I’m sorry that Lynn Redgrave has passed at the age of 67. It’s a raw deal to be taken out by breast cancer at a relatively young age, and another jolt for the Redgrave family after the loss of Natasha Richardson (i.e., Lynn’s niece, Vanessa’s daughter) last year and the death of Corin Redgrave, a brother, last month.

Lynn Redgrave was nominated, of course, for Best Supporting Actress in 1999 for her colorful housekeeper turn in Bill Condon‘s Gods and Monsters, and then 32 years before that for her performance in Georgy Girl, which came out in 1967. She had her very first role in Tony Richardson‘s Tom Jones, and — this isn’t exactly significant but it bears mentioning — was the first name actress to engage in a strongly suggestive (if off-screen) oral-sex scene in a mainstream film, i.e., Sidney Lumet‘s Last of the Mobile Hot Shots (1970).

I always thought of Lynn Redgrave more in terms of being respected and well-liked than shall we say incandescently gifted. But whom among us can claim this? In any case my sincerest sympathy and regrets.