Quick Facts
- NAME: Natasha Richardson
- OCCUPATION: Theater Actress, Television Actress
- BIRTH DATE: May 11, 1963
- DEATH DATE: March 18, 2009
- EDUCATION: St. Paul's Girls' School, London's Central School of Speech and Drama
- PLACE OF BIRTH: London, England, United Kingdom
- PLACE OF DEATH: New York, New York
- Full Name: Natasha Jane Richardson
- AKA: Natasha Richardson
Best Known For
British actress of stage and screen Natasha Richardson won a Tony Award for her work in the Broadway show Cabaret before dying in a tragic skiing accident.
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Play NowNatasha Richardson. (2013). The Biography Channel website. Retrieved 06:41, May 22, 2013, from http://www.biography.com/people/natasha-richardson-425204.
Natasha Richardson. [Internet]. 2013. The Biography Channel website. Available from: http://www.biography.com/people/natasha-richardson-425204 [Accessed 22 May 2013].
"Natasha Richardson." 2013. The Biography Channel website. May 22 2013, 06:41 http://www.biography.com/people/natasha-richardson-425204.
"Natasha Richardson," The Biography Channel website, 2013, http://www.biography.com/people/natasha-richardson-425204 [accessed May 22, 2013].
"Natasha Richardson," The Biography Channel website, http://www.biography.com/people/natasha-richardson-425204 (accessed May 22, 2013).
Natasha Richardson [Internet]. The Biography Channel website; 2013 [cited 2013 May 22] Available from: http://www.biography.com/people/natasha-richardson-425204.
Natasha Richardson, http://www.biography.com/people/natasha-richardson-425204 (last visited May 22, 2013).
Natasha Richardson. The Biography Channel website. 2013. Available at: http://www.biography.com/people/natasha-richardson-425204. Accessed May 22, 2013.
Synopsis
Actress Natasha Richardson was born on May 11, 1963, in London, England, to father Tony Richardson, a director and producer, and mother Vanessa Redgrave, a British film star. Richardson went on to win a Tony award for her role in Cabaret and died in 2009 following a skiing accident in Quebec, Canada.
Early Life
Natasha Jane Richardson was born on May 11, 1963, in London, England, to father Tony Richardson, a director and producer, and mother Vanessa Redgrave, a British film star. She was named after the spirited Natasha in Leo Tolstoy's War and Peace.
Richardson was born into the fourth generation of the theatrical Redgrave family. Her great-grandparents, Roy Redgrave and Daisy Scudamore; grandparents, Michael Redgrave and Rachel Kempson; aunts, Corin and Lynn; and mother, Vanessa, were all famous film presences. Her acting debut came at the age of 4, when she appeared as an extra in her father's film, The Charge of the Light Brigade (1968).
Richardson's parents divorced in 1967. Her mother cited her father's adulterous relationship with Jeanne Moreau as the reason for their separation. Richardson and her younger sister, Joely, continued to live with their mother. The family struggled emotionally after the split, as well as financially—Richardson later admitted that her mother gave most of her money away to radical political groups during this time.
Richardson attended the private St. Paul's Girls' School for several years. She then trained as an actress at London's Central School of Speech and Drama, but kept her Redgrave pedigree a secret while she studied there.
Acting Debut
After college, Natasha Richardson worked as a stage actress, appearing in several small television and film roles. In 1984, she met and married English theater and film producer Robert Fox. The following year, she made her West End debut as Nina in a production of The Seagull, co-starred with her mother in the play. Her performance earned her the London Drama Critics' Most Promising Newcomer Award.
Richardson continued to star in stage productions, including A Midsummer Night's Dream (1985), High Society (1987) and Fat Man and Little Boy (1989). She also appeared on the big screen, in films such as A Month in the Country (1987), starring Colin Firth and Kenneth Branagh. Additionally, she landed a starring role in the biopic Patty Hearst (1988), for which she received critical acclaim.
Personal Tragedy
In 1991, Richardson's father fell ill due to complications from the AIDS virus. He passed away on November 14, 1991, in Los Angeles, California. After her father's death, Natasha became heavily involved in AIDS charity organizations such as the American Foundation for AIDS Research (amfAR).
Two years later, while playing the lead in Eugene O'Neill's Anna Christie, Richardson met actor Liam Neeson. When she and Fox divorced in 1993, Richardson and Neeson married. The couple had two sons together, Michael and Daniel.
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