Miranda Richardson

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Miranda Richardson

Richardson as Queenie in Blackadder II (1986)
Born March 3, 1958 (age 49)
Southport, Merseyside, UK Flag of England
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
Golden Globe Awards
Best Actress - Motion Picture Musical or Comedy
1993 Enchanted April
Best Supporting Actress - Mini-series
1995 Fatherland
BAFTA Awards
Best Supporting Actress
1992 Damage

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.

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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.

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.

She currently lives in London, but she also has a Somerset retreat, with her two cats, two dogs and an axolotl.

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.

Richardson as Rita Skeeter in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.
Richardson as Rita Skeeter in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.

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.

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.

  • 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)

  • 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)

  • Nominated: Best Supporting Actress, Damage (1992)
  • Nominated: Best Actress, Tom & Viv (1994)

  • 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)

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