Phyllida Law, actress and Emma Thompson's mother, dies at 94
Phyllida Law, actress and Emma Thompson's mother, dies at 94
KiMi Robinson, USA TODAYTue, August 18, 2026 at 11:17 PM UTC
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Phyllida Law, the Scottish actress and mother of actresses Sophie and Emma Thompson, has died. She was 94.
"It is with great sadness we have to announce that Phyllida Law died supremely peacefully at home, surrounded by all of her family, on Monday 27th July," manager Jacky Leggo told BBC News in an Aug. 18 statement.
USA TODAY has reached out to Emma Thompson's representatives for comment.
Law started her career on TV programs in 1958, according to her IMDB page, eventually taking on film roles such as Ursula in Kenneth Branagh's "Much Ado About Nothing" from 1993 and Mrs. Bates in 1996's "Emma," starring Gwyneth Paltrow. She appeared alongside daughter Emma Thompson, who played Beatrice, in the Shakespeare adaptation and Sophie Thompson, who played Miss Bates, in the Jane Austen film.
Law also acted alongside Emma Thompson in Branagh's 1992 film "Peter's Friends." She later appeared in "Nanny McPhee," which Emma Thompson wrote and starred in. The two played mother and daughter on-screen in Alan Rickman's acclaimed directorial debut, 1997's "The Winter Guest."
In 2014, Law was named an Officer of the Order of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth II for her services to drama and for charitable services. Her daughters witnessed Law being presented with the insignia at the Nov. 11 investiture ceremony at Buckingham Palace.
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Law initially planned to become a stage designer when she trained at Bristol Old Vic Theatre School but, "by happy accident," she ended up studying acting, per the BBC.
She performed in stage productions there after graduating and went on to appear in West End shows such as "A Voyage Round My Father" and was part of the original cast of "La Cage aux Folles" in its 1986 premiere at the London Palladium.
Law was predeceased by her husband of 25 years, "The Magic Roundabout" writer and narrator Eric Thompson, who died of a heart attack at age 53 in 1982.
How Phyllida Law inspired Emma Thompson's Scottish accent
When speaking with USA TODAY in 2016 about her onscreen transformation in the comedy thriller "Barney Thomson," Emma Thompson joked that the makeup and prosthetics that aged her by two decades made her "look like my mother at 77, only after a life on Guinness and untipped Player's" cigarettes.
Emma Thompson described feeling a kinship to Scotland, the homeland of her mother – who was born in Glasgow in 1932 – as well as the country where she kept a home.
"It’s a very, very strong, hard accent and you’ve got to know it inside out," Emma Thompson, who played a devoted Scottish mother, said. "You’ve got to have lived with it. And I live in Scotland as well as London so I hear it a lot."
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Phyllida Law, actress and Emma Thompson's mother, dies at 94
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