Miranda Richardson Biography
The following biography
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Free Encyclopedia.
Miranda Richardson (Born 3 March 1958, in
Southport, Lancashire) is a British actress, noted for her distinctive
ability to deeply delve into the minds of the characters she plays.
****
Biography
The second daughter of middle-class
parents, she had a talent for acting from an early age.
Richardson had originally intended to study
veterinary medicine, but her squeamishness made this impossible. She
enrolled at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, where she studied
alongside Daniel Day-Lewis. In 1981, she made her stage debut in Moving
at the Queen's Theatre in London.
Three years later, she made her big screen
debut as platinum blonde nightclub hostess 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 in that film
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 (1987).
Richardson is perhaps best known for her
role as infantile Queen Elizabeth I, aka Queenie, in the cult British
comedy Blackadder. Other television roles include the bitchy Pamela
Flitton in A Dance to the Music of Time (1997), Miss Gilchrist in St.
Ives (1998), Bettina (the obsessive compulsive interior decorator) in
Absolutely Fabulous, The Wicked Stepmother Hallmark's "Snow White: The
Fairest of Them All", along with Kristin Kreuk (2001) and the
emotionally repressed Queen Mary in The Lost Prince (2003).
As well as 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 has 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.
Two Academy Award nominations (for Damage
and Tom & Viv) have not altered the actress's modesty. She refuses to
discuss her private life in interviews, and takes both leading and
supporting roles in a variety of different genres.
Her extensive film credits have included
worthy stints in a number of critically acclaimed independent features,
among them Robert Altman's Kansas City (1996), Robert Duvall's The
Apostle (1997) and Richard E. Grant's Wah-Wah (2005). In 2002, she wowed
critics with a double-role stint (as Mrs Cleg and Yvonne) alongside
Ralph Fiennes in David Cronenberg's acclaimed thriller Spider, a film
that won Richardson a bevy of international critics awards.
More recently, Richardson appeared as Queen
Rosalind of Denmark in the Julia Stiles vehicle The Prince and Me, and
the ballet mistress Madame Giry in the long-awaited film version of The
Phantom of the Opera, starring Gerard Butler and Emmy Rossum. Her latest
screen incarnation is in the guise of Rita Skeeter, the toxic Daily
Prophet journalist in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, released in
November 2005.
She currently resides in her London home,
and also has a Wiltshire retreat, with her two cats, two dogs and an
axolotl.
Declined roles
According to the Internet Movie Database,
Miranda Richardson has turned down roles in films such as Fatal
Attraction (Glenn Close), Waterworld (Sinead Cusack), Rob Roy (Jessica
Lange), Howard's End (Emma Thompson), and a plum recurring role in hit
ABC TV show Desperate Housewives in 2005. She was also considered as a
major contender by the studios, for the role of the White Witch in the
2005 fantasy adventure The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and
the Wardrobe.
Projects in production
Miranda has a number of film and television
projects in various stages of production:
Gideon's Daughter [TV] (Completed) Stella
Provoked (Completed) Veronica Scott
Merlin's Apprentice [TV] (Completed) Lady
of the Lake
Southland Tales (Post-Production)
Spinning Into Butter (Post-Production)
Catherine Kenney
Puffball (Pre-Production) Mabs
Bad Blood (Pre-Production) Valma Stockton
Other upcoming projects include a Sky One
documentary to be filmed in Madagascar focusing on the endangered
aye-aye, and any future Harry Potter film that requires her character,
Rita Skeeter.
Filmography
Dance with a Stranger (1985) Ruth Ellis
Underworld (1985) Oriel
The Innocent (1985) Mary Turner
Blackadder II (1985) (TV) Queenie
After Pilkington (1986) Penny
The Death of the Heart (1986) Daphne
Heccomb
Eat the Rich (1987) DHSS Blonde
Empire of the Sun (1987) Mrs Victor
Ball Trap on the Cote Sauvage (1989) Early
Bird
The Bachelor (1990) Frederica
The Fool (1990) Columbine/Rosalind/Ophelia
Twisted Obsession (1990) Marilyn
Old Times (1990) Anna
Die Kinder (1990) (TV) Sidonie Reiger
The Crying Game (1992) Jude O'Hara
Damage (1992) Ingrid Fleming
Enchanted April (1992) Rose Arbuthnot
Century (1993) Clara
The Line, the Cross and the Curve (1993)
Mysterious woman
Tom & Viv (1994) Vivienne Haigh-Wood
Fatherland (1994) Charlie Maguire
The Night and the Moment (1994) Julie
The Evening Star (1996) Patsy Carpenter
Kansas City (1996) Carolyn Stilton
The Designated Mourner (1997) Judy
Saint-Ex (1997) Consuelo
The Apostle (1997) Toosie
St. Ives (1998) Miss Gilchrist
Merlin (1998) Queen Mab/The Lady of the
Lake
The Big Brass Ring (1999) Dinah Pellarin
Sleepy Hollow (1999) Lady Mary Van
Tassel/Crone
Get Carter (2000) Gloria Carter
Chicken Run (2000) Mrs Tweedy
The Hours (2002) Vanessa Bell
Spider (2002) Yvonne/Mrs. Cleg
The Lost Prince (2003) (TV) Queen Mary
The Prince and Me (2004) Queen Rosalind
Churchill: The Hollywood Years (2004) Eva
Braun
The Phantom of the Opera (2004) Madame Giry
Midsummer Dream (2005) Queen Titania
(voice)
Wah-Wah (2005) Lauren Compton
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005)
Rita Skeeter
Theatre
Before making a name for herself as a
screen star, Miranda Richardson had previously led a hugely successful
and extensive theatre career. Starting out with juvenile performances in
Cinderella (the title role) and Lord Arthur Saville's Crime (as Sybil
Merton) at the Southport Dramatic Club, the young thespian enrolled at
the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, making her stage debut in Moving at
the Queen's Theatre, London. Soon afterwards, Richardson appeared in
reportory 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.
Repertory theatre
Savage Amusement (Hazel)
Stags and Hens (Linda)
All My Sons (Ann)
Sisterly Feelings (Brenda)
Ten Times Table (Phillipa)
Whose Life is it Anyway (Kay Sadler)
Play it Again Sam (Linda Christie)
Tom Jones (Sophie Western)
Educating Rita (Rita)
Professional theatre
Moving (Jane Gladwin)
The Table of the Two Horseman (Katie Wyld)
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf (Honey)
The Maids (Madame)
Insignificance (The Actress)
Life of Einstein (?)
Edmond (Glenna)
A Lie of the Mind (Beth)
The Changeling (Beatrice-Joanna)
Mountain Language (Young Woman)
Etta Jenks (Etta Jenks)
The Designated Mourner (Judy)
Orlando (Orlando)
Aunt Dan and Lemon (Aunt Dan)
The Play What I Wrote (Herself)
Awards and nominations
Academy Award: (nominee) Damage (1993)
Academy Award: (nominee) Tom & Viv (1995)
BAFTA: (nominee) After Pilkington (1988)
BAFTA: (winner) Damage (1993)
BAFTA: (nominee) The Crying Game (1993)
BAFTA: (nominee) Tom & Viv (1994)
BAFTA: (nominee) A Dance to the Music of
Time (1998)
BAFTA: (nominee) The Lost Prince (2004)
Golden Globe: (winner) Enchanted April
(1993)
Golden Globe: (nominee) Damage (1993)
Golden Globe: (nominee) Tom & Viv (1995)
Golden Globe: (winner) Fatherland (1995)
Golden Globe: (nominee) Merlin (1999)
Golden Globe: (nominee) The Big Brass Ring
(2000)
Golden Globe: (nominee) The Lost Prince
(2005)
National Board of Review Best Actress
winner Tom & Viv (1994)
****
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Date Article Copied:
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