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Miranda Richardson

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Miranda Richardson as Queenie in Blackadder II (1986)
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Miranda Richardson as Queenie in Blackadder II (1986)

Miranda Richardson (Born 3 March 1958, in Southport, Merseyside) is an English actress, noted for her distinctive ability to deeply delve into the minds of the characters she plays.

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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.

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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), 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.

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Projects in production

Richardson has a number of film and television projects in various stages of production:

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.

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Filmography

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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.

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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)
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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)
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Awards and nominations

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External links

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