Miranda Richardson
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| Miranda Richardson | |
 Richardson as Queenie in Blackadder II (1986) |
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| Born | March 3, 1958 (age 49) Southport, Merseyside, UK  |
| Notable roles | Queenie in Blackadder II, Lady Van Tassel in Sleepy Hollow |
| Academy Awards | |
|---|---|
| Nominated: Best Actress 1994 Tom & Viv Nominated: Best Supporting Actress 1992 Damage |
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| Golden Globe Awards | |
| Best Actress - Motion Picture Musical or Comedy 1993 Enchanted April Best Supporting Actress - Mini-series 1995 Fatherland |
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| BAFTA Awards | |
| Best Supporting Actress 1992 Damage |
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Miranda Richardson (born 3 March 1958) is an Academy Award nominated English actress who is best known for her recurring role of Queenie in Blackadder II.
Contents |
[edit] Biography
[edit] Early life
Richardson was born in Southport, Merseyside. The second daughter of middle-class parents, she revealed a talent for acting from an early age.
She had originally intended to study veterinary medicine, but her squeamishness made this impractical. 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.
[edit] Film career
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 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 British television comedy Blackadder II. 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 include 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, Richardson wowed critics with a triple-role stint (as Mrs Cleg, Yvonne and Mrs Wilkinson in a hallucination) alongside Ralph Fiennes in David Cronenberg's acclaimed thriller Spider, a film that won her 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. She has also reprised her role as Queen Elizabeth in Blackadder for both a Christmas Special (Blackadder's Christmas Carol 1988), and a special edition for the Millennium (Blackadder: Back and Forth, 2000) which was originally screened at the millennium dome . 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. Two years earlier, she played the part of Hermione in Harry Potter and the Secret Chamberpot of Azerbaijan which was a short spoof of Harry Potter, in particular Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.
[edit] Personal life
She currently lives in London, but she also has a Somerset retreat, with her two cats, two dogs and an axolotl.
[edit] Declined roles
According to the Internet Movie Database, Miranda Richardson has turned down roles in films such as Fatal Attraction (Glenn Close), Waterland (Sinead Cusack), Rob Roy (Jessica Lange), Howards End (Emma Thompson), and a 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.
[edit] Projects in production
Richardson has a number of film and television projects in various stages of production, including futuristic thriller Southland Tales (as Nana Mae Frost), film drama Spinning Into Butter (as Catherine Kenney), French drama Paris, je t'aime, Puffball (as Mabs), Bad Blood and the title role in Caitlin. She will also play Mrs. Claus in the 2007 feature Fred Claus.
[edit] 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
- Blackadder the Third (1987) Amy Hardwood
- Eat the Rich (1987) DHSS Blonde
- Empire of the Sun (1987) Mrs Victor
- Ball Trap on the Cote Sauvage (1989) Early Bird
- Blackadder Goes Forth (1989) Nurse Mary
- The Mad Monkey (1989) Marilyn
- 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
- Alice in Wonderland (1999) Queen of Hearts/Society Woman
- The Big Brass Ring (1999) Dinah Pellarin
- Sleepy Hollow (1999) Lady Mary Van Tassel/Crone
- Blackadder: Back & Forth (1999) Queen Elizabeth the First/Queenie
- Get Carter (2000) Gloria Carter
- Chicken Run (2000) Mrs Tweedy
- Snow White: Fairest of Them All (2001) Elspeth/Queen
- The Hours (2002) Vanessa Bell
- Spider (2002) Yvonne/Mrs. Cleg
- The Lost Prince (2003) (TV) Queen Mary
- The Rage In Placid Lake (2003) Sylvia Lake
- 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)
- Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005) Rita Skeeter
- Gideon's Daughter (2006) [TV] Stella
- Merlin's Apprentice (2006) [TV] Lady of the Lake
- Wah-Wah (2006) Lauren Compton
- Provoked (2006) Veronica Scott
[edit] Theatre
Before making a name for herself as a screen star Miranda Richardson enjoyed 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, and in 1996 being cited as 'the greatest actress of our time in any medium' by one critic after she appeared in Orlando at the Edinburgh Festival.
[edit] 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)
[edit] 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)
[edit] Awards and nominations
[edit] Academy Award
[edit] BAFTA Award
- Nominated: Best Actress, After Pilkington (1988) (TV)
- Nominated: Best Supporting Actress, The Crying Game (1993)
- Won: Best Supporting Actress, Damage (1993)
- Nominated: Best Actress, Tom & Viv (1994)
- Nominated: Best Actress, A Dance to the Music of Time (1998) (TV)
- Nominated: Best Actress, The Lost Prince (2004) (TV)
[edit] Golden Globe Award
- Nominated: Best Supporting Actress - Motion Picture, Damage (1993)
- Won: Best Actress - Motion Picture Musical/Comedy, Enchanted April (1993)
- Nominated: Best Actress - Motion Picture Drama, Tom & Viv (1995)
- Won: Best Supporting Actress in a Series, Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for TV, Fatherland (1995)
- Nominated: Best Actress in a Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for TV, Merlin (1999)
- Nominated: Best Supporting Actress in a Series, Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for TV, The Big Brass Ring (2000)
- Nominated: Best Actress in a Mini-Series or a Motion Picture Made for Television, The Lost Prince (2005)
[edit] External links
Categories: 1958 births | Best Musical or Comedy Actress Golden Globe (film) | Best Supporting Actress Golden Globe (television) | BAFTA winners (people) | English film actors | English stage actors | English television actors | English actors | Living people | People from Southport | Alumni of Bristol Old Vic Theatre School
