{"id":597473,"date":"2026-08-18T22:32:09","date_gmt":"2026-08-18T22:32:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/597473\/"},"modified":"2026-08-18T22:32:09","modified_gmt":"2026-08-18T22:32:09","slug":"actress-phyllida-law-mother-of-emma-thompson-dies-at-94","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/597473\/","title":{"rendered":"Actress Phyllida Law, mother of Emma Thompson, dies at 94"},"content":{"rendered":"

Actress Phyllida Law, the mother of Emma Thompson, has died aged 94.<\/p>\n

News of her death was confirmed by her granddaughter Gaia Wise, the daughter of Thompson and her husband Greg Wise.<\/p>\n

Wise shared a photo of Law on Instagram and wrote: “Rest well my queen.”<\/p>\n

Law’s management said in a statement she “died supremely peacefully at home, surrounded by all of her family” on 27 July.<\/p>\n

The actress was married to actor Eric Thompson from 1957 until his death from a heart attack in 1982, aged 53.<\/p>\n

\"LONDON,<\/p>\n

Their daughters, Emma and Sophie Thompson, are both actresses.<\/p>\n

Law appeared on screen alongside her daughters several times, including in the 1996 adaptation of Jane Austen\u2019s Emma.<\/p>\n

In the film – which starred Gwyneth Paltrow – Law played Mrs Bates while Sophie played her daughter Miss Bates.<\/p>\n

She also appeared alongside Emma Thompson in 1992\u2019s Peter\u2019s Friends, directed by her daughter\u2019s then-husband Kenneth Branagh.<\/p>\n

Law also appeared in Branagh\u2019s adaptation of Much Ado About Nothing the following year, also alongside Dame Emma.<\/p>\n

In 1997 Law again appeared alongside her eldest daughter in Alan Rickman\u2019s directorial debut The Winter Guest, in which the pair played mother and daughter.<\/p>\n

More than a decade later she also had a voice role in her daughter\u2019s 2005 film Nanny McPhee, which she wrote and starred in.<\/p>\n

\"Phyllida
\nPhyllida Law Arriving For The World Premiere Of Nanny Mcphee And The Big Bang, At The Odeon West End, Leicester Square, London in 2010. (Photo by Mark Cuthbert\/UK Press via Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Born in Glasgow in 1932, Law initially aspired to become a stage designer – but ended up studying acting at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School.<\/p>\n

Throughout her career, Law appeared in television programmes including Play School, The Unpleasantness At The Bellona Club, Midsomer Murders, Monarch Of The Glen, Rosemary & Thyme, The Sarah Jane Adventures, Foyle\u2019s War, Doc Martin, Midsomer Murders and New Tricks.<\/p>\n

She also featured in films including Anna Karenina, Saving Grace, and Miss Potter.<\/p>\n

On stage Law appeared alongside Alec Guinness in John Mortimer\u2019s A Voyage Round My Father at the Theatre Royal Haymarket in 1971 and in Alan Bennett\u2019s Habeas Corpus at the Oxford Playhouse in 1973, which then transferred to the West End.<\/p>\n

The actress also appeared in the original London cast of La Cage Aux Folles at the London Palladium in 1986, playing the role of Jacqueline.<\/p>\n

Law was made an OBE for services to drama and charitable causes in 2014.<\/p>\n

Source: Press Association<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Actress Phyllida Law, the mother of Emma Thompson, has died aged 94. News of her death was confirmed…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":597474,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[321,93,61,60],"class_list":["post-597473","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-celebrities","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/597473","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=597473"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/597473\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/597474"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=597473"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=597473"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=597473"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}