PHYLLIDA LAW

(6 July 1932 − 27 July 2026)

Phyllida Law was one of those quintessentially British actors who could always be relied on to provide a first-rate supporting turn. She was equally at home on stage, on television and in film, but didn’t really make her presence felt on the cinema screen until the twilight of her career. In her later years she developed Parkinson's disease, but died peacefully of unknown causes at the age of 94 surrounded by family, just as she would have wanted. She had a twinkle in her eye and a no-nonsense demeanour that endeared her to millions, whether playing Ursula in Kenneth Branagh’s Much Ado About Nothing (1993) or Aunt Auriel in the small-screen series Kingdom (2007-2009), opposite Stephen Fry.

She was born in Glasgow and trained at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, where she performed alongside Peter O’Toole, Eric Porter and Eric Thompson, the last named whom she married in 1957. Together, they had two daughters, both of whom became actresses in their own right, namely Emma Thompson and Sophie Thompson, while Eric Thompson found his own slice of fame developing and narrating the legendary children’s TV show The Magic Roundabout (1965-1977).

On screen, Phyllida Law’s major credits included Kenneth Branagh’s Peter’s Friends (1992) and Much Ado, both co-starring Emma Thompson, and Douglas McGrath’s adaptation of Emma (1996) with Gwyneth Paltrow, in which she played Mrs Bates, mother of Miss Bates, limned by Sophie Thompson. She also appeared in Anna Karenina (1997), with Sophie Marceau, and in Alan Rickman’s directorial debut, The Winter Guest (1997), in which she had top-billing, alongside Emma. She was also in Rickman’s A Little Chaos (2014), with Kate Winslet.

As well as being an accomplished performer, Phyllida Law exhibited a deft way with words and produced three autobiographical works, Notes to my Mother-in-Law (2009), How Many Camels Are There in Holland?: Dementia, Ma and Me (2013) and Dead Now of Course (2017), the last-named a rumination on those who had passed on. In 2014 she was awarded an OBE for her services to drama and charity.

JAMES CAMERON-WILSON