LONDON - Veteran actress Vanessa Redgrave will receive an Academy Fellowship from the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) later this month in honour of a career spanning six decades. BAFTA said the fellowship was its highest honour, and Charlie Chaplin, Alfred Hitchcock, Steven Spielberg, Sean Connery, Elizabeth Taylor and Julie Christie are among the previous recipients. "I'm truly delighted, it's such an honour to be recognised in this way," Redgrave, a member of the famous acting dynasty, said in a statement. "Looking through the list of past recipients shows what a wonderful accolade this is, and the fact that Alfred Hitchcock was the very first recipient makes it even more special, as my father made his first film with him." Michael Redgrave's first major film role was in Hitchcock's The Lady Vanishes, released in 1938. Vanessa Redgrave, 73, has been nominated for an Oscar six times and won once for her performance in Julia. In recent years she has enjoyed success on the stage, notably in The Year of Magical Thinking and in Eugene O'Neill's Long Day's Journey Into Night. She is also well known for her political activism and campaigned against the wars in Vietnam and Iraq. Redgrave will receive her fellowship on February 21, when the winners of the 2010 BAFTA awards are announced.
