Joely Richardson

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), 
• Katherine Parr in the Showtime series The Tudors (2010), and 
• Ethel Cripps in the Netflix series The Sandman (2022).

Her film credits include 

• Drowning by Numbers (1988), 
• King Ralph (1991), 
• 101 Dalmatians (1996),
•  Event Horizon (1997), 
• The Patriot (2000), 
• Anonymous (2011),
• the Hollywood film adaptation of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011), 
• Endless Love (2014), 
• Red Sparrow (2018), 
• The Turning (2020), and 
• Little Bone Lodge (2023).

Personal life

Richardson had an affair with Archie Stirling, which broke up Stirling's marriage to actress Diana Rigg in 1990. 

Richardson married film producer Tim Bevan in 1992; they divorced in 2001. The couple had a daughter, actress Daisy Bevan, born in 1992. She was also one of several women romantically linked to Jamie Theakston before Theakston's marriage in 2007.

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.

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).[a] Actress Natasha Richardson (1963–2009) was her sister and actor Liam Neeson is her brother-in-law. She is the aunt of Micheál Richardson and Daniel Neeson, the niece of Lynn Redgrave (1943–2010) and Corin Redgrave (1939–2010), and cousin of 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.