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Joely Richardson
Richardson in 2024
Born	Joely Kim Richardson (1965-01-09) 9 January 1965 (age 59) Marylebone, London, England
Alma mater	Royal Academy of Dramatic Art
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1968 1984–present
Spouse	Tim Bevan ​ ​(m. 1992; div. 2001)​
Children	Daisy Bevan
Parent(s)	Tony Richardson Vanessa Redgrave
Relatives	Micheál Richardson (nephew) Natasha Richardson (sister) Carlo Gabriel Nero (half-brother) Lynn Redgrave (Aunt) Jemma Redgrave (Cousin)
Family	Redgrave
Richardson's voice recorded 2012, as part of an audio description of the Albert Memorial for VocalEyes

Joely Kim Richardson (born 9 January 1965) is a British actress. She is notable for her roles as Julia McNamara in the FX drama series Nip/Tuck (2003–2010) and Katherine Parr in the Showtime series The Tudors (2010). Her credits include 101 Dalmatians (1996), Event Horizon (1997), The Patriot (2000), Return to Me (2000), Anonymous (2011), the Hollywood film adaptation of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011), Endless Love (2014), Red Sparrow (2018), The Turning (2020), The Sandman (2022), Little Bone Lodge (2023) and The Gentlemen (2024).

Early life

Joely Kim Richardson was born in Marylebone, London, to the theatrical Redgrave family, the daughter of actress Vanessa Redgrave and director Tony Richardson (1928–1991), and the granddaughter of actors Sir Michael Redgrave (1908–1985) and Rachel Kempson, Lady Redgrave (1910–2003). Actress Natasha Richardson (1963–2009) was her sister and actor Liam Neeson is her brother-in-law. She is the aunt of Micheál and Daniel Neeson and the niece of actors Lynn Redgrave (1943–2010) and Corin Redgrave (1939–2010) and cousin of actress Jemma Redgrave, who is five days younger than Richardson.

Joely appeared as an extra at the age of three in the 1968 version of The Charge of the Light Brigade, directed by her father. Richardson and her sister Natasha's early education began at the independent St Paul's Girls' School in Hammersmith. At age 14, Richardson moved to boarding school at the independent Harry Hopman Tennis School in Tampa, Florida. In 1983, she graduated from the Thacher School in Ojai, California, then returned to London to study at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and graduated in 1985.

Career

Possessing an early ambition to become a professional tennis player, she spent two years at a tennis academy in Florida. Richardson then turned to acting. In 1985, she portrayed, by flashbacks, the younger version of the leading character played by her mother in the film Wetherby. After a leading role in Peter Greenaway's cult success Drowning by Numbers (1988), her first major role in front of a mass audience was as Joanna Farley in a 1989 television episode of Poirot, based on Agatha Christie's detective series. In a 1989 episode of Jim Henson's The Storyteller, she was cast as a princess. She portrayed a teacher on the verge of a nervous breakdown in the 1989 Channel 4 serial Behaving Badly and fictional Finnish Princess Anna (with "a voice like a tuba") in the 1991 screen comedy King Ralph.

A year later she appeared in Shining Through alongside her future brother-in-law, Liam Neeson, with both actors playing Nazis.

In 1993, Richardson appeared in the BBC's Lady Chatterley opposite Sean Bean. In 1996, she played fashion designer Anita Campbell-Green in the Disney live-action remake of the animated 101 Dalmatians opposite Glenn Close as Cruella de Vil. In 1998, in the television drama The Echo, she played Amanda Powell. The next year, she played in the science fiction horror film Event Horizon as Lieutenant Starck, executive officer of the research and rescue ship Lewis and Clark, sent to rescue crew of the long-lost experimental ship Event Horizon.

One year later, Richardson appeared opposite Mel Gibson in the film The Patriot, an American film set in the American Revolution. Also in 2000, she appeared opposite Hugh Laurie in Maybe Baby, Ben Elton's film adaptation of his book Inconceivable. She was cast in the 2001 film The Affair of the Necklace after director Charles Shyer noticed her resemblance to doomed 18th century French Queen Marie Antoinette.

In 2003, Richardson took on the role of Julia McNamara in the television drama Nip/Tuck, based on the complicated lives of two plastic surgeons filled with romance in Miami. Her mother, Vanessa Redgrave, appeared in several episodes, playing her character's mother.

In 2005, Richardson starred in Lies My Mother Told Me, based on a true story about a murderous con artist. In 2007, she played the mother in The Last Mimzy with Timothy Hutton and Chris O'Neil. She also starred in the television drama Wallis & Edward, playing the lead role of Wallis Simpson, lover of Edward, Prince of Wales.

In 2009–10, Richardson appeared as Catherine Parr, sixth wife of Henry VIII, in the fourth (and final) season of Showtime's hit period drama The Tudors. The role reunited her with her former husband Tim Bevan, who was part of the show's production team.

Joely joined the cast of TV series Titanic: Blood and Steel in which she played the role of Countess Markievicz. In 2015 she co-starred alongside Arnold Schwarzenegger in the zombie thriller film Maggie.

Personal life

Richardson married film producer Tim Bevan in 1992; they divorced in 2001. The couple had a daughter, actress Daisy Bevan, born in 1992.

Richardson is an ambassador for The Children's Trust, the UK's leading charity for children with brain injury and neurodisability, as well as Save the Children.

Filmography

Film

Television

Awards and nominations

Notes

1. In his autobiography, Tony Richardson notes that Kim was the original chosen name in honour of the actress Kim Stanley (1922–2002), but at the last minute they copied Natasha's swimming teacher who named her daughter Joely. It was actually a misspelling of the French jolie.

References

1. "UPI Almanac for Thursday, Jan. 9, 2020". United Press International. 9 January 2020. Archived from the original on 15 January 2020. Retrieved 15 January 2020. … actor Joely Richardson in 1965 (age 55)
2. ^ Singh, Anita (19 March 2009). "Natasha Richardson skiing accident in Canada: profile of actress". The Daily Telegraph. UK. Archived from the original on 22 March 2009. Retrieved 19 March 2009.
3. Rosen, Marjorie (23 March 1992). "Family Way". People. Vol. 37, no. 11. Retrieved 19 March 2009.
4. "Joely Richardson Joins 'Titanic: Blood and Steel'". IFTN. Retrieved 15 April 2011.
5. "Joely Richardson Joins 'Maggie '". DC. Retrieved 15 April 2011.
6. Ferguson, Euan (30 December 2001). "How I survived divorce, the tabloids and Jamie Theakston". The Observer. Retrieved 25 September 2021.
7. "Our Ambassadors". The Children's Trust. Retrieved 25 September 2021.
8. "One Day cast: Meet the characters in the Netflix series". Radio Times. 24 February 2024. Retrieved 27 February 2024.

External links

• Joely Richardson at IMDb
• Joely Richardson at the BFI's Screenonline

• Living people
• 1965 births
• English film actresses
• English stage actresses
• English television actresses
• Actresses from London
• People from Marylebone
• 20th-century English actresses
• 21st-century English actresses
• Alumni of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art
• The Thacher School alumni
• Redgrave family
• Theatre World Award winners
• English expatriate actresses in the United States
• Actors from the City of Westminster