Miranda Richardson
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Miranda Jane Richardson (born 3 March 1958)<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> is an English actress who has worked in film, television and theatre.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
After graduating from the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School,<ref name=":3">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Richardson began her career in 1979 and made her West End debut in the 1981 play Moving,<ref name=":3" /> 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<ref name=":4">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> and the Academy Award for Best Actress for Tom & Viv.<ref name=":4" /> A seven-time BAFTA Award nominee,<ref name=":1">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> she won the BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role for Damage.<ref name=":1" /> She has also been nominated for seven Golden Globe Awards,<ref name=":2">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> winning twice for Enchanted April<ref name=":2" /> and the TV film Fatherland.<ref name=":2" />
Her other films include Empire of the Sun,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The Crying Game,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Sleepy Hollow,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> The Hours, and Spider.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
Richardson also voiced Mrs Tweedy from Aardman's 2000 stop-motion film Chicken Run and its 2023 sequel.
Early lifeEdit
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."<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
CareerEdit
TheatreEdit
Richardson enrolled at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School,<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> 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,<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> 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.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Richardson has said that she prefers new works rather than the classics because of the history which goes with them.<ref name=":0">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
Film and televisionEdit
Template:BLP sources 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.<ref name=":0" /> 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 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.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref>
Additionally, she played Labour politician Barbara Castle in the British film Made in Dagenham.<ref>Template:Cite newsTemplate:Cbignore</ref>
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.<ref name="StrombergMandatoryInterview">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> In 2015, she played Sybil Birling in Helen Edmundson's BBC One adaptation of J. B. Priestley's An Inspector Calls.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Richardson reprised her role as the voice of Mrs Tweedy in the 2023 film, Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
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."<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
Personal lifeEdit
Richardson's hobbies include dog walking, gardening and falconry. In 2013, she began learning the cello.<ref name=":0" /><ref name="radiotimes">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
FilmographyEdit
Awards and nominationsEdit
ReferencesEdit
External linksEdit
- [https://www.imdb.com/{{#if: 0001669
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