Phyllida Law, a star of the stage and screen and Emma Thompson’s mum, has died aged 94.
Her manager Jacky Leggo shared that she ‘died supremely peacefully at home, surrounded by all her family’.
The Glasgow-born actress rose to prominence in the 1960s in shows like Dr Finlay’s Casebook and Dixon of Dock Green, landing high-profile roles in the 80s.
Law starred opposite Emma multiple times such as in Peter’s Friends and Shakespeare adaptation Much Ado About Nothing.
Fans of the 1996 film version of Jane Austen’s Emma, starring Gwyneth Paltrow, will recognise her as Mrs. Bates, alongside her other daughter Sophie.
The Winter Guest actress studied at the renowned Old Vic Theatre school, initially hoping to go into stage design but discovering a love for acting too.
It wasn’t the only love she found at the Bristol school, as it was also where she met her future husband Eric Thompson, marrying him in 1957.
Also an actor Thompson was best known for TV series The Magic Roundabout, which he adapted from the original French and narrated for the BBC.
His voice became incredibly well known and he cameoed in shows such as Doctor Who and Coronation Street in the late 60s.
Phyllida Law was one of Britain’s last matriarchs of a true acting dynasty. A multi-talented performer and writer who wore her success lightly, Law had nonetheless been a stalwart of the stage and screen over the past eight decades.
Films included Miss Potter and The Time Machine, TV was the likes of Play School, Kingdom, Poirot, Rosemary & Thyme, Midsomer Murders, New Tricks, Doc Martin and the star-studded BBC period drama Miss Austen Regrets, playing the famous author’s mother – she’d done it all and collected the OBE for her efforts, alongside charity work.
Law was also a true star of the stage, acting in numerous productions at the Bristol Old Vic from the 1950s, the National Theatre and as part of the original cast in musical La Cage aux Folles at the London Palladium in 1986.
But she was perhaps most recognisable to many today from her parts in the ‘90s films Emma and Much Ado about Nothing, before her later vocation as a witty and warm memoir writer, covering living with her mother-in-law (2007’s Notes to My Mother-in-Law) and looking after her own mother, who had dementia (2013’s How Many Camels Are There in Holland). In 2017, Dead Now of Course then saw Law sharing highly entertaining anecdotes from her early acting career – when even uttering the word ‘fart’ was a no-no, as she observed.
Law was also married to actor, writer and director Eric Thompson – most famous as the English writer and narrator of The Magic Roundabout, an intensely nostalgic classic ‘60s kids’ show – and mum to actress daughters, EastEnders star Sophie Thompson and double Oscar-winner Dame Emma Thompson.
This then put her in the orbit of Sir Kenneth Branagh for Much Ado and the late Alan Rickman for his directorial debut The Winter Guest – both acting alongside Dame Emma – while Sophie played Miss Bates to her real-life mother Mrs Bates in the Gwyneth Paltrow-led Austen adaptation Emma. Dame Emma’s daughter Gaia Wise has since also followed in the family’s footsteps (her father is actor Greg Wise, who met his now-wife making 1995 period drama Sense and Sensibility).