Natasha Richardson, the luminous British actress from one of the world’s great acting families, whose performances ranged from the highbrow drama The Handmaid’s Tale to the lightweight comedy The Parent Trap and the Tony-winning Broadway production of Cabaret, died on Wednesday. She was 45.
The wife of Schindler’s List actor Liam Neeson and the 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 hospitalised after suffering a devastating brain injury while skiing on 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.
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 in 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 roles in Anna Christie, A Streetcar Named Desire and Closer — slipped into unconsciousness, and she was taken from a Montreal hospital to New York.
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 with her closest relatives.
On television, she appeared as a guest judge on the just-concluded season of Top Chef.
Richardson was born in London on May 11, 1963 and married Neeson, her second husband, in 1994. In addition to Redgrave, other actors in her family include sister Joely Richardson, a star of the television series Nip/Tuck. 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 also directed Look Back in Anger and A Taste of Honey. The actress’ 72-year-old mother, who won the supporting actress Oscar for 1977’s Julia still acts in theatre and in film.
Richardson was considering a Broadway revival of Stephen Sondheim’s A Little Night Music with her mother, following a highly praised one-night January staging at New York’s Studio 54. Richardson trained at London’s Central School of Speech and Drama, hiding her family connections, and subsequently picked up minor parts in little-known theatre and television productions.
Richardson made her Broadway debut in 1993, playing opposite her future husband, Neeson, in Eugene O’Neill’s Anna Christie. She was married to producer Robert Fox at the time; Fox and Richardson divorced, and she married Neeson in 1994. The couple have two sons together, Micheal and Daniel.
Richardson was part of the 2005 Broadway revival of A Streetcar Named Desire.
