1967) |
Children | 3; including Natasha, Joely |
Cecil Antonio "Tony" Richardson (5 June 1928 – 14 November 1991) was an English theatre and film director and producer whose career spanned five decades. In 1964 he won the Academy Award for Best Director for the film Tom Jones.
Richardson was born in Shipley, West Riding of Yorkshire in 1928, the son of Elsie Evans (Campion) and Clarence Albert Richardson, a chemist. He was Head Boy at Ashville College, Harrogate and attended Wadham College, Oxford, where his contemporaries included Rupert Murdoch, Margaret Thatcher, Kenneth Tynan, Lindsay Anderson and Gavin Lambert. He had the unprecedented distinction of being the President of both the Oxford University Dramatic Society and the Experimental Theatre Club (the ETC), in addition to being the theatre critic for the university magazine Isis. Those he cast in his student productions included Shirley Williams (as Cordelia), John Schlesinger, Nigel Davenport and Robert Robinson.
Richardson was married to actress Vanessa Redgrave from 1962 to 1967. The couple had two daughters, Natasha (1963–2009) and Joely Richardson (born 1965), both actresses. He left Redgrave for actress Jeanne Moreau, although the marriage he had anticipated never materialised. In 1972 he also had a relationship with Grizelda Grimond, who was a secretary for Richardson's business partner (ex-partner, by that time) Oscar Lewenstein, and the daughter of British politician Jo Grimond. Grizelda gave birth to his daughter, Katharine Grimond, on 8 January 1973.