Natasha Richardson died yesterday evening after being taken off life support.

The actress, who starred opposite Lindsay Lohan in The Parent Trap and Jennifer Lopez in Maid in Manhattan, banged her head in a fall while on a skiing holiday in Canada on Monday. The actress was skiing with an instructor at the Mont Tremblant resort outside Montreal when the accident occurred but reassured everyone that she was fine afterwards and walked back to her hotel room to recover. Later, she began to experience headaches so was taken to a nearby hospital for a CT scan, then was transferred to another better-equipped hospital in Montreal that evening. On Tuesday, she was flown to New York - her adopted home city - to be seen by specialist neurosurgeons but a source close to the family said she was already brain-dead by that point.

Her family - husband Liam Neeson, their sons Michael & Daniel, her mum Vanessa Redgrave and sister Joely Richardson - all visited her at the hospital on Tuesday and are said to have been at her bedside when the life-support was withdrawn late yesterday afternoon (local time).

Liam’s spokesperson issued a statement last night saying: “Liam, his sons, and the entire family are shocked and devastated by the tragic death of their beloved Natasha.

“They are profoundly grateful for the support, love and prayers of everyone.”

Celebrities such as Demi Moore, Eddie Izzard, Jane Fonda and Martha Stewart have all posted their condolences for the family on their blogs and Twitter streams, while Lindsay Lohan, who played Natasha’s two daughters in 1998’s The Parent Trap, told Access Hollywood: “She was a wonderful woman and actress and treated me like I was her own. I didn’t see much of her over the years but I will miss her. My heart goes out to her family. This is a tragic loss.”