Dennis Quaid fondly reflected on his time working with the “incredible” Natasha Richardson in 1998’s The Parent Trap.
Richardson, a British actor and the late wife of Liam Neeson, died after a tragic skiing accident in 2009 at the age of 45.
“My heart breaks every time,” Quaid, 71, said on a recent episode of the Out of Order podcast. “Natasha, she was just an incredible person and amazing.”
The two starred opposite one another in the classic family comedy as divorced parents whose estranged twin daughters, Annie and Hallie (both played by Lindsay Lohan), engineer a plan to reunite them.
“If there’s anybody I’d ever want to work with again, it’d be her,” Quaid said. In 2024, he distanced himself from a long-rumored Parent Trap sequel, telling People that while the idea was “fantastic,” it would be impossible to do without Richardson. “How do we do it without Natasha?” he said.
“She was a great person, besides being an amazing actor to work with,” The Rookie star added on the podcast, choking up. “She really was, and the way she went was [very tragic]… just a little accident on the ski slope.”
Richardson died in 2009, two days after hitting her head during a beginner’s ski lesson at a resort in Mont Tremblant, Canada. Initially deciding she felt fine, Richardson returned to her hotel room — but was taken to a local hospital after falling ill 45 minutes later.
The following day, she was airlifted to a New York hospital and placed on life support. Her family ultimately made the decision to switch off life support, and she died with her husband, Neeson, by her side. An autopsy found she had suffered an epidural hematoma (bleeding on the brain) after a blunt blow to the head.
Richardson was married to Neeson from 1994 up until her untimely death. The pair shared two children: Micheál, 30, and Daniel, 29.
Also known for roles in Maid in Manhattan (2002) and Wild Child (2008), Richardson was the daughter of Oscar-winning Julia star Vanessa Redgrave and the late filmmaker Tony Richardson.
Last May, Redgrave honored her daughter on what would have been her 62nd birthday. “I can’t believe that she isn’t swimming somewhere now, in one of the pools or seas we explored,” she said in an Instagram statement shared by her second daughter, Joely.
“I will never be reconciled to her dying in the snow, and I’m sure that every mother who has lost a child will have that pain always.”
