Natasha Richardson

I can’t stop thinking about Natasha Richardson. She died today at the age of 45 following a tragic skiing accident that apparently didn’t seem like much when it first happened on Monday. I was repulsed by the ghoulish death watch of the past two days but I kept hoping against hope that there would be an announcement that they somehow stopped the bleeding in her brain and that she was going to be fine after all. That’s how it would have happened on “ER” or “Grey’s Anatomy,” damn it. I feel ghoulish talking about her myself but it’s one of those events involving a public figure that really socked me in the gut, for some reason, like the deaths of Princess Diana and John Kennedy, Jr. You just can’t believe something so random and avoidable and so…well, human could happen to these folks and take them away in an instant. The circumstances of Richardson’s death seem even more incomprehensible when you read the reports of what the accident looked like and how she was talking and laughing afterwards and walked back to her hotel room only to come down with a crushing headache a few hours later. Horrible.

At times like this we feel bad for the real people involved, of course, and then we rattle ourselves by projecting our loved ones into the picture. My family members go skiing, my loved ones have had very bad falls. It brings up all my issues of “mother loss,” too, I almost can’t bear thinking of Richardson’s teenaged sons who I’ve seen photographed with her many times. I can still cry thinking of the image of that envelope addressed to “Mummy” that sat atop Diana’s coffin during her funeral. I can only imagine the searing pain Richardson’s sons are going through and how numbingly awful it must be to lose your mother at that age. The reports of her husband Liam Neeson holding her hand and stroking her face the whole way back from Canada and of a grief-stricken Vanessa Redgrave entering the hospital are poignant and painful. I didn’t see any of the TV coverage but I read reports of paparazzi accosting Natasha’s sister Joely Richardson as she entered the New York hospital. Is there a special place in hell reserved for people who torment the grieving?

I’ve always been an enormous fan of the Redgraves. I am fascinated by families whose members share the same career and passions (so different from my experience) and I’m especially interested in acting families. By all measures the Redgraves were the supreme royalty of that group. Only the Barrymores were in their league. One of my favorite films of all time is the 1952 version of Oscar Wilde’s “The Importance of Being Earnest” starring Natasha’s grandfather Michael Redgrave. Richardson’s grandmother was the luminous Rachel Kempson, a gifted actress who worked well into her 80s. Her father was the Oscar-winning director Tony Richardson and, of course, her mother is one of the most brilliant actresses ever to take a breath, no matter what her politics are. I’ve seen Vanessa Redgrave on Broadway and on the West End and I’d go to nearly any film she’s in merely because of her presence. My favorite parts of the 2007 film “Evening,” in fact the only parts I can remember at this point are the poignant scenes between Redgrave and Natasha Richardson. They appeared together only last month in a benefit performance of “A Little Night Music.” I’m sure Redgrave never dreamed in a million years that any of her children would go before her. It is obviously every parent’s worst nightmare.

I had few personal encounters with the Redgraves, apart from seeing them on the stage. I met Richardson’s immensely talented aunt Lynn Redgrave, whom Kendall knew, during one of our first dates. In 2002, my brother-in-law scored a film that Richardson appeared in called “Chelsea Walls” but I doubt that he met her. Kendall and I were lucky enough to see Natasha Richardson in her Tony-winning performance as Sally Bowles in “Cabaret” in 1998. She was extraordinary in the role—totally different from the Sally Bowles we saw in the film and much closer to the spirit of Christopher Isherwood’s muse. Leah recently appeared in “Cabaret” so we listened to the cast recording for months on end. I appreciated the subtleties of Richardson's performance even more than I did when I saw it live.

I enjoyed so many of Natasha Richardson’s film performances as well as those of her husband, her sister, and several other Redgraves I haven’t even mentioned. I know next to nothing about her personal life but it seemed like she had a very close, loving family. How can we not feel their pain knowing this could happen to any of us at any time? This morning when I was driving Leah to school, before Richardson had died, we were talking about the tragedy. Her favorite Natasha Richardson movie, and one of mine, too, was the remake of “The Parent Trap,” a film that deals head-on with mother loss and then solves it in a preposterous but soul-satisfying way, especially for children of divorce which I am and which Leah already was at the time. I found myself talking to Leah about her frequent skiing escapades in the French Alps where her grandparents have a home. But as I nervously urged her to BE CAREFUL, I stopped myself in mid-neurosis and realized that Natasha Richardson’s death most likely had absolutely nothing to do with carelessness. Knowing that any one of us could meet with some unthinkable fate tomorrow or the next day, what else can we do but savor the present and appreciate every precious second we have with our loved ones?

Listen to the following clip that so beautifully evokes Natasha Richardson’s talent, playfulness, and spirit:

Comments

[Kitty]

Thank you so much. I can always count on you to write something moving about these people that we don't know... but love anyway.

I feel so bad about this, for Natasha and for her family. What a tragedy and what a loss.

[Gordon]

Dear Danny,
You are perfectly correct in comparing the Redgraves and the Richardsons to royalty. It's just amazing to have so much terrific acting talent in a family. Today, I was thinking of Vanessa Redgrave, and wondering how she will ever get through this.

Then, I thought of the movie, "Atonement", and how I detested almost every bit of it, until the very end of the film, when Vanessa, in a tiny part that couldn't have been more than 3 or 4 minutes on the screen, showed what great acting talent really is.

Sorry for rattling on.

[Rachel]

Hi Danny,

Such a tragedy. I, too, was stopped in my tracks when I heard about it, as it affected me in an unusually forceful way.

Surely, this was an accident of the most random and tragic kind, but I have read that she wasn't wearing a helmet. Could this have been prevented? Who knows. But as a seasoned skier myself, and one who often gets teased for insisting on always wearing a helmet, I would like to reiterate the importance of protecting our delicate brains from blunt force trauma. Even on the gentle beginner slope, where she was skiing. While nobody should let their neurosis and fear take over, they can encourage their kids to "use protection", if they don't already.

Thanks for the moving tribute. What a sad day.

Rachel

[Rhea]

I don't know why I was so touched by Natasha Richardson's death, but I was. She just seemed sweet. I am sad about this.

[churlita]

I feel for her family too. My mom died when I was 10. The last time I saw her was in the morning before school and I'm sure I was cranky and that my last words to her were me whining. That's why I make a point to tell my daughters that I love them every time we leave each other. I don't want to make that mistake again.

[Pam G]

Thanks for your eloquent tribute to this lovely actress. I only ever had a chance to see one of the Redgraves on stage and that was Lynn in her autobiographical Shakespeare for My Father in Chicago in the early 90s. It was excellent.

I haven't been able to stop thinking about this sad death either. In the car on my short commute yesterday and today the words, "Anything can happen at any time," kept going through my head. I've also been especially mindful of each task--however mundane--as I pass through this day.

My brother and I were teenagers, and my youngest brother only ten years old, when my father died of cancer at age 45 in Sept. 1976. Since he'd been sick for awhile, we had time to prepare. Yet it wasn't until many years later that it dawned on me what a tragedy and life-transforming experience this was. Were he with us today, my dad would have been *only* 78 last month. And now that I am nearly three years older than he ever lived to be, I reflect more and more often on his brief time with us.

I send my sympathies to her young children and agree with you that we should stop to appreciate one another more.

[OldOldLady Of The Hills]

This is so very heartbreaking in every way...Your tribute is lovely Danny, and right on, too...I feel like I have lost someone very dear to me though I did not know her personally, at all...(Though there are a few people I know who did know her very very well.....) Something about her being alive on Monday and dead on Wednesday is just too horrific. Such an incredibly talented family---ALL of them....
I too loved the scenes in "EVENING" with Natasha and her luminescent mother---Did you ever see "ISADORA"? Oh My! And as one of your other commenters said....those last 4 or 5 minutes of "ATONEMENT" were worth the whole film....I think Natasha had that kind of talent, too....And once again, what great performances might there have been throughout a long long lifetime for her---We will never know.
My heart breaks for her family--her two young boys...Her dear husband...Sisters, Mother, Aunt and Uncle....Brother(s)...I cannot remember if Vanessa has two sons with her second husband or just the one....
All I know is they all must be utterly and completely bereft.
And, all the dear friends who worked with her and knew her....Lord, it is too much to even compute in any way. Such a loss. Such a truly tragic tragic loss.

[Heather P.]

Beautiful tribute Danny. I can not tell you how freaked out I am by her death. I don't ski, but just two months ago during the big ice storm on the East Coast, I slipped and fell on the ice and my head hit the concrete and I didn't have a CT scan afterwards.
I am so heartbroken for her sons, husband, mom and sister. This is just so tragic.

[Otir]

Danny, I am very sorry for your loss. I fully understand how personal this tragedy must resonate to you. Please accept my sincere condolences.

May she rest in peace and her memory be a blessing for all.

[Judy]

I used to accompany my family on ski trips, sitting and waiting in the lodge for their return; I tried not to worry about them. My daughter has a hard head, and has hit it numerous times, the last time she was at a party on LI, drinking hardy when she fell and hit her head. Everyone thought they'd have to take her to the hospital but she jumped up, saying I'm tough, and miraculously (in looking back) she was. My husband insists on skiing and riding a bike without a helmet, and just last Sat. was injured on the ski slope by an out of control little girl on a snowboard who crashed into his knee. I always tell him to be careful when he leaves every am to ride to work. In every picture of Natasha and Liam, she looks at him with such eyes of love; it is particularly heartbreaking to think of her passing. So young,talented and vital. It brings back to me thoughts of a close friend who died in Oct. when he uncharacteristicly got drunk and in the middle of the night, fell and hit his head on a glass cocktail table. His two kids who lived with him, heard the crash but never went to investigate. When they woke up, they still didn't check to see if he was okay, instead went to school, leaving him there on the floor. When they came home, he had been dead hours. I'm not in contact with his children but his older daughter was 15 at the time and I wonder if Natasha's death is affecting her. Her brother was 9. Their father had raised them, and now they live in the same apartment with their mother and stepfather(someone the daughter doesn't like).
I send the same prayer as Otir, may she rest in peace and may her memory be a blessing for all, as I do for my friend Tom Lees whose death still brings tears to my eyes.

[Susie rachel specter]

Thank you Danny for this lovely thoughtful, moving piece. I'm w/ Leah in loving the Parent Trap- so charming! One of my all time fave films is Georgie Girl which of course starred Lynn Redgrave. It's so amazing how it feels as if one of our very own loved ones has passed on. Peace, Love and Gratitude, Susie

[coffee maker]

Natasha Richardson really was a charming actress; she will be missed

[Hannah]

Thank you for this. I too was deeply affected by her death, more so than I thought I should have. It is only now that i am starting to see more of her work and appreciate her for the talented actress she was. She is brilliant in Asylum, a side of her I had not previously seen. She seemed so down to earth, lovely and beautiful. I cannot imagine what her family must be going through, she, and the rest of her family are brilliant, brilliant actors and I hope her light will shine on in her boys and husband. Rest in Peace Natasha, gone, but never forgotten.

[C. Bergin]

Beautiful thoughts about the tragic loss of a gifted actor. Thank you.