MONTREAL — British actress Natasha Richardson was hospitalized after falling on a beginners trail at the famed Mont Tremblant ski resort during a lesson, the resort and published reports said today.
IrishCentral.com reported that the Tony Award-winning actress and wife of Liam Neeson was in critical condition with a head injury.
Producers confirmed that Neeson immediately left the Toronto set of his upcoming movie, “Chloe,” for Montreal, a publicist for the film said in an e-mail.
Richardson, 45, is the elder daughter of Oscar-winning actress Vanessa Redgrave and the late director Tony Richardson, and belongs to a British acting dynasty.
“We know that she has had an accident but we really do not know any more details,” said Kika Markham, who is married to Richardson’s uncle, Corin Redgrave. “We are very concerned.”
Her maternal grandparents were actors Michael Redgrave and Rachel Kempson, and her uncle Corin and aunt Lynn Redgrave are also both actors. Sister Joely Richardson is also an actress, best known for starring in the TV series “Nip⁄Tuck.”
Mont Tremblant said Richardson fell on a beginners trail during a ski lesson and later reported not felling well.
“She did not show any visible sign of injury but the ski patrol followed strict procedures and brought her back to the bottom of the slope and insisted she should see a doctor,” said a statement from the resort, which is about 80 miles northwest of Montreal.
The ski resort said the ski instructor and a ski patrol accompanied Richardson to her hotel, where they again recommended she should be seen by a doctor.
“Approximately an hour after the incident Mrs. Richardson was not feeling good,” the statement said.
Mont Tremblant spokeswoman Catherine Lacasse said that Richardson was getting a private lesson and that she said she was fine at first.
“An hour later she said she didn’t feel well. She had a headache, so we sent her to the hospital,” Lacasse said. “There were no signs of impact and no blood, nothing.”
An ambulance was called and Richardson was brought to the Centre Hospitalier Laurentien in Ste-Agathe and was later transferred to Hopital du Sacre-Coeur in Montreal. An employee at Hopital du Sacre-Coeur in Montreal said they didn’t have a Richardson at the hospital after intiailly saying they did early today.
Richardson’s films include “Gothic,” “A Month in the Country,” “Nell” — in which she appeared with future husband Liam Neeson — “The Parent Trap” and “Maid in Manhattan.”
Trained at London’s Central School of Speech and Drama, Richardson has had extensive stage experience in the West End and Broadway. She won a Tony Award in 1998 for playing Sally Bowles in “Cabaret.”
In January, Richardson and her mother played the roles of mother and daughter in a one-night benefit concert version of “A Little Night Music,” the Stephen Sondheim-Hugh Wheeler musical, at Studio 54 in New York.
She married Neeson in 1994, and the couple have two sons.
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