Richardson's parents divorced in 1967.[5] The following year, she made her film debut at the age of four in an uncredited role in The Charge of the Light Brigade, directed by her father.[2]
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. She appeared in the Disney film remake The Parent Trap in 1998 alongside Dennis Quaid, as Elizabeth James, the divorced mother of Lindsay Lohan. Additional film credits include Blow Dry (2001), Chelsea Walls (2001), Waking Up in Reno (2002), Maid in Manhattan (2002), Asylum (2005), which won her a second Evening Standard Award for Best Actress, The White Countess (2005), and Evening (2007). Her last screen appearance was as headmistress of a girls' school in the 2008 comedy Wild Child. During the last week of January 2009, she recorded her offscreen role as the wife of climber George Mallory, who disappeared while climbing Mount Everest during a 1924 expedition, in the 2010 documentary film The Wildest Dream, for which Liam Neeson provided narration. Director Anthony Geffen described listening to the film since her death as "harrowing".[11]
Television
Richardson made her American television debut in a small role in the 1984 miniseries Ellis Island. That same year she made her British television debut in an episode of the BBC series Oxbridge Blues. The following year she appeared as Violet Hunter with Jeremy Brett and David Burke in The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes in the episode entitled "The Copper Beeches". She starred with Judi Dench, Michael Gambon and Kenneth Branagh in a 1987 BBC adaptation of the Henrik Ibsen play Ghosts; with Maggie Smith and Rob Lowe in a 1993 BBC adaptation of Suddenly, Last Summer by Tennessee Williams; as Zelda Fitzgerald in the 1993 television movie Zelda; and Haven (2001) on CBS and The Mastersons of Manhattan (2007) on NBC. She appeared as a celebrity judge on Top Chef, season 5.
Personal life
Richardson's first marriage was to filmmaker Robert Fox, whom she had met in 1985, during the making of Anton Chekhov's The Seagull; they were married from 1990 to 1992.[12] She married actor Liam Neeson in the summer of 1994 at the home they shared in Millbrook, New York;[13] she had become a naturalised American citizen.[14] Richardson had two sons with Neeson: Micheál (born 1995) and Daniel (born 1996).
She helped raise millions of dollars in the fight against AIDS; her father Tony Richardson had died of AIDS-related causes in 1991.[15] She was also 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 she was an ambassador. She received amfAR's Award of Courage in November 2000.[16]
On 16 March 2009, Richardson sustained a head injury when she fell while taking a beginner skiing lesson at the Mont Tremblant Resort, about 130 kilometres (81 mi) from Montreal.[20] At first, she refused any medical help but complained of a severe headache about two hours after the accident.[21] She was flown to Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City, where she died two days later from an epidural hematoma.[22] Richardson's family issued a statement on the day of her death: "Liam Neeson, his sons, and the entire family are shocked and devastated by the tragic death of their beloved Natasha. They are profoundly grateful for the support, love, and prayers of everyone, and ask for privacy during this very difficult time."[23]
On 19 March 2009, theatre lights were dimmed on Broadway in Manhattan and in the West End of London as a mark of respect for Richardson.[24] The following day, a private viewing was held at the American Irish Historical Society in Manhattan.[25] On 22 March 2009, a private funeral was held at St. Peter's Episcopal Church near Millbrook, New York,[26] close to the family's upstate home. Richardson was buried near her maternal grandmother Rachel Kempson in the churchyard.[27] Richardson's aunt, Lynn Redgrave, was buried in the same churchyard on 8 May 2010, near Richardson and Kempson.[28]
^Bearn, Emily (27 April 2003). "Prime Time for Natasha". The Daily Telegraph. London. Archived from the original on 31 March 2009. Retrieved 19 February 2009.
