Detailed Biography

Miranda Jane Richardson is an English stage, film and television actress. She has been nominated for two Academy Awards, and has won two Golden Globes and a BAFTA during her career.

Early life

Richardson was born and raised in Southport, Lancashire, to Marian Georgina , a housewife, and William Alan Richardson, a marketing executive. The second daughter in a middle-class family, she revealed a talent for acting from an early age. She had originally intended to study veterinary medicine, but her squeamishness made this impractical.

Career

Theatre

Richardson enrolled at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, where she studied alongside Daniel Day-Lewis, having started out with juvenile performances in Cinderella and Lord Arthur Savile's Crime at the Southport Dramatic Club. Before making a name for herself as a screen star, she enjoyed a hugely successful and extensive theatre career, making her stage debut in Moving at the Queen's Theatre in 1981. Soon afterwards, she appeared in repertory theatre, until she found recognition in the West End for a series of highly praised stage performances, ultimately receiving an Olivier Award nomination for her performance in A Lie of the Mind, and in 1996 being cited as "the greatest actress of our time in any medium" by one critic after she appeared in Orlando |Orlando at the Edinburgh Festival.

In May 2009, Richardson returned to the London stage for the first time in 10 years, playing the lead in Wallace Shawn's new play, Grasses of a Thousand Colours at the Royal Court Theatre.

Film and television

In 1985, Richardson made her film debut as Ruth Ellis, the last woman to be hanged in the United Kingdom, in Mike Newell's critically acclaimed biographical drama, Dance With A Stranger. Her performance won her much praise, and within a year she had been cast by Steven Spielberg to appear in his World War II drama, Empire of the Sun .

Richardson is well-known for her role as an infantile Queen Elizabeth I, aka Queenie, in the British television comedy Blackadder II . She returned to that role for a Christmas special and a special edition for the millennium .

Her portrayal of a troubled theatre-goer in Secret Friends was described as "a miniature tour de force... Miranda Richardson's finest hour, all in ten minutes" . Other television roles include Pamela Flitton in A Dance to the Music of Time , Miss Gilchrist in St. Ives , Bettina the obsessive-compulsive interior decorator in Absolutely Fabulous, the sadistic Queen Elspeth in Hallmark's Snow White: The Fairest Of Them All , and the emotionally repressed Queen Mary in The Lost Prince .

Richardson has appeared in a number of high-profile supporting roles in the cinema, 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, beating a quartet of Hollywood heavyweights: Geena Davis, Whoopi Goldberg, Shirley MacLaine and Meryl Streep. She received Academy Award nominations for her performances in Damage and Tom & Viv.

Her extensive film credits include stints in a number of critically acclaimed independent features, among them Robert Altman's Kansas City , Robert Duvall's The Apostle and Richard E. Grant's Wah-Wah . In 2002, she performed a triple-role stint alongside Ralph Fiennes in David Cronenberg's acclaimed thriller Spider, a film that won her several international critics awards.

Richardson also appeared as Queen Rosalind of Denmark in the Julia Stiles vehicle The Prince and Me and as the ballet mistress Madame Giry in the long-awaited film version of The Phantom Of The Opera, starring Gerard Butler and Emmy Rossum. In 2005 she appeared in the high-profile role of Rita Skeeter, the toxic Daily Prophet journalist in Harry Potter And The Goblet Of Fire and has since appeared in a number of critically acclaimed but low-profile feature films. In 2006 she appeared alongside Bill Nighy in Stephen Poliakoff's multi-Golden Globe winning BBC drama, Gideon's Daughter. She played Mrs. Claus in the film Fred Claus , co-starring Vince Vaughn and Paul Giamatti.

Richardson teamed up alongside Absolutely Fabulous star Jennifer Saunders in the BBC sitcom, The Life and Times of Vivienne Vyle. She appeared as a guest on Nigel Slater's A Taste of my Life in which she cooked dishes including lamb tagine and huevos rancheros.

It was announced in December 2008 that Richardson was cast in a leading role in original AMC pilot, Rubicon. She will reportedly play a New York socialite who finds herself drawn into the central intrigue of a think tank, after the death of her husband.

Additionally, she will play Labour politician Barbara Castle in the upcoming British film Dagenham Girls.

Personal life

Currently, Richardson lives in West London with her two cats, Otis and Waldo, and her dogs Liv and Ivo. Her hobbies include drawing, walking, gardening, fashion, falconry, and music.

Theatre roles