On stage, he was known for performances by Shakespeare (such as Much Ado About Nothing, Henry IV, Part 1, Antony and Cleopatra, and The Tempest) and Noël Coward (a highly successful revival of A Song At Twilight co-starring his sister Vanessa Redgrave and his second wife, Kika Markham).

In 2005, Redgrave had just finished an engagement playing the lead in King Lear with the Royal Shakespeare Company in London when he suffered a severe heart attack.

On screen, he was cast in such films as A Man for All Seasons (1966) as Thomas More's son-in-law, William Roper; the highly praised Australian "flop" Between Wars (1974) as a renegade psychiatrist; Excalibur (1981) as the doomed Cornwall; In the Name of the Father (1993) as the corrupt lead police investigator; Persuasion (TV, 1995) as the foolish Sir Walter Eliot; and Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994) as Hamish, the fiancé of Andie MacDowell's character.

Redgrave appeared in British television programmes such as Ultraviolet, The Vice, Trial & Retribution, Shameless, Foyle's War, The Relief of Belsen, The Ice House and the Emmy Award-winning telefilm The Girl in the Cafe, in which he played the prime minister.

Redgrave and his second wife, Kika Markham, expressed support for activist group Viva Palestina, led by British MP George Galloway, attempting to break the blockade of the Gaza Strip.

[7] In June 2005, his family said he was in critical but stable condition in hospital following a severe heart attack at a public meeting in Basildon, Essex.

On the opening night, Redgrave dedicated his performance to the memory of his niece Natasha Richardson, who had died earlier that week in a skiing accident.

[8][9] His funeral was held on 12 April 2010 at St Paul's, Covent Garden, London, and he was interred on the eastern side of Highgate Cemetery.