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BBC
- August 19, 2026 12:30
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"It is with great sadness that we have to announce that Phyllida Law passed away peacefully at her home, surrounded by her family, on Monday, July 27," her manager, Jacky Leggo, said in a statement to the BBC. Law appeared on screen with her daughters several times during her long and varied career, including in the 1996 adaptation of Jane Austen's novel "Emma," starring Gwyneth Paltrow. Law played Mrs. Bates, while Sophie played her daughter, Miss Bates.
Stage and screen star Phyllida Law, mother of actresses Dame Emma Thompson and Sophie Thompson, has died aged 94.
"It is with great sadness that we have to announce that Phyllida Law passed away very peacefully at her home, surrounded by her entire family, on Monday, July 27," her manager, Jacky Leggo, said in a statement to the BBC.
"We had worked together for over fifty years and she was a beautiful person, inside and out."
Law appeared on screen with her daughters several times during her long and varied career, including in the 1996 adaptation of Jane Austen's novel "Emma," starring Gwyneth Paltrow. Law played Mrs. Bates, while Sophie played her daughter, Miss Bates.
She also starred alongside Dame Emma in the 1992 film Peter's Friends, directed by her then-ex-son-in-law, Sir Kenneth Branagh.
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They appeared together on screen again a year later, in Sir Kenneth's adaptation of William Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing.
In 1997, they played the roles of mother and daughter in Alan Rickman's directorial debut, "The Winter Guest."
Later in life, Law voiced the character Partridge in Dame Emma's 2005 film, "Nanny McPhee," for which her eldest daughter wrote the screenplay and in which she also starred.
Born in Glasgow in 1932, Law attended the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, initially with the intention of becoming a set designer, but ended up studying acting "completely by accident and luck".
She married actor Eric Thompson – best known for “The Magic Roundabout” – in 1957.
The couple remained together until his death from a heart attack, at the age of 53, in 1982.
During a career spanning eight decades, Law would appear in many television series, including "Dickson of Dock Green" and "Rumpole of the Bailey", as well as later in "Midsomer Murders", "Foyle's War", "Doc Martin" and "New Tricks".
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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 opposite 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 later transferred to the capital.
She also played Jacqueline in the original London production of "La Cage Aux Folles" at the London Palladium in 1986.
The actress starred alongside John Hurt in the short film "Love at First Sight," which was nominated for an Oscar in 2012.
Law was awarded an OBE in 2014 for her services to drama and charitable services. Both of her daughters have achieved success on screen.
Emma was born in 1959 and has won two Oscars – one for her performance in “Howard's End” and another for her screenplay for “Sense and Sensibility” – and is also known for her roles 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, as well as being nominated for seven Olivier Awards for her work on stage.
Speaking about her daughters to The Telegraph in 2017, Law said: "They're both my colleagues, in a way. They didn't follow in our footsteps, they outran us, they outstripped us."
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The acting dynasty in the family has continued with Gaia, Dame Emma's daughter, who wrote on Instagram about her grandmother: "Rest in peace, my queen."
Speaking about her love of the arts to the same newspaper, Law joked: "I have to have my funeral in the afternoon, the show starts at 14:30pm, so people can go to the theatre afterwards."
