Natasha Richardson dies in New York

The actress Natasha Richardson, who suffered a head injury in a skiing accident in Canada on Monday, died on Wednesday afternoon after being flown from Montreal to New York amid reports that she was brain dead and/or suffering a rare condition known as "talk and die syndrome".

Accompanied by her husband Liam Neeson, she arrived from Montreal by private jet on Tuesday and was taken to a hospital near the family home in Manhattan. According to the New York Times, her mother, Vanessa Redgrave, was seen walking into New York's Lenox Hill Hospital wearing a scarf and looking sombre late on Tuesday evening. Later, Natasha's sister, Joely Richardson, best known in America as the star of TV's Nip/Tuck, also visited the hospital.

The actress Kika Markham, who is married to Corin Redgrave, Vanessa's brother and Natasha's uncle, told the Associated Press: "We know that she has had an accident but we really do not know any more details. We are very concerned."

It transpired after the first reports of the accident emerged on Tuesday morning that there was nothing dramatic about the skiing accident itself at the Mont Tremblant resort in the Laurentians, northwest of Montreal.

Richardson was taking a lesson on a beginners' slope on Monday afternoon when she fell. Her instructor called the ski patrol, but according to resort spokeswoman Catherine Lacasse, the 45-year-old actress said she was fine and refused to see a doctor. "She was awake and alive and laughing and breathing," Lacasse said.

About an hour later, having returned to her room, Richardson started having headaches. As a result, she was taken by ambulance to a local hospital and from there to Montreal.

Dr Steven Flanagan, director of the Rusk Institute of Rehabilitation Medicine at New York University, told the media on Tuesday that while he could "only speculate", the symptoms suggested 'talk and die syndrome' which occurs when a blow to the head results in slow internal bleeding between the skull and the brain. The victim can appear fine until the blood begins to pool, bringing headaches, dizziness and extreme fatigue. Unless the sufferer is treated immediately, they can lose consciousness or die.

Richardson was 45. She was married to the theatre and film producer Robert Fox from 1990 to 1992. In 1994 she married Neeson, whom she had met on the film Nell. They had two sons, Micheal and Daniel.