British Actress. She is best remembered for her role of Sally Bowles in the Broadway musical “Cabaret” (1998) and as Elizabeth James in the movie “The Parent Trap” (1998). A member of the acting Redgrave family, she was born Natasha Jane Richardson, the daughter of actress Vanessa Redgrave and director/producer Tony Richardson, and niece of actress Lynn Redgrave and actor Corin Redgrave.  Raised in London, it was only natural that she took an early interest in an acting career.  After graduating from St. Paul’s Girl’s school in London, she took acting training at London’s Central School of Speech and Drama.  Over the next twenty-five years, she would mix stage acting, movie acting and television, becoming a versatile actress in all three mediums.  Richardson began her stage acting at the regional theater of the West Yorkshire Playhouse, in Leeds, England, and was in the London stage presentation of “The Seagull” in 1985.  Shortly afterwards, she starred in the London stage production of “High Society.”  In 1998, she won the Tony Award for her performance in the stage version of “Cabaret.”  She was nominated the following year for a Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actress in a Play for her Broadway role in “Closer” and in 2005, appeared in the role of Blanche in “A Streetcar Named Desire.”  In 1986, she began adding films to her list of acting credits, with the lead role of Mary Shelley in “Gothic” (1986).   Two years later, she appeared in the title role in the docudrama “Patty Hearst” (1988).   She was named Best Actress at the 1994 Karlovy Vary International Film Festival for “Widows’ Peak” (1994), and appeared in the film “Nell” (1994) opposite her future husband, Liam Neeson.  Over the next several years, she became a familiar actress with American audiences in such films as “The Parent Trap” (1998),  “Blow Dry” (2001), “Maid in Manhattan” (2002), “The White Countess” (2005), and “Evening” (2007).  Her last role was in “The Wildest Dream” (2009), as the voice of the off-screen wife of British mountain climber George Mallory, who died while climbing Mount Everest in 1924.  She was first married to filmmaker Robert Fox, from 1990 to 1992, with the marriage ending in divorce.  Two years later, she married actor Liam Neeson, sharing a home in Millbrook, New York.  Liam and Natasha would have two sons:  Michael and Daniel.  When her father, Tony Richardson, died of AIDS in 1991, she became active in AmfAR the Foundation for AIDS Research, a non-profit international organization for HIV and AIDS research, education and public policy, and several other AIDS charities.  On March 16, 2009, she fell while taking a skiing lesson at the Mount Tremblant Resort in Quebec, Canada.  Initially, she appeared fine, but within several hours she complained of a massive headache, and was taken to a local hospital. Her condition was quickly diagnosed and she was immediately transferred to a hospital in nearby Montreal, admitted about seven hours after the injury.  The next day, she was flown to Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City, where she died on March 18, due to an epidural hematoma (blood vessel rupture in the head due to blunt force trauma).  Her death has been ruled an accident.  She was buried in a private funeral at St. Peter’s Episcopal Church in Millbrook, New York, where she is buried near her grandmother, Rachel, in the church cemetery. (bio by: Kit and Morgan Benson)  Family links:  Parents:  Tony Richardson (1928 – 1991) Inscription:ActressDevoted Wife And Mother