Conflicting Reports On Natasha Richardson’s Condition Following Ski Accident
Posted March 17, 2009 12:00 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Tony-award-winning actress Natasha Richardson may have suffered brain damage in a skiing incident at Quebec’s Mont Tremblant, and at least one report suggests she is brain dead.
The New York Post, claiming it spoke to friends of Richardson, made the assertion that she had lost brain function in the fall. She’d apparently been taking a skiing lesson at the time, and she was with the instructor on a beginner slope.
Initial reports seemed to be that the fall didn’t appear too serious. She was said to be talking to people and allegedly told resort staff she felt fine. But an hour or so later she began complaining that she wasn’t feeling well, and an ambulance brought her to hospital.
The daughter of actress Vanessa Redgrave and wife of actor Liam Neeson was initially taken to the Centre Hospitalier Laurentien, near Mont Tremblant, but was then transferred to Montreal’s Sacre Coeur hospital.
Other reports, including TMZ, cited hospital officials as saying that the actress had suffered brain swelling but was not brain dead. Very little has been confirmed at this point.
Richardson, a noted stage and screen actress, was born in London to Redgrave and director Tony Richardson. She won a Tony in 1998 for her role in Cabaret, and appeared in the films Evening, The Handmaid’s Tale, and Nell.
She and Redgrave were scheduled to star in a 2010 Broadway revival of Stephen Sondheim’s A Little Night Music.
Richardson and Neeson have been married since 1994. They have two sons. The Oscar-nominated actor, who was apparently filming Chloe with Julianne Moore in Toronto when he heard of the accident, left for Montreal to be by his wife’s side.
The injured actress has now been airlifted out of the country and back to the U.S. Her family plans to issue a statement clarifying her condition on Wednesday.
Liam Neeson and Natasha Richardson arrive at the BFI 52 London Film Festival: ‘The Other Man’ Premiere at the Odeon West End on October 17, 2008 in London, England. (Photo by Chris Jackson/Getty Images)
