Natasha Richardson, the actress

Natasha Richardson and Vanessa Redgrave in Evening                      All Movie Photo

Natasha Jane Richardson, born in London to a family known as a theatrical and film acting dynasty.  She was the daughter to director and producer Tony Richardson and actress Vanessa Redgrave. Also niece of actress Lynn Redgrave , actor Corin Redgrave, and cousin Jemma Redgrave.  The Redgraves are unique, standing apart as a family of acting artists of incomparable integrity and achievement in the 20th century.

At the age of four Ms Richardson made her film debut in an uncredited role in The Charge of the Light Brigade, directed by her father.  She was educated in London at two independent schools before training at the Central School of Speech and Drama.

Theatre was where Richardson began her acting career, as a young adult, at the West Yorkshire Playhouse in Leeds and was part of multiple London stage productions until she began her work in film.

Ms. Richardson’s first film work was portraying Mary Shelley in Gothic (1986) and as the lead in Patty Hearst (1988).  A sampling of other films to follow were Nell, Widows’ Peak, The Parent Trap, Maid in Manhattan...   In 2008, (as far as I know), was her last screen performance as voicing climber George Mallory’s wife in The Wildest Dream; Liam Neeson provided narration for the film.  

In television, her debut was a small role in the 1984 CBS miniseries Ellis Island.  That same year she made her UK television debut in an episode of the BBC series Oxford Blues.  Among her many other television roles, one stands out, that being when she starred with Judi Dench, Michael Gambon, and Kenneth Branagh in a 1987 BBC adaptation of the Henrik Ibsen play Ghosts - more to follow.  In 2007, was The Mastersons of Manhattan on NBC.  

Awards were Theatre World Award, Tony Award, Drama Desk Award and the Outer Critics Circle Award.  Just some of her notable films included Nell (1994), Parent Trap (1998), and Maid in Manhattan (2002).

I never saw Natasha Richardson perform on stage or in television but what films I did see her in I was taken aback.  I saw her as a talent who could take on a challenge.  I did not feel she was “stuck in genre;” her performances were unique for each character.  I never saw “Natasha,” I only saw whomever she was portraying - either it be with a sense of wisdom, strength vulnerability, depth, humor - Natasha acted however she felt at the time to give each character life!
                                                                                                                                                                                    

 Related Link:

 Liam Neeson accepts first acting role since Natasha's death