March 18, 2009, New York City, New York, United States
Fact
In one of the sketches on Saturday Night Live (1975) (20 March 1993), The Rain People, her character tells Phil Hartman's character that she draws inspiration for a particularly emotional scene from a childhood experience. She awoke after a bad crash, saw her father's face, and told him that she was alright. Then, she saw that it was just her father's severed head in her lap. This makes both actors cry, and produces a great scene for which Phil Hartman's character wins the Oscar. He takes credit for the scene and claims the story as his own (and messes up the details). Miranda's character is so angry she screams, "I want his severed head in my lap!" several times.
Miranda Jane Richardson (born 3 March 1958) is an English actress. She made her film debut playing Ruth Ellis in Dance with a Stranger (1985) and went on to receive Academy Award nominations for Damage (1992) and Tom & Viv (1994).
Richardson has also won Golden Globe Awards for Enchanted April (1992) and the television film Fatherland (1994). She has been nominated for two BAFTA Awards, three Drama Desk Awards, three Emmy Awards, and two Satellite Awards. She was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2010 Birthday Honours.
Richardson was born in Southport, Lancashire, the daughter of Marian Georgina (née Townsend), a housewife, and William Alan Richardson, a marketing executive. She has two sisters, Lindsay and Suzanne. She attended Holy Trinity Primary School and Merchant Taylors’ Girls’ School.
Richardson began her acting career on stage in 1977 with the Royal Shakespeare Company. She made her film debut in Dance with a Stranger (1985) and went on to appear in a number of period dramas, including Empire of the Sun (1987), The Crying Game (1992), Enchanted April (1992), for which she received a Golden Globe Award, Damage (1992), for which she was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, and Tom & Viv (1994), for which she was again nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.
Richardson has also appeared in a number of contemporary films, such as The Handmaid’s Tale (1990), The Apostle (1997), Sleepy Hollow (1999), Spider (2002), Made in Dagenham (2010), and Dark Shadows (2012). She has also appeared in the television films Fatherland (1994) and Rubicon (2010).
Richardson was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2010 Birthday Honours.
General Info
Full Name
Miranda Richardson
Date Of Birth
March 3, 1958
Died
March 18, 2009, New York City, New York, United States
Height
1.65 m
Profession
Voice Actor, Narrator
Education
Southport High School, Bristol Old Vic Theatre School
Family
Parents
William Alan Richardson, Marian Georgina Richardson
Siblings
Joely Richardson, Carlo Gabriel Nero, Katherine Grimond
Accomplishments
Awards
Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy, BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role, Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress in a Series, Miniseries, or Motion Picture Made for Television, National Board of Review Award for Best Actress
Nominations
Academy Award for Best Actress, Academy Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role, Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture – Drama, Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress – Motion Picture, BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role, Screen Actors Guild Award for Outs...
Movies
Sleepy Hollow, The Young Victoria, The Crying Game, Made in Dagenham, Enchanted April, Tom & Viv, Empire of the Sun, The Phantom of the Opera, The Hours, Chicken Run, The Prince and Me, Dance with a Stranger, Fred Claus, Get Carter, Maleficent, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Paris, I Love You,...
TV Shows
Parade's End, Rubicon, The Life and Times of Vivienne Vyle, Merlin, Screen Two, Blackadder, Blackadder II, A Woman of Substance, A Dance to the Music of Time, Operation Orangutan
Insecurity, commonly regarded as a weakness in normal people, is the basic tool of the actor's trade.
2
"Once the vodka gets flowing, you never know quite what's going to happen really." (on the Golden Globes)
3
You can have a laugh in Los Angeles, or you can weep in Los Angeles, depending on your attitude towards it.
4
Somebody referred to me as a ringleader, which I wouldn't have classed myself as, but anyway, there you go.
5
I would rather do many small roles on TV, stage or film than one blockbuster that made me rich but had no acting.
6
Why did I not stop to have children? I suppose because the opportunity didn't present itself. Yes, many women feel they are not complete without having children, but I have different creative outlets.
7
I like people to be surprised by the turn of events. I don't want things just to be pat and formulaic. If there's some sort of internal combustion in the character or a desire to change the way things are going, that makes for conflict, which is the essence of drama.
Involved, along with Sherilyn Fenn, Kate Winslet, Rufus Sewell and Paul McGann in the 1998 film project "Johnny Hit and Run Pauline". The film was to be executive produced by Emma Thompson, and written and directed by Fay Efrosini Lellios. The shooting was set to start in June 1998 in New Hampshire. The film was canceled due to financial withdrawal. [1998]
Turned down a major role in the second series of Desperate Housewives (2004) because it "snowballed into something that would be so disruptive" for her.
5
She won successive Spoken Word Awards in 2002 and 2003 for her reading of Francesca Simon's "Horrid Henry" in the audio books of the same name.
Graduated from the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School.
8
Nominated for the 1987 Laurence Olivier Award for "Actress of the Year" for her work in "A Lie of the Mind".
9
When Richardson was nominated for an Oscar for Best Actress in Tom & Viv (1994) she was seen as the least likely nominee to actually win. She was so unlikely and the film was so seldom heard of that a TNT public telephone poll cited her film as "Tom and Vic".
Cast, ironically, as Rita Skeeter, one of Hermione Granger's least favorite people, in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005), after she did an impersonation of Hermione in "Harry Potter and the Secret Chamberpot of Azibaijan", a Comic Relief sketch, in 2003.
12
In one of the sketches on Saturday Night Live (1975) (20 March 1993), The Rain People, her character tells Phil Hartman's character that she draws inspiration for a particularly emotional scene from a childhood experience. She awoke after a bad crash, saw her father's face, and told him that she was alright. Then, she saw that it was just her father's severed head in her lap. This makes both actors cry, and produces a great scene for which Phil Hartman's character wins the Oscar. He takes credit for the scene and claims the story as his own (and messes up the details). Miranda's character is so angry she screams, "I want his severed head in my lap!" several times.
13
One critic wrote that "Miranda Richardson has a face like an English sky".
14
Wanted to become a vet.
15
Grew up in Southport, Merseyside.
16
Gave up smoking after being hypnotised.
17
Father: William Alan Richardson (Marketing Executive). Mother: Marian Georgina Richardson. Sister: Lesley Richardson (Chiropodist, born in 1949).
18
Attended Southport High School for Girls (Southport, England)
19
Played roles in four unrelated movies in which her character was in charge of having heads cut off: Alice in Wonderland (1999), as the Queen of Hearts; Sleepy Hollow (1999), as Lady Van Tassel; Black-Adder II (1986), as Queen Elizabeth; and Chicken Run (2000), as Mrs. Tweedy.
performer: "Magical Lasso", "Notes", "Prima Donna", "Masquerade", "Down Once More/Track Down This Murderer"
Thanks
Title
Year
Status
Character
Poetry, Passion, the Postman: The Poetic Return of Pablo Neruda
1996
TV Movie documentary thanks
Self
Title
Year
Status
Character
Wah Wah in Swaziland
2005
Video documentary
Herself / Lauren Compton
The Sharon Osbourne Show
2004
TV Series
Herself - Guest
The Orange British Academy Film Awards
2004
TV Movie documentary
Herself
The BAFTA TV Awards 2004
2004
TV Movie documentary
Herself
Britain's Best Sitcom
2004
TV Series
Herself
V Graham Norton
2003
TV Series
Herself - Guest
47 premis Sant Jordi de cinematografía
2003
TV Special
Herself - Winner: Best Foreign Actress
Harmony in Hanoi
2003
TV Movie documentary
Narrator
Comic Relief 2003: The Big Hair Do
2003
TV Special
Hermione Granger
Shooting Stars
2002
TV Series
Herself
Sleepy Hollow: Behind the Legend
2000
Video documentary short
Herself / Lady Mary Van Tassel / The Western Woods Crone
Poultry in Motion: The Making of 'Chicken Run'
2000
TV Movie documentary
Herself
The Hatching of 'Chicken Run'
2000
TV Short documentary
Herself
The James Bond Story
1999
TV Movie documentary
Narrator (voice)
Jools's Hootenanny
1998
TV Series
Herself
Brunch
1998
TV Series
Herself
Exclusive
1998
TV Series documentary
Herself
Off the Menu: The Last Days of Chasen's
1997
Documentary
Herself (uncredited)
Poetry, Passion, the Postman: The Poetic Return of Pablo Neruda
1996
TV Movie documentary
Herself
The 67th Annual Academy Awards
1995
TV Special
Herself - Nominee: Best Actress in a Leading Role
The 52nd Annual Golden Globe Awards
1995
TV Special
Herself - Winner: Best Actress in a Supporting Role in a Series, Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for TV & Nominee: Best Actress in a Motion Picture - Drama
Charlie Rose
1994
TV Series
Herself - Guest
Showbiz Today
1994
TV Series
Herself
Equinox
1994
TV Series
Narrator
Cinema 3
1993
TV Series
Herself
The 65th Annual Academy Awards
1993
TV Special
Herself - Nominated: Best Actress in a Supporting Role
The Arsenio Hall Show
1993
TV Series
Herself - Guest
Saturday Night Live
1993
TV Series
Herself - Host
The 50th Annual Golden Globe Awards
1993
TV Special
Herself - Winner: Best Actress in a Motion Picture - Comedy / Musical & Nominee: Best Actress in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture
