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 Hailed
from the Redgrave family, one of British most intense and enduring theatrical
dynasties of all time, stage/movie/TV actress Natasha Richardson is popular for
several leading roles in films, but she is perhaps most renowned for her
award-winning performances on theater, including as Sally Bowles in Broadway
production of “Cabaret,” where she received a number of accolades like a Tony
Award, “Anna Christie” (1992) and Anton Chekhov’s “The Seagull” (1986). On the
big screen, she picked up a London Evening Standard Award for roles in The
Comfort of Strangers (1990) and The Handmaid’s Tale (1990) and a Karlovy Vary
International Film Festival Award for starring in Widows’ Peak (1994). Other
notable credits include Gothic (1986), A Month in the Country (1987), the biopic
film Patty Hearst (1988), Fat Man and Little Boy (1989) and The Favour, the
Watch and the Very Big Fish (1991).
As for her marriage life, the swan-necked, smoky-voiced champagne blonde actress
was married to theatrical producer Robert Fox from 1990-1994 and is now the wife
of actor Liam Neeson, whom she wed shortly after her first marriage ended in
divorce.
They shares two sons, Micheal Richard Antonio Neeson and Daniel Jack Neeson. In
1998, Richardson and husband Liam won a slander case against the publishers of
the London Daily Mirror which had claimed that their marriage was in trouble.
After winning the case, the couple was awarded $85, 000. Outside the limelight,
Richardson is an expert cook. She is well-known for the fulsome dinners she and
her husband commonly throw at their upstate New York estate. Among their regular
dinner guests are Meryl Streep, Laura Linney, Ralph Fiennes and Griffin Dunne.
» The Redgrave
Childhood and Family:
Natasha Jane Richardson was born on May 11, 1963, in London, England, UK. She
was named after the heroine in Leo Tolstoy’s celebrated novel “War and Peace” by
her famous parents, the late director Tony Richardson and Academy Award-winning
British actress Vanessa Redgrave. She is the granddaughter of the late actors
Sir Michael Redgrave and Rachel Kempson, a cousin of Jemma Redgrave, and a niece
to actor Corin Redgrave and actress Lynn Redgrave. Her younger sister, Joely
Richardson (born on January 9, 1965) is also an actress.
With such showbiz background family, Natasha, whose nicknamed is Tasha, was
exposed to the business at a very young age, making her first movie appearance
at age 4 with her mother in her father’s film The Charge of the Light Brigade.
She was trained at St Paul’s Girls School in London for several years and at
London’s Central School of Speech and Drama before beginning her fruitful career
with the Leeds Playhouse in England.
Natasha has been married twice. She tied the knot with her first husband,
theatrical producer Robert Fox, on December 16, 1990, but the couple lived
separately in 1993. After her divorce finalized in 1994, Natasha tried to build
a new family with Northern Irish actor Liam Neeson (born on June 7, 1952) and
they got married on July 3, that same year. Their first son, Micheal Richard
Antonio Neeson, was born on June 22, 1995, in Dublin, Ireland, and on August 27,
1996, Natasha and her husband welcomed their second son, Daniel Jack Neeson.
» Patty Hearst
Career:
As a child, Natasha Richardson made her film debut with a bit part as a
bridesmaid to her mother in The Charge of the Light Brigade (1968), directed by
her father, and five years later added her movie credits with an unaccredited
appearance as a girl playing hopscotch in High Crime. After completing her drama
studies, she perfected her craft in regional theater with Leeds Playhouse and
later joined the New Shakespeare Company. She returned to movie acting by
playing a small role as Miss Bridle in the 1983 drama film Every Picture Tells a
Story and was cast in her first American TV series as young whore in “Ellis
Island,” the next years, followed by TV roles in In the Secret State (1985),
Ghosts (1986) and in an episode of “The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes” (1985).
In 1986, Richardson’s stage career gained much boost as she debuted on the West
End with a revival of Anton Chekhov’s “The Seagull,” opposite her mother and
Jonathan Pryce. As Nina, a role in which her mother first made her score,
Richardson convincingly portrayed the part and held her own. As a result, she
was handed a 1986 Drama Critics for Most Promising Newcomer. The same year,
Richardson made an impressive supporting turn opposite Gabriel Byrne and Julian
Sands in the Ken Russell-helmed horror Gothic, playing Mary Godwin.
Richardson’s successful performance in Gothic soon put the actress on the radar
of filmmaker Paul Schrader who had her play the title role of
heiress-turned-terrorist in the 1988 biopic film Patty Hearst. The actress
became famous with the role. She also received remarkable achievements in such
films as Pat O’Connor’s A Month in the Country (1987, with Kenneth Branagh and
Colin Firth), Fat Man and Little Boy (1989) and The Favour, the Watch and the
Very Big Fish (1991, featured Bob Hoskins and Jeff Goldblum), and won a London
Evening Standard for her roles as Mary, one of two lazy tourists, in The Comfort
of Strangers (1990, rejoined director Paul Schrader)
 and
Kate/Offred in Volker Schlöndorff’s The Handmaid’s Tale (1990, along side Robert
Duvall and Faye Dunaway). Meanwhile, she brilliantly starred as Tracey Lord,
opposite alongside Stephen Rea, in Richard Eyre’s musical “High Society” (1987)
at the London West End.
In 1992, the trained stage actress once again attracted attention for her
stunning, starring portrayal in a revival of Eugene O’Neill’s “Anna Christie.”
For her effort, Richardson won a second London Drama Critics, this time for Best
Actress. A year later, she gained even more recognition when she reprised the
role on Broadway. Costarring with Liam Neeson and Rip Torn, she earned a number
of nominations like a Tony and a Drama Desk for Best Actress, as well as a
Theatre World and an Outer Critics Circle for Outstanding Debut.
The British beauty segued to TV movies by playing roles in the remake of
Tennessee Williamss Suddenly, Last Summer (1993), Hostages (1993) and TNT’s
Zelda (1993, as the title role of the psychologically ill wife of American
writer F Scott Fitzgerald) before taking home her next award, the 1994 Best
Actress Karlovy Vary International Film Festival Award for her best acting as
Mrs. Doyle-Counihan in John Irvin’s Widows’ Peak (1994). The thriller film also
starred Mia Farrow and Joan Plowright. The same year, she teamed up with her
husband and Jodie Foster in Nell (1994).
Richardson didn’t make movie until four years later when Nancy Meyers cast her
as Dennis Quaid’s former wife in the Lindsay Lohan vehicle The Parent Trap.
Still in 1998, the player also made an auspicious NYC theater comeback with her
spectacular performance, as Sally Bowles in the Sam Mendes environmental staging
of “Cabaret,” where she netted numerous awards like a Tony, an Outer Critics
Circle, a Drama League and a Drama Desk for Best Actress in a Musical.
After a hosting gig in The Man Who Came to Dinner (2000, TV), Richardson landed
a lead in the Emmy-nominated TV film Haven (2001, played American who helped
save the lives of 1000 Jews in Europe during WWII ), found herself acting with
Alan Rickman, Rachel Griffiths, Rachael Leigh Cook and Josh Hartnett in the
comedy film Blow Dry (2001), portrayed Mary in Ethan Hawke’s experimental film
Chelsea Walls (2001), was featured in the ensemble comedy Waking Up in Reno
(2002) and appeared as a horrible New York socialite named Caroline Lane in Maid
in Manhattan (2002), which starred Jennifer Lopez. Following a few years hiatus
from the cinematic indutsry, Richardson made her way back by taking double duty
as executive producer and star of the dour period drama Asylum (2005) for
director David Mackenzie. She also took on the costarring role opposite Ralph
Fiennes in James Ivory’s drama The White Countess, that same year. The film also
featured her along side her mother and her aunt. |
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A
Little Night Music (2009) 
Wild
Child (2008) 
