Natasha Richardson, the luminous British actress from one of the world's great acting families, whose performances ranged from the high-brow drama "The Handmaid's Tale" to the lightweight comedy "The Parent Trap" and the Tony-winning Broadway production of "Cabaret," died Wednesday. She was 45.
The wife of "Schindler's List" actor Liam Neeson and daughter of actress Vanessa Redgrave and the late film director Tony Richardson died at Lenox Hill
Hospital in New York. The cause of death was not announced, but she had
been hospitalized after suffering a devastating brain injury while
skiing Monday.
"Liam Neeson, his sons and the
entire family are shocked and devastated by the tragic death of their
beloved Natasha," said a statement released by publicist Alan Nierob.
"They are profoundly grateful for the support, love and prayers of
everyone, and ask for privacy during this very difficult time."
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Richardson was injured at Mont Tremblant, a luxury resort in Canada. The
actress was taking a lesson on a beginner's run near the bottom of the
ski area and was not wearing a helmet when she had what first appeared
to be a minor accident.
She initially reported that she was well, but soon started to complain
of a headache. Hours after the fall, the star of a number of acclaimed
stage plays -- including "Anna Christie," "A Streetcar Named Desire" and
"Closer" -- slipped into unconsciousness, and she was transported
Tuesday from a Montreal hospital back to New York, where she was
surrounded by family and friends.
The actress' most recent film credits came in last year's "Wild Child" opposite Emma Roberts and 2007's "Evening" with Meryl Streep, Claire Danes
and Redgrave. The "Evening" part was one of a number of recent roles
Richardson had had in productions with her closest relatives. On
television, she appeared as a guest judge on the just-concluded season
of the cooking show "Top Chef."
Richardson was born in London on May 11, 1963. In addition to Redgrave,
other actors in her family include sister Joely Richardson, a star of
the television series "Nip/Tuck," and aunt Lynn Redgrave, whose film credits include "Georgy Girl" and "Gods and Monsters." Richardson's grandfather was legendary Shakespearean actor Michael Redgrave.
Her father was an acclaimed writer, director and producer who won the
directing and best picture Oscar for 1963's "Tom Jones." Tony
Richardson, who died in 1991 at age 63, also directed "Look Back in
Anger" and "A Taste of Honey."
The actress' 72-year-old mother, who won the supporting actress Academy
Award for 1977's "Julia," still acts in theater and film.
Just before the skiing accident, Richardson was considering a Broadway
revival of Stephen Sondheim's "A Little Night Music" with her mother,
after a highly praised one-night January staging at New York's Studio
54.
Although Richardson may have come from royal show business blood, she
did not try to use her ancestry to advance her career, but rather saw
her family's creative business as something of a classroom.
"I know the pressures of being the daughter of a great actress,"
Richardson said in a 2005 interview with London's Independent newspaper.
"But it's inspiring. You learn so much that other people don't get to
learn until later on. My father being a director, I [learned] a real
work ethic. You think: 'One day, I'd like to be as good as that.' But
when I was starting out professionally, I had a level of attention put
on me that I didn't deserve or wasn't ready for. And it was hard,
particularly in England, to make my way."
Richardson trained at London's Central School of Speech and Drama,
hiding her family connections, and subsequently picked up minor parts in
little-known theater and television productions. In 1985, she made her
West End debut, playing the troubled young actress Nina in Anton
Chekhov's "The Seagull." A year later, Richardson was cast in her first
prominent movie role, starring in director Ken Russell's "Gothic" as
"Frankenstein" author Mary Shelley.
A variety of more prominent movie and stage roles followed, but
Richardson often gravitated toward artier film productions, with
mainstream movies more exception than rule. Despite her British roots,
she often played iconic American characters -- including Patty Hearst
(in a movie of the same name), Blanche DuBois in Tennessee Williams' "A Streetcar Named Desire" and the title role in Eugene O'Neill's "Anna Christie."
With a gravelly, seductive voice (once compared to a combination of
honey and iron filings), Richardson was frequently willing to play
emotionally vulnerable roles. "I just feel for her," she told the Times
in 1993 about Anna Christie. "Her anger and her loneliness and her
pain."
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Richardson's movie choices in 1990 exemplified her creative taste. That
year, she starred in "The Comfort of Strangers," a drama about a couple
(Richardson and Rupert Everett)
trying to repair a failing relationship, and "The Handmaid's Tale," an
adaptation of Margaret Atwood's novel about a future theocracy. Hinting
at her growing interest in theater, the screenplays for both movies were
written by the playwright Harold Pinter.
Richardson made her Broadway debut in 1993, playing opposite Neeson in
"Anna Christie." She was married to producer Robert Fox at the time;
they divorced that year, and she married Neeson in 1994. The couple had
two sons together, Micheal and Daniel, and Richardson left acting for
three years when they were born.
"I have a famous mother, and it took me years to get over that," she
once told London's Mirror. "Now I have this really famous husband. I
definitely feel a loss of confidence. Perhaps that's partly why I love
living in New York, being free of all that family baggage, being open to
all sorts of possibilities."
Richardson continued to appear in movies, with the highest-profile roles
coming in the 1998 remake of "The Parent Trap" opposite Lindsay Lohan and Dennis Quaid, and 2002's romantic comedy "Maid in Manhattan" with Jennifer Lopez.
