This Memorial is Under Construction
Natasha Jane Richardson (11 May 1963 – 18 March 2009) was an English stage and screen actress. A member of the Redgrave family, she was the daughter of actress Vanessa Redgrave and director/producer Tony Richardson and the granddaughter of Michael Redgrave and Rachel Kempson. Early in her career she portrayed Mary Shelley and Patty Hearst in feature films, and she received critical acclaim and a Theatre World Award for her Broadway debut in the 1993 revival of Anna Christie. She won the Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Musical, the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actress in a Musical, and the Outer Critics Circle Award for her performance as Sally Bowles in the 1998 Broadway revival of Cabaret. Some of her notable films included Nell (1994), The Parent Trap (1998) and Maid in Manhattan (2002).
Theatre
Richardson began her career in regional theatre at the West Yorkshire Playhouse in Leeds. Her first professional work in London’s West End was in a revival of Anton Chekhov’s The Seagull in 1985.[7] Soon after, she starred in a London stage production of High Society, adapted from the acclaimed Cole Porter film. In 1998 she won the Tony and Drama Desk Awards for her performance in the Roundabout Theatre Company’s production of the Sam Mendes/Rob Marshall-helmed revival of Kander & Ebb’s Cabaret.[2] The following year she 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 she appeared again with the Roundabout, this time as Blanche DuBois in their revival of Tennessee Williams’s A Streetcar Named Desire,[2] opposite John C. Reilly as Stanley Kowalski.
Film
Richardson portrayed Mary Shelley in the 1986 film Gothic, a fictionalized account of the author’s creation of Frankenstein. The following year she starred opposite Kenneth Branagh and Colin Firth in A Month in the Country, directed by Pat O’Connor. Director Paul Schrader signed her for the title role in Patty Hearst, his 1988 docudrama about the heiress and her alleged kidnapping. Her performances opposite 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. She was named Best Actress at the 1994 Karlovy Vary International Film Festival for Widows’ Peak, and that sa ...
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This Memorial is Under Construction
Natasha Jane Richardson (11 May 1963 – 18 March 2009) was an English stage and screen actress. A member of the Redgrave family, she was the daughter of actress Vanessa Redgrave and director/producer Tony Richardson and the granddaughter of Michael Redgrave and Rachel Kempson. Early in her career she portrayed Mary Shelley and Patty Hearst in feature films, and she received critical acclaim and a Theatre World Award for her Broadway debut in the 1993 revival of Anna Christie. She won the Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Musical, the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actress in a Musical, and the Outer Critics Circle Award for her performance as Sally Bowles in the 1998 Broadway revival of Cabaret. Some of her notable films included Nell (1994), The Parent Trap (1998) and Maid in Manhattan (2002).
Theatre
Richardson began her career in regional theatre at the West Yorkshire Playhouse in Leeds. Her first professional work in London’s West End was in a revival of Anton Chekhov’s The Seagull in 1985.[7] Soon after, she starred in a London stage production of High Society, adapted from the acclaimed Cole Porter film. In 1998 she won the Tony and Drama Desk Awards for her performance in the Roundabout Theatre Company’s production of the Sam Mendes/Rob Marshall-helmed revival of Kander & Ebb’s Cabaret.[2] The following year she 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 she appeared again with the Roundabout, this time as Blanche DuBois in their revival of Tennessee Williams’s A Streetcar Named Desire,[2] opposite John C. Reilly as Stanley Kowalski.
Film
Richardson portrayed Mary Shelley in the 1986 film Gothic, a fictionalized account of the author’s creation of Frankenstein. The following year she starred opposite Kenneth Branagh and Colin Firth in A Month in the Country, directed by Pat O’Connor. Director Paul Schrader signed her for the title role in Patty Hearst, his 1988 docudrama about the heiress and her alleged kidnapping. Her performances opposite 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. She was named Best Actress at the 1994 Karlovy Vary International Film Festival for Widows’ Peak, and that same year appeared in Nell opposite Jodie Foster and future husband Liam Neeson. Additional film credits include The Parent Trap (1998), Blow Dry (2001), Chelsea Walls (2001), Waking Up in Reno (2002), Maid in Manhattan (2002), Asylum (2005), which won her a second Evening Standard Award for Best Actress, The White Countess (2005), and Evening (2007). Her last screen appearance was as headmistress of a girls’ school in the 2008 comedy Wild Child.
Television
Richardson made her American television debut in a small role in the 1984 CBS miniseries Ellis Island. That same year she made her UK television debut in an episode of the BBC series Oxford Blues. The following year she appeared as Violet Hunter alongside Jeremy Brett and David Burke in The Adventures Of Sherlock Holmes, in the episode entitled “The Copper Beeches”. She 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; portrayed Zelda Fitzgerald in the 1993 television movie Zelda; and starred in Haven (2001) on CBS and The Mastersons of Manhattan (2007) on NBC.
Her first marriage was to filmmaker Robert Fox, from 1990 to 1992.[8] She married Irish actor Liam Neeson in late 1994 at the home they shared near Millbrook, New York.[9] Richardson and Neeson have two sons: Micheál (born 1995) and Daniel (born 1996). Richardson helped raise millions of dollars in the fight against AIDS; her father, director Tony Richardson, died of AIDS-related causes in 1991.[10]
Richardson was actively involved in amfAR, becoming a board of trustees member in 2006, and participated in many other AIDS charities including Bailey House, God’s Love We Deliver, Mothers’ Voices, AIDS Crisis Trust and National AIDS Trust, for which she was an ambassador. Richardson received amfAR’s Award of Courage in November 2000.[11]
A long-time smoker,[12][13][14] Richardson was also an outspoken opponent of the ban on smoking in New York City restaurants.[15]
Richardson was raised in London. Her first marriage to filmmaker Robert Fox ended in divorce in 1992. In 1994 she married Irish actor Liam Neeson, whom she had met when the two appeared in Anna Christie. The couple had two sons, Micheál and Daniel.
Richardson’s father died of AIDS-related causes in 1991. She helped raise millions of dollars in the fight against AIDS through the charity amfAR, the American Foundation for AIDS Research. The actress died in 2009 following a head injury sustained when she fell during a skiing lesson in the Canadian province of Quebec.[1] Mini-bio: Natasha Richardson made her feature film debut as Mary Shelley in Ken Russell’s Gothic (1986). Her performance caught the attention of director Paul Schrader, who cast her in the title role in Patty H…( read more)earst (1988). Since then, Ms. Richardson has achieved notable success in such films as Pat O’Connor’s A Month in the Country (1987), Roland Joffé’s Fat Man and Little Boy (1989) and The Favour, the Watch and the Very Big Fish (1991), featuring Bob Hoskins and Jeff Goldblum. For her performance in Volker Schlöndorff’s The Handmaid’s Tale (1990) and Schrader’s The Comfort of Strangers (1990), Richardson earned The London Evening Standard Award for Best Actress of 1990; and for Widows’ Peak (1994), also starring Mia Farrow and Joan Plowright, she received the Best Actress Award at the 1994 Karlovy Vary Festival. In 1995 she co-starred with Jodie Foster and Liam Neeson in Nell (1994) and, in 1998, in The Parent Trap (1998) with Dennis Quaid. Her recent films include Blow Dry (2001) released in 2001, and Ethan Hawke’s Chelsea Walls (2001). Trained at London’s Central School of Speech and Drama, Richardson has performed extensively on stage in roles including Helena in “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” and Ophelia in “Hamlet” at the Young Vic. In 1986 she garnered the London Drama Critics’ Most Promising Newcomer Award for her performance as Nina in “The Seagull”, with Vanessa Redgrave and Jonathan Pryce. In 1987 she played Tracey Lord in Richard Eyre’s musical “High Society”. She performed the title role of “Anna Christie”, first in London, where she was voted London Drama Critics’ Best Actress Award in 1992, then on Broadway at the Roundabout in 1993, where she was nominated for a Tony for Best Actress in a Play, a Theatre World Award for Outstanding Debut, the Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding Debut of an Actress, and a Drama Desk nomination for Best Actress. For her performance as Sally Bowles in Sam Mendes’ production of “Cabaret”, she won the 1998 Tony, Outer Critics Circle, Drama League and Drama Desk Awards for Best Actress in a Musical. She then appeared on Broadway in Patrick Marber’s Tony-nominated play “Closer”. This December she will play “Miss Julie” on Broadway with Philip Seymour Hoffman, directed by David Leveaux for Roundabout Theatre. Richardson’s television credits include Henrik Ibsen’s “Ghosts” for the BBC, also starring Judi Dench, Michael Gambon and Kenneth Branagh; the HBO cable feature Hostages (1993) (TV); the BBC film Suddenly, Last Summer (1993) (TV), based on the play by Tennessee Williams, and also starring Maggie Smith and Rob Lowe. In 1993 she starred as Zelda Fitzgerald in the TNT movie Zelda (1993) (TV), co-starring Timothy Hutton and directed by Pat O’Connor (cable Ace nomination for Best Actress). She played Ruth Gruber in the 2001 CBS mini-series Haven (2001) (TV) based on Ms. Gruber’s autobiography.
On 16 March 2009, Richardson sustained a head injury, when she fell while taking a skiing lesson at the Mont Tremblant Resort in Quebec, Canada. Paramedics and an ambulance which initially responded to the accident were told they were not needed, according to Yves Coderre, the Director of Operations of an emergency services company.[16] After she refused medical attention at the ski hill, she returned to her hotel room and about three hours later was taken to Centre Hospitalier Laurentien after complaining of a headache. She was transferred from there by ambulance to the Hôpital du Sacré-Cœur de Montréal in critical condition and was admitted about seven hours after the fall.[17] The following day she was transferred to Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City, where she died on 18 March.[1]
An autopsy conducted on 19 March 2009 by the New York City Medical Examiners Office revealed the cause of death was an “epidural hematoma due to blunt impact to the head”, and her death was ruled an accident.[16]
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