Phyllida Law, prolific performer across stage and screen, dies aged 94
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- Phyllida Law died peacefully at home at age 94, surrounded by her family, according to her personal manager Jacky Leggo
- Born in Glasgow in 1932, Law trained at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School and met her future husband, actor Eric Thompson, there before marrying him in 1957
- Law built a major stage career from the 1960s onward, replacing Carole Boyer in the original London transfer of A Day in the Death of Joe Egg, appearing opposite Alec Guinness in the first run of A Voyage Round My Father in 1971, and joining the English-language cast of La Cage aux Folles
- From the late 1980s Law gained wider film prominence, appearing alongside daughters Emma Thompson and Sophie Thompson in Peter's Friends, Much Ado About Nothing, the Gwyneth Paltrow-led Emma, and Alan Rickman's The Winter Guest
- Law continued taking high-prestige television roles into her late career, with recurring appearances on Foyle's War, Doc Martin, Agatha Christie's Poirot, and a recurring part as Aunt Auriel in Stephen Fry's Kingdom
- Law is survived by daughters Emma Thompson and Sophie Thompson; her husband Eric Thompson died in 1982
Why it matters: Phyllida Law's death at 94 closes a chapter on one of British stage and screen's most quietly prolific character actresses — a performer whose career spanned from 1950s repertory theatre through West End premieres with Alec Guinness to late-career television alongside Stephen Fry, and whose most memorable screen work placed her opposite daughters Emma and Sophie Thompson in some of the era's most celebrated ensemble films.
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