ANONYMOUS Character Card #2- Vanessa Redgrave/ Joley Richardson as Queen Elizabeth

Queen Elizabeth Elizabeth Tudor
Played by Vanessa Redgrave (older) and Joely Richardson (young)

Character Bio:
Elizabeth presided over a golden age in England, a time when the arts flourished and her country became one of the most powerful, prosperous countries in the world. She cultivated an image as "The Virgin Queen," but many modern historians believe she was anything but.

Relationships:
• As a young woman to the young Earl of Oxford: If Elizabeth was not the famous "Virgin Queen," could Oxford have been one of her lovers?

• As an older woman to the older Earl of Oxford: Though she banished Oxford from Court, she would not forget their connection.

• As an older woman, to The Earl of South Hampton: The Earl of Southampton was a favored

 courtier of Elizabeth's, as they both loved theater and arts.

• As an older woman, to William Shakespeare: Queen Elizabeth Loved the theater and often invited troupes to perform at the palace.

Actor Bios:

Vanessa Redgrave (Queen Elizabeth) most recently appeared in Miral, directed by Julian Schnabel and released by The Weinstein Company on March 25, 2011. In May 2010, Redgrave appeared in the film Letters to Juliet directed by Gary Winick, opposite her husband, Franco Nero. In addition to Anonymous, Redgrave can next be seen in The Whistleblower opposite Rachel Weisz, which will be released by Samuel Goldwyn Films on August 5, 2011. She will also star in Ralph Fiennes' directorial debut Coriolanus, in which she portrays the title character's mother, Volumnia. Coriolanus will be released by The Weinstein Company in the US on December 2, 2011.

In 1978, Redgrave won the Academy Award® and the Golden Globe Award, as well as awards from the Los Angeles Film Critics Association and the Kansas City Film Critics Circle, for her performance in the title role of Julia (directed in 1977 by Fred Zinnemann and adapted by Alvin Sargent from Lillian Hellman's novel of the same name).

She has received five additional Academy Award® nominations and eleven additionAl Golden Globe Award nominations, as well as been honored with a second Golden Globe Award win for her performance in the telefilm "If These Walls Could Talk 2" (for the segment written and directed by Jane Anderson). The latter performance also earned her an Emmy Award and a Screen Actors Guild Award. She had previously won an Emmy Award for her portrayal of Holocaust survivor Fania Fénelon in CBS' "Playing for Time" (directed by Daniel Mann and adapted from Ms. Fénelon's autobiography), and has been nominated for an Emmy three additional times. "Playing for Time" was recently released on DVD.

Redgrave previously starred for David Hare in his film Wetherby, for which she was honored by the National Society of Film Critics with their Best Actress award. Her other films include director Fred Zinnemann's A Man for All Seasons; Michelangelo Antonioni's Blowup; Karel Reisz' Morgan: A Suitable Case for Treatment (for which she won Best Actress at the Cannes International Film Festival) and Isadora (earning her another Best Actress win at Cannes and honors from the National Society of Film Critics); Sidney Lumet's Murder on the Orient Express; Michael Apted's Agatha; Merchant Ivory's The Bostonians (for which she was cited as Best Actress from the National Society of Film Critics); Stephen Frears' Prick Up Your Ears (for which she was named Best Supporting Actress by the New York Film Critics Circle); Simon Callow's The Ballad of the Sad Café; Marleen Gorris' Mrs. Dalloway (adapted from the Virginia Woolf novel by Eileen Atkins); her son Carlo Nero's "The Fever" for HBO Films; Roger Michell's Venus; Lajos Koltai's Evening; and, in 2008, Atonement, an Oscar® nominee for Best Picture. Her television work includes a recurring role on "Nip/Tuck" and the telefilm "The Day of the Triffids" for BBC1.

In addition to her other honors, Redgrave received a BAFTA Fellowship in 2010.

Redgrave's numerous theatre credits include "Driving Miss Daisy" at the Golden Theatre on Broadway in New York from October 7, 2010 to April 9, 2011. Redgrave was nominated for a Tony Award® for this role in June 2011. Redgrave also appeared in "The Year of Magical Thinking" in the Broadway season of 2007 at the Booth Theatre. She received a Tony Award® nomination for her performance, adapted from Joan Didion's award-winning book. Ms. Redgrave appeared on Broadway in the landmark 2003 production of "Long Day's Journey Into Night," for which she received the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play. Her other Broadway appearances include the acclaimed revivals of Tennessee Williams' "Orpheus Descending" and Ibsen's "The Lady From the Sea." Off-Broadway, Ms. Redgrave performed in The Public Theater production of "Antony and Cleopatra," which she also directed, and "Vita and Virginia." In her native England, her scores of major roles on the stage most recently include recreating "The Year of Magical Thinking" at The National Theatre; "Lady Windermere's Fan" at the Theatre Royal, Haymarket starring alongside her daughter Joely Richardson; "The Tempest" for the RSC at Shakespeare's Globe and "The Cherry Orchard" at the Royal National Theatre. In 1998, she and her brother Corin co-produced an early Tennessee Williams play, "Not About Nightingales," which Ms. Redgrave discovered at the Royal National Theatre; directed by Sir Trevor Nunn, it then played at Circle in the Square. In 2005, Ms. Redgrave played Euripides' "Hecuba" for the RSC, directed by Tony Harrison, at the Albery Theatre followed by the Kennedy Center and then at BAM. She has been honored with three Evening Standard Awards and the Olivier Award.