Kat’s Film and Book Reviews

Actress Lynn Redgrave died Sunday after a 7-year battle with breast cancer.  She was 67 years old.

Image courtesty of scad.edu

Lynn was the sister of Vanessa and Corin, all of them children of Michael Redgrave and Rachel Kempson.  Corin died just last month, but Vanessa survives.  The siblings, especially the sisters, were always close, and all of them insist that any rivalry between them was made up by the press.  Lynn was a quieter, less flashy talent than Vanessa, but she always worked, and was nominated twice for Oscars.  Her first one was for 1968’s Georgy Girl, where she competed against her sister, but both lost to Elizabeth Taylor.  She was also known for her flexibility and sense of humor, appearing on sitcoms as well as in dramatic Oscar-nom material.  Her Best Supporting Actress Oscar nomination was for playing the brusque housekeeper in Gods and Monsters, but she took roles on The Love Boat, Desperate Housewives, and Ugly Betty, too.

It’s been a terrible year for the Redgrave family.  Niece Natasha Richardson died in a ski accident last year, then Corin last month, and now Lynn.  I’m sorry she’s gone; she was a steady, hardworking, non-pretentious presence in a crazy, self-aggrandizing business.  I wish her family every comfort and blessing as they go on without her.

It’s real this time.  The brave 57-year-old actor who has been suffering from pancreatic cancer for two years, passed away this evening in Los Angeles, surrounded by his wife and family.  Rumors have followed him, often announcing his death prematurely, since his cancer was diagnosed 20 months ago, but Swayze continued to work, even while he was in rigorous traditional and alternative treatments for his disease.

I wondered if we were in his last days…and I know this will sound weird, but it’s because I saw a picture of him in a supermarket tabloid the other day.  The tabloids are the only ones that will tell us things like that–they did the same thing with Paul Newman just before his death–and they were right.  I admired so much the way Swayze was always realistic about his disease, but it didn’t let it stop him from doing whatever he could handle, including filming an entire season of a new TV show in which he was the Star (A&E’s The Beast).

I’m really sad to see him go; he was such an important figure for people who grew up in the 80’s.  He was Darry, everyone’s older brother, and he was Johnny Castle, the dancing rebel from Dirty Dancing.  He was the one whose fingers entwined with Demi Moore’s in the most erotic pottery session ever.   Perhaps most iconically, he was the one who announced “It’s my way, or the highway.”

For the people who knew him and loved him, he was, of course, so much more than that.  He was married to his wife, Lisa, for 34 years, and she was by his side through the ups and downs of his acting career, his rehab for alcoholism, and his good and bad days of cancer treatment.  She was by his side this evening as he left this life for the next.

Go with God, Patrick. Thank you for the good years.  Our prayers are with Lisa and all your friends and family.