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Joely Kim Richardson (born 9 January 1965)[1] 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).
Joely Richardson | |
|---|---|
 Richardson in 2024 | |
| Born | Joely Kim Richardson 9 January 1965 Marylebone, London, England |
| Alma mater | Royal Academy of Dramatic Art |
| Occupation | Actress |
| Years active |
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| Spouse | |
| 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 |
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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).[a] 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.[2] 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.[3]
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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.[4] In 2015 she co-starred alongside Arnold Schwarzenegger in the zombie thriller film Maggie.[5]
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Richardson married film producer Tim Bevan in 1992; they divorced in 2001. The couple had a daughter, actress Daisy Bevan, born in 1992.[6]
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.[7]
| † | Denotes works that have not yet been released |
Film
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1968 | The Charge of the Light Brigade | Extra | Uncredited[2] |
| 1985 | Wetherby | Young Jean Travers | |
| 1987 | Body Contact | Dominique | |
| 1988 | Drowning by Numbers | Cissie Colpitts 3 | |
| 1989 | A proposito di quella strana ragazza | Giovanna Serafin (Maria) | aka About That Foreign Girl in English |
| 1991 | King Ralph | Princess Anna | |
| 1992 | Rebecca's Daughters | Rhiannon | |
| Shining Through | Margrete Von Eberstein | ||
| 1994 | Sister My Sister | Christine Papin | |
| 1994 | I'll Do Anything | Cathy Breslow | |
| 1996 | Loch Ness | Laura McFetridge | |
| 101 Dalmatians | Anita Campbell-Green-Dearly | ||
| Hollow Reed | Hannah | ||
| 1997 | Event Horizon | Lt. Starck | |
| 1998 | Under Heaven | Eleanor Dunston | |
| Wrestling with Alligators | Claire | ||
| The Tribe | Emily | ||
| 2000 | Maybe Baby | Lucy Bell | |
| Return to Me | Elizabeth Rueland | ||
| The Patriot | Charlotte Selton | ||
| 2001 | The Affair of the Necklace | Marie-Antoinette | |
| 2004 | Fallen Angel | Katherine Wentworth | |
| The Fever | Woman at 30 | ||
| 2007 | The Last Mimzy | Jo Wilder | |
| The Christmas Miracle of Jonathan Toomey | Susan McDowel | ||
| 2011 | Anonymous | Young Queen Elizabeth I | |
| The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo | Anita Vanger/Harriet Vanger | ||
| 2012 | Red Lights | Monica Handsen | |
| Thanks for Sharing | Katie | ||
| 2013 | The Devil's Violinist | Ethel Langham | |
| 2014 | Vampire Academy | Queen Tatiana Ivashkov | |
| Endless Love | Ann Butterfield | ||
| Maggie | Caroline Vogel | ||
| 2015 | Papa: Hemingway in Cuba | Mary Hemingway | |
| 2016 | Snowden | Janine Gibson | |
| Fallen | Sophia Bliss | ||
| 2017 | The Hatton Garden Job | Erzebet Zslondos | |
| The Time of Their Lives | Lucy | ||
| 2018 | Red Sparrow | Nina | |
| In Darkness | Alix | ||
| The Aspern Papers | Miss Tina | ||
| Surviving Christmas with the Relatives | Lyla | ||
| 2019 | Color Out of Space | Theresa Gardner | |
| 2020 | The Turning | Darla | |
| 2022 | The Lost Girls | Jane | |
| Lady Chatterley's Lover | Mrs. Bolton | ||
| 2023 | Little Bone Lodge | Mama | |
| 2025 | † Untitled Downton Abbey: A New Era sequel | Post-production |
Television
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1988 | The StoryTeller | Princess | Episode: "The Three Ravens" |
| 1989 | Behaving Badly | Serafina | 4 episodes |
| Agatha Christie's Poirot | Joanna Farley | Episode: "The Dream" | |
| 1993 | Lady Chatterley | Lady Chatterley | 4 episodes |
| 2003–2010 | Nip/Tuck | Julia McNamara | Main role, 72 episodes |
| 2003 | Fallen Angel | Katherine Wentworth | Television movie |
| 2005 | Lies My Mother Told Me | Laren Sims | Television movie |
| Wallis & Edward | Wallis, Duchess of Windsor | Television movie | |
| 2006 | Fatal Contact: Bird Flu in America | Dr. Iris Varnack | Television movie |
| 2007 | Freezing | Rachel | Episode: "1.1" |
| 2009 | The Day of the Triffids | Jo Playton | 2 episodes |
| 2010 | The Tudors | Queen Catherine Parr | Main role (season 4), 5 episodes |
| 2012 | Titanic: Blood and Steel | Countess Markievicz | Episode: "Stained Steel" |
| 2017 | Emerald City | Glinda | Main role |
| 2019 | The Rook | Lady Farrier/King | Main role; 8 episode miniseries |
| 2020–2022 | The Blacklist | Cassandra Bianchi | Episodes: "Cornelius Ruck" and "Genuine Models, Inc." |
| 2022 | The Sandman | Ethel Cripps | 11 episodes |
| Suspect | Jackie Sowden | TV series | |
| 2024 | The Gentlemen | Lady Sabrina Halstead | |
| Renegade Nell | Lady Moggerhanger | TV series | |
| One Day | Helen Cope | TV series; 1 episode[8] |
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| Year | Association | Category | Nominated work | Result | Refs |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1999 | Independent Spirit Award | Best Supporting Female | Under Heaven | Nominated | |
| 2004 | Golden Globe Award | Best Actress in a Television Series – Drama | Nip/Tuck | Nominated | |
| Satellite Award | Best Actress in a Television Series – Drama | Nip/Tuck | Nominated | ||
| 2005 | Golden Globe Award | Best Actress in a Television Series – Drama | Nip/Tuck | Nominated | |
| Satellite Award | Best Actress in a Television Series – Drama | Nip/Tuck | Nominated |
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- 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.
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