I don't know why the BBC are posting this nearly a month later, but still ...



Actress Phyllida Law, mother of Emma and Sophie Thompson, dies at 94
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Stage and screen star Phyllida Law, the mother of fellow actresses
Dame Emma and Sophie Thompson, has died at the age of 94.

"It is with great sadness we have to announce that Phyllida Law died
supremely peacefully at home, surrounded by all of her family, on
Monday 27th July," her manager Jacky Leggo said in a statement to
BBC News.

"We had worked together for over fifty years and she was a beautiful
person inside and out."

Law appeared on screen alongside her daughters several times
throughout a long and varied career, including in the 1996
adaptation of Jane Austen's Emma, starring Gwyneth Paltrow. Law
played Mrs Bates while Sophie played her daughter Miss Bates.

She also acted with Dame Emma in 1992's Peter's Friends, directed by
her then-son-in-law Sir Kenneth Branagh.

They combined on screen again the following year in Sir Kenneth's
adaptation of William Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing.

And they played a mother and daughter in Alan Rickman's directorial
debut, The Winter Guest, in 1997.

Later in life, Law provided the voice of Mrs Partridge in
Dame Emma's 2005 film Nanny McPhee, which her eldest daughter wrote
and starred in.

'They didn't follow in our footsteps, they rushed past us'
Born in Glasgow in 1932, Law attended the Bristol Old Vic Theatre
School, initially to become a stage designer but ended up studying
acting instead "by happy accident".

She married fellow actor Eric Thompson - best known for The Magic
Roundabout - in 1957.

The couple were together until he died of a heart attack aged 53, in
1982.

Throughout a career spanning eight decades, Law would go on to
appear in numerous TV shows including Dixon of Dock Green and
Rumpole of the Bailey before Midsomer Murders, Foyle's War,
Doc Martin and New Tricks.

She was also known for her work on the big screen in films such as
Anna Karenina, Saving Grace and Miss Potter.

On stage, Law appeared alongside Alec Guinness in John Mortimer's
A Voyage Round My Father in London's West End in 1971, and in Alan
Bennett's Habeas Corpus at the Oxford Playhouse in 1973, which then
transferred to the capital.

She also played Jacqueline in the original London cast of La Cage
Aux Folles at the London Palladium in 1986.

The prolific character actress starred alongside John Hurt in a
short film entitled Love at First Sight which was shortlisted for
an Oscar in 2012.

Law received an OBE in 2014 for services to drama and for
charitable services.

Her daughters have both gone on to enjoy success on screen.

Emma was born in 1959 and has won two Oscars - one for acting in
Howard's End and another for writing the screenplay for Sense and
Sensibility - and is also known for featuring in Love Actually and
the Harry Potter film series.

Sophie was born in 1964 and has appeared in films including Gosford
Park and Four Weddings and a Funeral, and been nominated for seven
Olivier Awards on stage.

Speaking about her daughters to the Telegraph in 2017, Law said:
"They are both my colleagues in a way. They didn't follow in our
footsteps, they rushed past us, trampling on us."

The family acting dynasty has continued with Dame Emma's daughter
Gaia, who posted on Instagram about her grandmother: "Rest well my
queen."

Speaking of her love of the arts to the same newspaper, Law joked:
"I've got to have my funeral in the afternoon, curtain up 2.30pm,
so people can get to the theatre afterwards."


<https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cr7kddmn97do>





--- PyGate Linux v1.5.19
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)