Natasha Richardson, 45, dies after skiing accident

March 19, 2009 at 12:00a.m.

NEW YORK (AP) — Natasha Richardson, a gifted and precocious heiress to acting royalty whose career highlights included the film “Patty Hearst” and a Tony-winning performance in a stage revival of “Cabaret,” died Wednesday at age 45 after suffering a head injury during a skiing accident.

Alan Nierob, the Los Angeles-based publicist for Richardson’s husband, Liam Neeson, confirmed her death in a written statement.

Richardson suffered a head injury when she fell on a beginner’s trail during a private ski lesson at the luxury Mont Tremblant ski resort in Quebec. She was hospitalized Tuesday in Montreal and later flown to a hospital in New York.

She was born in London in 1963, the performing gene inherited not just from her parents (Vanessa Redgrave and director Tony Richardson), but from her maternal grandparents (Michael Redgrave and Rachel Kempson), an aunt (Lynn Redgrave) and an uncle (Corin Redgrave). Her younger sister, Joely Richardson, also joined the family business.

Like other family members, she divided her time between stage and screen. On Broadway, she won a Tony for her performance as Sally Bowles in a 1998 revival of “Cabaret.” She also appeared in New York in a production of Patrick Marber’s “Closer” (1999) as well as 2005 revival of Tennessee Williams’ “A Streetcar Named Desire,” in which she played Blanche opposite John C. Reilly’s Stanley Kowalski.

She met Neeson when they made their Broadway debuts in 1993, co-starring in “Anna Christie,” Eugene O’Neill’s drama about a former prostitute and the sailor who falls in love with her.

She later co-starred with Neeson in “Nell,” with Mia Farrow in “Widow’s Peak” and with a pre-teen Lindsay Lohan in a remake of “The Parent Trap.” More recent movies included “Wild Child,” “Evening” and “Asylum.”

Richardson’s first husband was producer Robert Fox.