Expert: all it takes is a little knock | Actress moved to US to 'escape family baggage'

The actress Natasha Richardson was reported to be “brain-dead” last night after suffering a severe head injury in a fall during a skiing lesson in Canada.

Richardson, the daughter of Vanessa Redgrave and the late director Tony Richardson, was admitted in critical condition to the intensive care unit of Sacré Coeur Hospital, in Montreal, late on Monday. Last night she was taken by ambulance and flown out of the city on board a private jet bound for the US, apparently New York.

There were conflicting reports, however, with the New York Post citing friends as saying that she was “brain-dead”. The celebrity website TMZ.com said that she was sedated and suffering from brain swelling, but was not brain-dead. A hospital spokeswoman refused to comment.

Liam Neeson, her husband, left the set of his film Chloe, in Toronto, to rush to her side. Her family spoke of their distress. “We know that she has had an accident but we really do not know any more details,” said Kika Markham, the wife of Natasha’s uncle, Corin Redgrave. “We are very concerned.”

Richardson, 45, was taking a lesson at Mont Tremblant, or “Trembling Mountain”, a ski resort about 80 miles northwest of Montreal that is popular with celebrities. She fell at about 3pm on Monday as she was skiing on the gentle Nansen slope, which is rated “green” for beginners. She was not wearing a helmet – which is not required by law.

“Ms Richardson was having a private lesson. She fell during the lesson. The ski instructor saw that. She called the ski patrol,” Catherine Lacasse, a spokeswoman for the resort, said. “They checked her out completely. No signs of impact. No blood. She was fine. She was laughing and making jokes. She refused to go to see a doctor. She wanted to go to her room.”

The ski instructor accompanied Richardson to her room at the nearby Quintessence Hotel, where she had been staying since Sunday. The resort asked her to sign a form saying that she did not require medical attention. Soon afterwards the actress was taken ill. “One hour later, she suffered from headaches. She felt she was not feeling well. She accepted to call the ambulance and go to the hospital,” Ms Lacasse said.

Richardson was taken to the Lauren-tien Hospital Centre in Sainte-Agathe and was later transferred to Montreal.

Richardson belongs to one of Britain’s most famous acting dynasties. Her grandparents were the actors Michael Redgrave and Rachel Kempson. She has starred in dozens of films since making her big-screen debut as Mary Shelley in Ken Russell’s Gothic in 1986. She played the title role in Paul Schrader’s Patty Hearst in 1988 and appeared alongside Mia Farrow and Joan Plowright in Widow’s Peak (1994). However, she is better known for her work on the stage. In 1998, she won a Tony Award for playing Sally Bowles in Sam Mendes’s Broadway production of Cabaret.

Richardson met Neeson in 1984 on the set of the TV series Ellis Island. They married a decade later when they co-starred in the film Nell (1994), after Richardson divorced her producer-husband Robert Fox.

The couple, who live on a farm north of New York, have two children – Micheál, 13, and Daniel Jack, 12.

Times recommends

• McDonald’s: the world’s local restaurant
• Help me to be a mum: a foyer to fulfilment
• A life online: God likes a laugh