Stage and screen director Sam Mendes said ”it defies belief” that Natasha Richardson is gone, describing her as a ”gifted, brave, tenacious, wonderful woman” and setting the tone for tributes that poured into her acting talent, and messages of sympathy to her family.
The tributes were the more heartfelt because the tentacles of the Richardson dynasty stretch so far, over generations of film and theatre, that almost everyone in the business has worked with or befriended some member of the tribe.
Tributes also came from charities she worked with, and from Ballymena, the small town in Northern Ireland where her husband Liam Neeson was born and brought up.
Mendes, who made her his Tony-award winning Sally Bowles in his Broadway version of Cabaret, said: ”Natasha combined the best of Redgrave and Richardson: the enormous depth and emotional force of a great actor on the one hand, and the intelligence and objectivity of a great director on the other.
”She was one of a kind, a magnificent actress. She was also an amazing mother, a loyal friend, and the greatest and most generous host you could ever hope to meet.”
The actor was the lead in Ibsen’s The Lady from the Sea — a part played by her mother in a legendary performance — in Michael Attenborough’s first production as artistic director at the Almeida.
He said: ”Natasha was a beautiful human in every conceivable way; gracious of manner, witty and sharp of mind, sunny in disposition and stunning in appearance. She was completely her own woman, brave, determined and totally committed to her two major loves — her family and her work.”
Paul Schrader, who gave her the lead role in his 1988 film Patty Hearst, and two years later cast her again opposite Rupert Everett in The Comfort of Strangers, said: ”Natasha Richardson was an extraordinary actress, not just for her beauty, lineage and talent, but for her intelligence and fearlessness. She was brave and smart. I was in awe of her from the time we first met and will miss her dearly.”
Nick Moore, the director on what proved to be her last film, Wild Child, said: ”She was wonderfully generous and kind; a complete joy to be with.”
Praising her ”classy and special” qualities, he added: ”All the kids in the movie loved being around her. She pitched in and was great with them. She led by example.”
Lindsay Lohan, an unexpectedly successful pairing with Richardson in the 1998 film The Parent Trap, said: ”She was a wonderful woman and actress, and treated me like I was her own. My heart goes out to her family. This is a tragic loss.”
Film director Michael Winner was one of many who felt Richardson had not yet reached her prime as an actress.
”It’s always tragic when people of such buoyancy and life are taken away on what appears to be utterly trivial events. She was a wonderful actress — the whole family is incredible — and she had not yet fulfilled her possibilities. It’s a twinkle and a sparkle that has left the world.”
The chat-show host Michael Parkinson said: ”Liam is one of the nicest guys I’ve met in the business, and so was she. They were very unshowy people, they did a job, got on with their lives, enjoyed their lives.”
Richardson, whose father died of Aids in 1991, was on the board of the US Foundation for Aids Research, where a spokesperson said: ”Our hearts go out to her family. This is a catastrophic loss for them … Natasha’s passion for the cause and timeless efforts gave hope and inspiration to the scientists and healthcare workers on the frontline of this deadly epidemic, as well as to the millions of people living with HIV/Aids around the world.”
In Northern Ireland, Declan O’Loan, Social Democrat and Labour party member of the Northern Ireland assembly for Ballymena, said the whole community was thinking of the family: ”I want to express my sympathy to Liam Neeson, his young sons and the entire Neeson family on the tragic death of Liam’s wife. —