Natasha Richardson
The quiet death of Liam Neeson’s wife
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She would have turned 61 on May 11, 2024, but that was never to happen: Natasha Richardson fell while skiing in 2009 and had no visible injuries. A circumstance that was her downfall. The actress died two days later. Liam Neeson and their sons had to have the machines turned off.
A serious head injury took the life of British actress Natasha Richardson on March 18, 2009, at the age of just 45. At the age of 56, Hollywood star Liam Neeson, now 71, had to bury his wife four days later, on March 22nd, in New York alongside their sons Daniel (then 12) and Micheál (then 13). Her sudden death, caused by a blow to the head, subsequently triggered a public wave of consternation.
Liam Neeson: A day of skiing in March 2009 changed his life
In the US romance “Manhattan Love Story” Natasha Richardson played Caroline Lane, the sharp-tongued society lady and boss of Jennifer Lopez, 54 (played the maid Marisa Ventura). In real life, the actress married her second love, Hollywood star Liam Neeson, in July 1994. However, March 16, 2009 changed her life forever.
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On a Monday in late winter, Natasha Richardson traveled to the snowy Canadian province of Quebec. There, at the foot of a ski slope in Mont-Tremblant, one of the most famous ski areas in the country, she took a ski course, the British newspaper “The Guardian” reported, among others. Meanwhile, husband Liam Neeson was in Toronto filming his film “Chloe”.
Natasha Richardson fell – but was fine at first
Then the actress lost her balance and fell down the slope. According to a report in the New York Times, the daughter of acting icon Vanessa Redgrave, 87, was not wearing a helmet. According to the ski instructors present, she got over the accident without any external injuries and assured that she was fine. “She laughed and joked and went to her room by herself,” Catherine Lacasse, the ski resort’s spokeswoman at the time, told the Montreal Gazette.
Mont-Tremblant is considered one of Canada’s most famous ski resorts.
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According to Canadian media, an ambulance that was called to the slope was sent away because “it is not needed.” According to “The Guardian”, two ski patrollers stayed with Liam Neeson’s wife instead as a purely precautionary measure. About an hour after the fall, she started having a headache. Yves Coderre, head of operations at Ambulances Radisson, reported at the time that after her condition continued to deteriorate, Richardson was eventually taken to a local hospital at the urging of the ski patrol. A doctor there diagnosed a “bleeding between the brain and skull.”
Neeson reveals heartbreaking last words to his wife
Then everything happened very quickly: Natasha was first transferred to the intensive care unit at the Sacré-Coeur Hospital in Montreal. Her brain no longer showed any activity there. Liam Neeson rushed to his wife and explained in a 2014 “60 Minutes” interview with CBS host Anderson Cooper, 55: “I was told she was brain dead.” Then the star of “Schindler’s List” remembers his heartbreaking farewell:
I went in to her and told her I loved her. I said, “Sweetheart, you’re not coming back from this. You hit your head. I don’t know if you can hear me, but that’s how it was. And we’re taking you back to New York. Your whole family and yours Friends will come.”
Accompanied by her husband Liam Neeson, the actress was then flown in a private jet to Lenox Hill Hospital on the Upper East Side in New York. The family stood vigil at her bedside – just as Neeson knew they would. Natasha Richardson’s transfer came too late to save her. She died as a result of a cerebral hemorrhage on March 18, 2009, surrounded by her loved ones.
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Natasha’s organs were donated
According to Liam Neeson, the couple had made a pact. “If any of us go into a vegetative state, we will unplug,” he reported on “60 Minutes.” Natasha then donated “her heart, her kidneys and her liver,” keeping three people alive at the time of 2014, according to the Hollywood star. An impressive achievement – even after her death.
Sources used: nytimes.com, theguardian.com, montrealgazette.com, cbsnews.com