28 Facts About Natasha Richardson

Natasha Jane Richardson was an English-American actress.

Early in her career, Natasha Richardson portrayed Mary Shelley in Ken Russell's Gothic and Patty Hearst in the eponymous 1988 biopic film directed by Paul Schrader and later received critical acclaim and a Theatre World Award for her Broadway debut in the 1993 revival of Anna Christie.

Natasha Richardson appeared in The Handmaid's Tale, Nell, The Parent Trap, Maid in Manhattan, and The White Countess.

Natasha Richardson died in 2009 at age of 45 from a head injury after a skiing accident in Quebec.

Natasha Jane Richardson was born in Marylebone, London on 11 May 1963, a member of the Redgrave family, known as a theatrical and film acting dynasty.

Natasha Richardson was the daughter of director and producer Tony Richardson and actress Vanessa Redgrave, granddaughter of actors Sir Michael Redgrave and Rachel Kempson, sister of Joely Richardson, half-sister of Carlo Gabriel Nero and Katharine Grimond Hess, niece of actress Lynn Redgrave and actor Corin Redgrave, and cousin of Jemma Redgrave.

Natasha Richardson was educated in London at two private schools, the Lycee Francais Charles de Gaulle in South Kensington and St Paul's Girls' School in Hammersmith, before going on to study acting at the Central School of Speech and Drama.

Richardson began her career in regional theatre at Leeds Playhouse, and in 1984 at the Open Air Theatre in London's Regent's Park, when Richardson appeared in A Midsummer Night's Dream with Ralph Fiennes and Richard E Grant.

Natasha Richardson made her Broadway debut in 1993, in the title role of Anna Christie, which is where Richardson met future husband Liam Neeson and was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play at the 47th Tony Awards.

In 1998, Natasha Richardson played the role of Sally Bowles in Sam Mendes' revival of Cabaret on Broadway, for which she won the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical at the 52nd Tony Awards.

In January 2009, two months before her death, Natasha Richardson played the role of Desiree Armfeldt in a concert production of Stephen Sondheim's A Little Night Music, with her mother Vanessa Redgrave, who played Madame Armfeldt.

In 1984, Natasha Richardson made her first credited screen appearance as an art tutor in the James Scott-directed Every Picture Tells A Story, based on the early life of the painter William Scott.

Natasha Richardson later starred as Mary Shelley in the 1986 film Gothic, a fictionalised account of the author's creation of Frankenstein.

In 1991, Natasha Richardson appeared in The Favour, the Watch and the Very Big Fish with Bob Hoskins.

Natasha Richardson later credited her with giving him the best kiss of his life during the film.

Natasha Richardson was named Best Actress at the 1994 Karlovy Vary International Film Festival for Widows' Peak and that same year appeared in Nell with Jodie Foster and future husband Liam Neeson.

Natasha Richardson appeared in the Disney film remake The Parent Trap in 1998 alongside Dennis Quaid, as Elizabeth James, the divorced mother of Lindsay Lohan's characters Hallie Parker and Annie James.

Natasha Richardson made her American television debut in a small role in the 1984 miniseries Ellis Island.

That same year, Natasha Richardson made her British television debut in an episode of the BBC series Oxbridge Blues.

Natasha Richardson appeared as a celebrity judge on Top Chef, season 5.

Natasha Richardson then met actor Liam Neeson while performing in a revival of the play Anna Christie on Broadway in 1993.

Natasha Richardson married Neeson in the summer of 1994 at the home they shared in Millbrook, New York; she had become a naturalised American citizen.

Natasha Richardson helped raise millions of dollars in the fight against AIDS; her father Tony Natasha Richardson had died of AIDS-related causes in 1991.

Natasha Richardson was actively involved in AmfAR, becoming a board member in 2006 and participating in many other AIDS charities, including Bailey House, God's Love We Deliver, Mothers' Voices, AIDS Crisis Trust and National AIDS Trust, for which Richardson was an ambassador.

Natasha Richardson received AmfAR's Award of Courage in November 2000.

On 16 March 2009, Natasha Richardson sustained a head injury when she fell while taking a beginner skiing lesson at the Mont Tremblant Resort, about 130 kilometres from Montreal.

Natasha Richardson was flown to Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City, where she died two days later from an epidural hematoma.

Natasha Richardson was buried near her maternal grandmother Rachel Kempson in the churchyard.