Phyllida Law, prolific performer across stage and screen, dies aged 94
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- Phyllida Law died peacefully at home surrounded by family, her personal manager Jacky Leggo announced; she was 94.
- Law was born in Glasgow in 1932 and trained at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, originally intending to be a stage designer before switching to acting.
- Law built a significant stage career, replacing Carole Boyer in the 1967 London transfer of A Day in the Death of Joe Egg, appearing opposite Alec Guinness in the 1971 premiere of John Mortimer's A Voyage Round My Father, and joining the National Theatre in 1979 productions including Somerset Maugham's For Services Rendered.
- Law appeared in films alongside her daughters — Peter's Friends and Much Ado About Nothing with Emma Thompson (directed by Kenneth Branagh), the Gwyneth Paltrow-led Emma with Sophie Thompson, and Alan Rickman's The Winter Guest where she and Emma played mother and daughter.
- Law continued in prestige TV through her later years with roles in Waking the Dead, Rosemary & Thyme, Foyle's War, Doc Martin, Agatha Christie's Poirot, and a recurring turn as Stephen Fry's Aunt Auriel in Kingdom; her final screen role was the 2020 film Then Came You.
- Law married fellow actor Eric Thompson in 1957; he died in 1982, and she is survived by their daughters, Emma and Sophie Thompson.
Why it matters: Law's career — spanning Bristol Old Vic productions in the 1950s to a 2020 film — illustrates the seven-decade arc of a character actress who repeatedly shared the screen and stage with her daughters Emma and Sophie Thompson, anchoring the Thompson family's multi-generational presence in British screen and stage life.
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