Emma Thompson
Actress Phyllida Law, the mother of Emma Thompson, has died aged 94. Law's passing was announced by her manager Jacky Leggo, who said the screen star "died supremely peacefully at home, surrounded by all her family". Her granddaughter, 26-year-old actress Gaia Wise, the daughter of Emma, penned an emotional tribute on her Instagram Story, writing: "Rest well my Queen”, followed by a red love heart emoji.
Born in Glasgow in 1932, Law attended the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School where she trained as an assistant scene painter and wardrobe assistant before going on to perform as a member of the cast. She appeared in a number of Bristol Old Vic productions throughout the 1950s, and it was there she met actor Eric Thompson, whom she married in 1957.
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The couple welcomed two daughters, Emma and Sophie Thompson, and remained married until Eric's death in 1982.
Breaking into television in the late 1950s, Law went on to appear in popular programmes including Dr Finlay’s Casebook and Dixon of Dock Green during the 1960s.
Law had built an impressive stage career around this time, taking on major roles in productions including A Day in the Death of Joe Egg in 1967, A Voyage Round My Father alongside Alec Guinness in 1971, and Alan Bennett’s Habeas Corpus at the Oxford Playhouse in 1973.
She began landing high-profile film roles in the 1980s and went on to star opposite Emma, 67, in Peter's Friends (1992) and Much Ado About Nothing (1993), both directed by Emma's then-husband Kenneth Branagh.
Law starred opposite her other daughter Sophie, 64, in the 1996 film adaptation of Jane Austen's Emma, featuring Gwyneth Paltrow.
She shared the screen with Emma once again in 1997, playing mother and daughter in The Winter Guest, Alan Rickman’s feature film directing debut.
The Scottish actress continued appearing in TV shows across the next decade, including Waking the Dead, Rosemary & Thyme, Kingdom, Foyle’s War, Doc Martin and Agatha Christie’s Poirot.
Her final on-screen appearance came in 2020, when she portrayed Arlene in the romantic comedy Then Came You. Law received an OBE for her services to drama and charitable causes in 2014.
Reflecting on her relationship with her mother, Emma said in 1997: "Our relationship is unusual, and the reason is that there’s three of us in the family left now, me, my sister, and my mother, because my father died when my sister was 18 and I was 21.
“Now I think if my father was still alive, it would be very different. I mean, we know mum so much better because we spent so much time together."
She added: We’re far closer-knit because of that event in our lives – also we’re three actresses who always had to earn our own living. We’ve never been supported by anyone."