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Miranda Richardson

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Miranda Richardson
Richardson at the press conference for Stronger, Toronto International Film Festival 2017
Born
Miranda Jane Richardson

(1958-03-03) 3 March 1958 (age 66)
Southport, Lancashire, England
Alma materBristol Old Vic Theatre School
OccupationActress
Years active1978–present

Miranda Jane Richardson (born 3 March 1958)[1] is an English actress who has worked in film, television and theatre.[2][3]

After graduating from the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School,[4] Richardson began her career in 1979 and made her West End debut in the 1981 play Moving,[4] before being nominated for the 1987 Olivier Award for Best Actress for A Lie of the Mind.

Richardson has been nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for Damage[5] and the Academy Award for Best Actress for Tom & Viv.[5] A seven-time BAFTA Award nominee,[6] she won the BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role for Damage.[6] She has also been nominated for seven Golden Globe Awards,[7] winning twice for Enchanted April[7] and the TV film Fatherland.[7]

Her other films include Empire of the Sun,[8][9] The Crying Game,[10][11] Sleepy Hollow,[12] The Hours, and Spider.[13][14]

Early life

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Richardson was born in Southport, Lancashire. She recalls "a cinema about 50 yards from my house. So Saturday mornings were spent with The ABC Minors: the Saturday cinema club with the theme song set to the tune of Blaze Away by Abe Holzmann, a red ball bouncing over the lyrics so you could sing along. As I got older, I would go to the cinema by myself to watch matinees of westerns and historical Technicolor dramas."[15]

Career

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Theatre

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Richardson enrolled at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School,[16] where she studied alongside Daniel Day-Lewis and Jenny Seagrove, having started out with juvenile performances in Cinderella and Lord Arthur Savile's Crime at the Southport Dramatic Club.

Richardson joined the Manchester Library Theatre in 1979 as an assistant stage manager, followed by a number of appearances in repertory theatre. Her London stage debut was in Moving at the Queen's Theatre in 1981. She found recognition in the West End for a series of stage performances, ultimately receiving an Olivier Award nomination for her performance in A Lie of the Mind,[17] and, in 1996, she appeared in the single-actor theatrical adaptation of Orlando at the Edinburgh Festival. She returned to the London stage in May 2009 to play the lead role in Wallace Shawn's new play, Grasses of a Thousand Colours at the Royal Court Theatre.[18] Richardson has said that she prefers new works rather than the classics because of the history which goes with them.[19]

Film and television

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In 1985, Richardson made her film debut as Ruth Ellis, the last woman to be hanged in the United Kingdom, in the biographical drama Dance with a Stranger. Around the same time, Richardson played a comedic Queen Elizabeth I, aka Queenie, in the British television comedy Blackadder II.

Following Dance with a Stranger, Richardson turned down numerous parts in which her character was unstable or disreputable, including the Glenn Close role in Fatal Attraction.[19] In this period, she appeared in Empire of the Sun (1987). In an episode of the TV series The Storyteller ("The Three Ravens", 1988), she played a witch. Meanwhile, she returned in guest roles in one episode each in Blackadder the Third (1987) and Blackadder Goes Forth (1989). She returned to play Queenie in the Christmas special Blackadder's Christmas Carol (1988) and, later, a special edition for the millennium Blackadder: Back and Forth.

Other television roles include Pamela Flitton in A Dance to the Music of Time (1997), Miss Gilchrist in St. Ives (1998), Bettina the interior decorator in Absolutely Fabulous, Queen Elspeth, Snow White's stepmother, in Snow White: The Fairest of Them All (2001), and Queen Mary in The Lost Prince (2003).

Richardson at Metropolitan Opera's 2010–2011 Season Opening Night of Das Rheingold

Richardson has appeared in supporting roles in film, including Vanessa Bell in The Hours, Lady Van Tassel in Sleepy Hollow and Patsy Carpenter in The Evening Star. She also won acclaim for her performances in The Crying Game and Enchanted April, for which she won a Golden Globe. She received Academy Award nominations for her performances in Damage and Tom & Viv.

Her film credits also include Kansas City (1996), The Apostle (1997) and Wah-Wah (2005). She voiced Mrs Tweedy, the main antagonist, in the stop-motion animated film, Chicken Run (2000). In 2002, she performed a triple role in the thriller Spider.

Richardson also appeared as Queen Rosalind of Denmark in The Prince and Me and as the ballet mistress Madame Giry in the film version of the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical The Phantom of the Opera (2004). In 2005, she appeared in the role of Rita Skeeter, the toxic Daily Prophet journalist in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. She also did the voice for Corky in The Adventures of Bottle Top Bill and His Best Friend Corky (2005), an Australian animated series for children. In 2006, she appeared in Gideon's Daughter. She played Mrs Claus in the film Fred Claus (2007).

Richardson appeared in the BBC sitcom, The Life and Times of Vivienne Vyle.

In 2008, Richardson was cast in a leading role in the original AMC pilot, Rubicon. She plays Katherine Rhumor, a New York socialite who finds herself drawn into the central intrigue of a think tank after the death of her husband.[20]

Additionally, she played Labour politician Barbara Castle in the British film Made in Dagenham.[21]

In 2014, Richardson was cast as Queen Ulla in Maleficent, where she was to play the titular character's aunt, but her role was cut from the film during post-production.[22] In 2015, she played Sybil Birling in Helen Edmundson's BBC One adaptation of J. B. Priestley's An Inspector Calls.[23] Richardson reprised her role as the voice of Mrs Tweedy in the 2023 film, Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget.[24]

In 2015, she was cast as Emily Brent in BBC One's three-part adaptation of Dame Agatha Christie's 1939 novel "And Then There Were None."[25]

Personal life

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Richardson's hobbies include dog walking, gardening and falconry. In 2013, she began learning the cello.[19][26]

It is sometimes assumed that she is related to Joely Richardson and the late Natasha Richardson, especially as they were close contemporaries, but she is in fact no relation.[27]

Filmography

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Main article: List of Miranda Richardson performances

Awards and nominations

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Year Award Work Result Notes
1987 Olivier Award for Best Actress A Lie of the Mind Nominated
1988 BAFTA TV Award for Best Actress After Pilkington Nominated [6]
1993 Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Comedy or Musical Enchanted April Won [7]
Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress – Motion Picture Damage Nominated [7]
BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role Won [6]
The Crying Game Nominated [6]
Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress Damage Nominated [5]
1995 Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Drama Tom & Viv Nominated [7]
Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress – Television Fatherland Won [7]
Academy Award for Best Actress Tom & Viv Nominated [5][28]
BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role Nominated [6]
1998 BAFTA TV Award for Best Actress A Dance to the Music of Time Nominated [6]
1999 Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Miniseries or Television Film Merlin Nominated [7]
2000 Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress – Television The Big Brass Ring Nominated [7]
Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actress Sleepy Hollow Nominated
2003 Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture The Hours Nominated
2004 BAFTA TV Award for Best Actress The Lost Prince Nominated [6]
2005 Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Miniseries or Television Film Nominated [7]
2011 BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role Made in Dagenham Nominated [6]
2015 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Narrator Operation Orangutan Nominated [29]

References

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  1. ^ "Miranda Richardson | | guardian.co.uk Film". www.theguardian.com. Archived from the original on 15 August 2023. Retrieved 15 August 2023.
  2. ^ Patterson, John (28 December 2002). "Long live the Queen". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 15 August 2023.
  3. ^ "Classic interview: Miranda Richardson". The Observer. 29 August 2009. ISSN 0029-7712. Retrieved 15 August 2023.
  4. ^ a b BBC. "BBC - Comedy - People A-Z - Miranda Richardson". www.bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 15 August 2023.
  5. ^ a b c d "Academy Awards Database Search | Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences". awardsdatabase.oscars.org. Archived from the original on 15 August 2023. Retrieved 15 August 2023.
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i "BAFTA Awards Search | BAFTA Awards". awards.bafta.org. Archived from the original on 15 August 2023. Retrieved 15 August 2023.
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j "Miranda Richardson". Golden Globes. Archived from the original on 15 August 2023. Retrieved 15 August 2023.
  8. ^ Maslin, Janet (9 December 1987). "Film: Spielberg's 'Empire of Sun' (Published 1987)". The New York Times. Retrieved 15 August 2023.
  9. ^ "Empire Of The Sun | Film | The Guardian". www.theguardian.com. Retrieved 15 August 2023.
  10. ^ Specter, Michael (27 December 1992). "FILM; Miranda Richardson: Running From Typecasters (Published 1992)". The New York Times. Retrieved 15 August 2023.
  11. ^ Maslin, Janet (4 December 1992). "Critic's Choice/Film; A Thriller That Runs Deep (Published 1992)". The New York Times. Retrieved 15 August 2023.
  12. ^ Weinraub, Bernard (19 November 1999). "AT THE MOVIES (Published 1999)". The New York Times. Retrieved 15 August 2023.
  13. ^ Kehr, Dave (23 February 2003). "FILM; Awaking to the Nightmares of His Youth (Published 2003)". The New York Times. Retrieved 15 August 2023.
  14. ^ Holden, Stephen (28 February 2003). "FILM REVIEW; Into Sinister Webs Of a Jumbled Mind (Published 2003)". The New York Times. Retrieved 15 August 2023.
  15. ^ "Miranda Richardson's teenage obsessions: 'I rescued a kestrel and became fascinated by birds of prey'". The Guardian. 4 February 2021. Retrieved 5 February 2021.
  16. ^ "Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, Past Graduates". Archived from the original on 25 September 2009.
  17. ^ "The Society of London Theatre, Olivier Winners 1987". Officiallondontheatre.co.uk. Archived from the original on 13 February 2012. Retrieved 3 May 2010.
  18. ^ "Royal Court Theatre website". Royalcourttheatre.com. Archived from the original on 21 September 2020. Retrieved 3 May 2010.
  19. ^ a b c Cochrane, Kira (20 April 2013). "Miranda Richardson: 'I hate our sneering attitude to success'". The Guardian. Retrieved 27 June 2021.
  20. ^ "Trio sneaking up on AMC pilot". Hollywood Reporter. Archived from the original on 2 January 2009. Retrieved 1 January 2022.
  21. ^ Singh, Anita (16 May 2009). "Sally Hawkins to star in strike film We Want Sex". The Daily Telegraph. Archived from the original on 11 January 2022. Retrieved 7 March 2010.
  22. ^ Bibbiani, William (27 May 2014). "Maleficent: Director Robert Stromberg on True Love and Reshoots". Mandatory. Archived from the original on 2 June 2014. Retrieved 1 January 2022.
  23. ^ "BBC – David Thewlis to lead cast of BBC One's adaptation of JB Priestley's An Inspector Calls". BBC Media Centre. 30 January 2015. Retrieved 19 January 2023.
  24. ^ Ritman, Alex (5 September 2023). "Mrs. Tweedy Returns for More Fowl Play in 'Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget' Teaser". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 7 September 2023.
  25. ^ "BBC One - and then There Were None".
  26. ^ Duncan, Andrew (29 December 2014). "Miranda Richardson discusses her new role as Miss Elizabeth Mapp". Radio Times. Immediate Media Company. Retrieved 3 October 2015.
  27. ^ "Miranda Richardson (Creator)". TV Tropes. Retrieved 29 March 2024.
  28. ^ "In Contention for Academy Awards (Published 1995)". The New York Times. 15 February 1995. Retrieved 15 August 2023.
  29. ^ "Miranda Richardson". Television Academy. Archived from the original on 15 August 2023. Retrieved 15 August 2023.
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