Born as Miranda Jane Richardson in Southport on 3 March 1958. She began her career on stage and made her West End debut in the 1980 play ‘Moving’. Five years later, she made her film debut playing Ruth Ellis in ‘Dance with a Stranger’. Around the same time, Richardson played a comedic Queen Elizabeth I, aka Queenie, in the British television comedy Blackadder II with Rowan Atkinson.
She went on to receive Academy Award nominations for ‘Damage’ (1992) and ‘Tom & Viv’ (1994). For ‘Damage’, she won the BAFTA Award for Best Supporting Actress. She has also won Golden Globe Awards for ‘Enchanted April’ (1992) and the TV film ‘Fatherland’ (1994). In 1993, she appeared in Kate’s film The Line, The Cross & the Curve.
Her other films include ‘The Crying Game’ (1992), ‘The Apostle’ (1997), ‘Sleepy Hollow’ (1999), ‘Snow White: The Fairest of Them All’ (2001), ‘Spider’ (2002), ‘Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire’ (2005), and ‘Made in Dagenham’ (2010).