Natasha Richardson

Early life

Natasha Jane Richardson was born on 11 May 1963 in Marylebone, London, a member of the Redgrave family, known as a theatrical and film acting dynasty. She was a daughter of director and producer Tony Richardson and actress Vanessa Redgrave, granddaughter of actors Sir Michael Redgrave and Rachel Kempson, sister of Joely Richardson, half-sister of Carlo Gabriel Nero and Katharine Grimond Hess, niece of actress Lynn Redgrave and actor Corin Redgrave, and cousin of Jemma Redgrave.

Richardson's parents divorced in 1967. The following year, she made her film debut at age four in an uncredited role in The Charge of the Light Brigade, directed by her father.

Richardson was educated in London at two private schools, the Lycée Français Charles de Gaulle in South Kensington and St. Paul's Girls' School in Hammersmith, before going on to study acting at the Central School of Speech and Drama.

Career

Theatre

Richardson began her career in regional theatre at Leeds Playhouse, and in 1984 at the Open Air Theatre in London's Regent's Park, when Richardson appeared in A Midsummer Night's Dream with Ralph Fiennes and Richard E. Grant. Her first professional work in London's West End was in a revival of Anton Chekhov's The Seagull in 1985. This production also featured her mother, Vanessa Redgrave. Soon afterward, Richardson starred in a London stage production of High Society, adapted from the Cole Porter film.

Richardson made her Broadway debut in 1993 in the title role of Anna Christie, which is where she met future husband Liam Neeson. She was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play at the 47th Tony Awards for that role.

In 1998, Richardson played the role of Sally Bowles in Sam Mendes's revival of Cabaret on Broadway, for which she won the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical at the 52nd Tony Awards. The following year, Richardson returned to Broadway in Closer, for which she was nominated for the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Featured Actress in a Play, and in 2005 Richardson appeared again with the Roundabout, this time as Blanche DuBois in the revival of Tennessee Williams's A Streetcar Named Desire, opposite John C. Reilly as Stanley Kowalski. In January 2009, two months before her death, Richardson played the role of Desirée Armfeldt in a concert production of Stephen Sondheim's A Little Night Music, with her mother Vanessa Redgrave, who played Madame Armfeldt. At the time of Richardson's death, the pair were preparing to co-star in a Broadway revival of the musical.

Film

In 1984, Richardson made her first credited screen appearance as an art tutor in the James Scott-directed Every Picture Tells A Story, based on the early life of the painter William Scott. Richardson later starred as Mary Shelley in the 1986 film Gothic, a fictionalised account of the author's creation of Frankenstein. The following year, Richardson starred with Kenneth Branagh and Colin Firth in A Month in the Country, directed by Pat O'Connor. Director Paul Schrader signed Richardson for the title role of Patty Hearst in the 1988 docudrama film Patty Hearst about the heiress and her kidnapping. Richardson's performances with Robert Duvall and Faye Dunaway in The Handmaid's Tale and Christopher Walken, Rupert Everett and Helen Mirren in The Comfort of Strangers (directed by Schrader) won her the 1990 Evening Standard British Film Award for Best Actress. In 1991, Richardson appeared in The Favour, the Watch and the Very Big Fish with Bob Hoskins. He later credited her with giving him the best kiss of his life during the film. Hoskins stated, "She got hold of me and kissed me like I've never been kissed before. I was gobsmacked."

Richardson was named Best Actress at the 1994 Karlovy Vary International Film Festival for Widows' Peak and that same year appeared in Nell with Jodie Foster and future husband Liam Neeson. She appeared in the Disney film remake The Parent Trap in 1998 alongside Dennis Quaid, as Elizabeth James, the divorced mother of Lindsay Lohan's characters Hallie Parker and Annie James. Additional film credits include Blow Dry (2001), Chelsea Walls (2001), Waking Up in Reno (2002), Maid in Manhattan (2002), Asylum (2005), which won Richardson a second Evening Standard Award for Best Actress, The White Countess (2005), and Evening (2007). Her last screen appearance was as Mrs. Kingsley, the headmistress of a girls' school in the 2008 comedy Wild Child. During the last week of January 2009, Richardson recorded her offscreen role as Ruth Mallory, the wife of climber George Mallory, who disappeared while climbing Mount Everest during a 1924 expedition, in the 2010 documentary film The Wildest Dream, for which Liam Neeson provided narration.

Television

Richardson made her American television debut in a small role in the 1984 miniseries Ellis Island. That same year, Richardson made her British television debut in an episode of the BBC series Oxbridge Blues. The following year, Richardson appeared as Violet Hunter with Jeremy Brett and David Burke in The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes in the episode entitled "The Copper Beeches." Richardson starred with Judi Dench, Michael Gambon and Kenneth Branagh in a 1987 BBC adaptation of the Henrik Ibsen play Ghosts; with Maggie Smith and Rob Lowe in a 1993 BBC adaptation of Suddenly, Last Summer by Tennessee Williams; as Zelda Fitzgerald in the 1993 television movie Zelda; Haven (2001) on CBS and The Mastersons of Manhattan (2007) on NBC. Richardson appeared as a celebrity judge on Top Chef, season 5.

Personal life

Richardson's first marriage was to filmmaker Robert Fox, whom she had met in 1985, during the making of Anton Chekhov's The Seagull; they were married from 1990 to 1992. Richardson then met actor Liam Neeson while performing in a revival of the play Anna Christie on Broadway in 1993. Richardson married Neeson in the summer of 1994 at the home they shared in Millbrook, New York; she had become a naturalised American citizen. The couple had two sons together: Micheál and Daniel.

Richardson helped raise millions of dollars in the fight against AIDS; her father, Tony, had died of AIDS-related causes in 1991. Richardson was also actively involved in AmfAR, becoming a board member in 2006 and participating in many other AIDS charities, including Bailey House, God's Love We Deliver, Mothers' Voices, AIDS Crisis Trust and National AIDS Trust, for which Richardson was an ambassador. She received AmfAR's Award of Courage in November 2000.

Richardson was a smoker. Although she had reportedly quit smoking, Richardson was a critic of the ban on smoking in New York City restaurants.

Death and funeral

On 16 March 2009, Richardson sustained a head injury after falling during a beginner skiing lesson at the Mont Tremblant Resort, approximately 130 km from Montreal. Initially, she declined medical assistance but reported a severe headache about two hours later. She was subsequently flown to Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City, where she died two days later, aged 45, from an epidural hematoma.

Richardson's family issued a statement on the day of her death: "Liam Neeson, his sons, and the entire family are shocked and devastated by the tragic death of their beloved Natasha. They are profoundly grateful for the support, love, and prayers of everyone, and ask for privacy during this very difficult time." Neeson donated Richardson's organs following her death. Later that night, theatre lights were dimmed on Broadway in Manhattan and in the West End of London as a mark of respect. The following day, 19 March, a private viewing was held at the American Irish Historical Society in Manhattan.

On 22 March, a private funeral took place at St. Peter's Episcopal Church near Millbrook, New York, close to the family's upstate home. Richardson was buried near her maternal grandmother, Rachel Kempson, in the churchyard. Her aunt, Lynn Redgrave, was buried in the same churchyard on 8 May 2010, near Richardson and Kempson. The 2015 biographical thriller Everest was later dedicated to Richardson.

Filmography

Film

Television

Theatre

References

References

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