Actor Phyllida Law dies aged 94

Actor Phyllida Law has died at the age of 94, her personal manager Jacky Leggo announced. Leggo said Law passed away peacefully at home, surrounded by her family.

Born in Glasgow in 1932, Law was accepted into the renowned Bristol Old Vic Theatre school, initially intending to train as a stage designer before switching to acting. She appeared in several Bristol Old Vic productions during the 1950s, where she met fellow actor Eric Thompson, whom she married in 1957.

Stage and television career

Law began appearing on television in the late 1950s and featured in numerous shows throughout the 1960s, including Dr Finlay's Casebook, Dixon of Dock Green and The Troubleshooters. By the end of that decade she had taken on significant stage roles, including stepping into A Day in the Death of Joe Egg at London's Comedy Theatre and performing alongside Alec Guinness in A Voyage Round My Father and Habeas Corpus in the early 1970s. She later joined the National Theatre and appeared in the first London production of the musical La Cage aux Folles.

Film roles with her daughters

From the late 1980s, Law gained wider recognition in film, appearing with daughter Emma Thompson in Peter's Friends and Much Ado About Nothing, and with her other daughter Sophie Thompson in the Gwyneth Paltrow-led adaptation of Jane Austen's Emma. She also played Emma Thompson's mother in The Winter Guest, Alan Rickman's acclaimed directorial debut.

In later years, Law continued working in prestige television, including Waking the Dead, Foyle's War, Doc Martin and Agatha Christie's Poirot, and had a recurring role in Kingdom alongside Stephen Fry. Her final screen role came in the 2020 film Then Came You.

Law was married to Eric Thompson until his death in 1982. She is survived by their daughters, Emma and Sophie Thompson.