Richardson a Superb Artist of Own Making

Natasha Richardson had the finest theater pedigree possible, but her stage presence owed itself to far more than her acting genes, Lisa Schwarzbaum writes in Entertainment Weekly. Her upbringing in the theater—and those famous Redgrave cheekbones—were plainly visible, but the late actress had an aura of competence and sexual elegance that was all her own, Schwarzbaum notes.

Richardson's presence was more visible on stage than on screen, and she bowled over audiences in productions like Anna Christie, where “sexual electricity crackled” between the actress and her future husband, Liam Neeson, writes Schwarzbaum. Richardson could sometimes look exactly like her aristocratic mom, Vanessa Redgrave. “But look again, and you'd see a woman with her own striking style—and an artist of her own, hard-won making."
(More Natasha Richardson stories.)