Wanted to become a vet.

Grew up in Southport, Merseyside

Gave up smoking after being hypnotised.

Father: William Alan Richardson (Marketing Executive). Mother: Marian Georgina Richardson. Sister: Lesley Richardson (Chiropodist, born in 1949).

When Richardson was nominated for an Oscar for Best Actress in Tom & Viv (1994) she was seen as the least likely nominee to actually win. She was so unlikely and the film was so seldom heard of that a TNT public telephone poll cited her film as "Tom and Vic".

Not related to actresses Joely Richardson and Natasha Richardson.

In one of the sketches on "Saturday Night Live" (1975) (20 March 1993), The Rain People, her character tells Phil Hartman's character that she draws inspiration for a particularly emotional scene from a childhood experience. She awoke after a bad crash, saw her father's face, and told him that she was alright. Then, she saw that it was just her father's severed head in her lap. This makes both actors cry, and produces a great scene for which Phil Hartman's character wins the Oscar. He takes credit for the scene and claims the story as his own (and messes up the details). Miranda's character is so angry she screams, "I want his severed head in my lap!" several times.

Had a childhood obsession with John Wayne.

Nominated for the 1987 Olivier Award for Actress of the Year for her work in "A Lie of the Mind."

She trained at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School in the late seventies with Daniel Day-Lewis, Amanda Redman, Jenny Seagrove and Greta Scacchi.

Turned down a major role in the second series of 'Desperate Housewives' because it "snowballed into something that would be so disruptive" for her.

She won successive Spoken Word Awards in 2002 and 2003 for her reading of Francesca Simon's 'Horrid Henry' in the audio books of the same name.

Cast, ironically, as Rita Skeeter, one of Hermione Granger's least favorite people, in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005), after she did an impersonation of Hermione in "Harry Potter and the Secret Chamberpot of Azibaijan", a Comic Relief sketch, in 2003.

Played roles in four unrelated movies in which her character was in charge of having heads cut off: Alice in Wonderland (1999) (TV), as the Queen of Hearts; Sleepy Hollow (1999), as the Western Woods Crone; "Blackadder II" (1986), as Queen Elizabeth; and Chicken Run (2000), as Mrs. Tweedy.

Graduated from the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School

One critic wrote that "Miranda Richardson has a face like an English sky".

Turned down the role, subsequently taken by Glenn Close, in Fatal Attraction (1987)

Attended Southport High School for Girls (Southport, England)