Lynn Redgrave, the acclaimed British actress and member of the Redgrave dynasty of performers, has died at age 67.

Redgrave died Sunday night at her home in Connecticut, her publicist said Monday on behalf of her children, who were at her bedside.

"Our beloved mother Lynn Rachel passed away peacefully after a seven-year journey with breast cancer," Redgrave's children said in a statement.

"She lived, loved and worked harder than ever before. The endless memories she created as a mother, grandmother, writer, actor and friend will sustain us for the rest of our lives. Our entire family asks for privacy through this difficult time."

Born in London in 1943, Redgrave was the granddaughter of stage actors Roy Redgrave and Margaret Scudamore and youngest child of matinee idol Michael Redgrave and actress Rachel Kempson. Her siblings were Corin and Vanessa Redgrave.

Though Redgrave hailed from a family of theatre heavyweights, she was no diva, said Canadian actor Christopher Plummer on Monday.

"I'll always remember Lynn as a very 'unactressy' person in real life," Plummer said in a telephone interview with CBC News.

"So understated… but unbelievably kind, unbelievably generous. She was just extraordinary."

Although not as celebrated as her older sister, Vanessa, Redgrave was a well-regarded performer who was, in January, inducted into Broadway's Theatre Hall of Fame.

"Vanessa was the one expected to be the great actress," she told The Associated Press in 1999.

"It was always, 'Corin's the brain, Vanessa the shining star, oh, and then there's Lynn'."

Her best-known film role was the title performance in the 1966 work Georgy Girl, for which she earned an Oscar nomination. She would receive another for her performance in the 1998 drama Gods and Monsters. Other movie credits include Shine, Peter Pan, Kinsey and The White Countess.

Theatre accolades

While she also appeared on television — in shows, movies, miniseries and as a narrator and host — Redgrave was most associated with the stage in London and New York.

Her theatre accolades came for turns in productions like Mrs. Warren's Profession, The Constant Wife and revealing, introspective one-woman shows like Shakespeare for My Father and Nightingale, which were inspired by her family.

Lynn Redgrave, seen here in her one-woman off-Broadway show Nightingale in 2009, has died at the age of 67. (Joan Marcus/Boneau, Bryan-Brown/Associated Press)The latter, which she debuted off-Broadway just last fall, was based on the life of her maternal grandmother, Beatrice Kempson.

Redgrave, who was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2003, published Journal: A Mother and Daughter's Recovery from Breast Cancer, with her daughter Annabel Clark. The former Weight Watchers spokeswoman had also released the lifestyle book This Is Living: How I Found Health and Happiness in 1991.

Redgrave married actor and director John Clark in 1967. The couple, now divorced, have three children: Pema (who changed her name from Kelly), Benjamin and Annabel Clark. She is survived by her children, grandchildren, her sister Vanessa as well as nieces and nephews.

Her death comes just a month after that of her brother, Corin, from cancer and a year after niece Natasha Richardson died following a ski accident in Quebec.

A private funeral will be held later this week.

With files from The Associated Press