Emma Thompson Biography

Emma Thompson
Thompson at the Nanny McPhee London premiere, 2005
Born	15 April 1959 (1959-04-15) (age 49) Paddington, London, England
Spouse(s)	Kenneth Branagh (1989–1995) Greg Wise (2003–present)
Awards won Academy Awards Best Actress 1992 Howards End Best Adapted Screenplay 1995 Sense and Sensibility BAFTA Awards Best TV Actress 1987 Tutti Frutti ; Fortunes of War Best Actress 1992 Howards End 1996 Sense and Sensibility Emmy Awards Outstanding Guest Actress - Comedy Series 1998 Ellen Golden Globe Awards Best Actress - Motion Picture Drama 1993 Howards End Best Screenplay 1996 Sense and Sensibility

Emma Kyralee Thompson (born 15 April 1959) is an Academy Award-, Emmy Award-, BAFTA Award- and Golden Globe-winning Anglo-Scottish actress, comedian, and screenwriter. She is also a patron of the Refugee Council.

Early life

Thompson was born in Paddington, London, England. Her father was the actor Eric Thompson, best known for having written and narrated The Magic Roundabout, shown on BBC children's television in the 1960s and '70s. Her mother is the Scottish actress Phyllida Law. Thompson's younger sister is actress Sophie Thompson. Thompson has spent part of her life in Scotland and has stated that she "feel[s] Scottish".¹

Thompson went to Camden School for Girls and then studied English at Newnham College, Cambridge, where she was a member (along with fellow actors Stephen Fry, Hugh Laurie, and Tony Slattery) and vice-president of the University's theatrical club, the Footlights. Her acting talent was so impressive that agent Richard Armitage signed her to a contract while she was still 2 years away from graduation. In 1982, Emma completed her education at Cambridge with her degree. Soon after that, she came to fame with a leading role in the West End revival of the musical Me and My Girl, opposite Robert Lindsay, followed by the BBC serial drama, Fortunes of War.

Career

Thompson's first major film role was in a romantic comedy, The Tall Guy. Her career took a more serious turn with a series of critically acclaimed performances and films, beginning with 1992's Howards End (for which she received an Oscar for Best Actress); the part of Gareth Peirce, the lawyer for the Guildford Four, in In the Name of the Father; The Remains of the Day opposite Anthony Hopkins; and as the British painter Dora Carrington in the film Carrington.

She won her next Oscar in 1996, for Best Adapted Screenplay for her screenplay adaptation of Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility, a film in which she also played the Oscar-nominated lead role opposite Hugh Grant. She has said that she keeps both of her award statues in her downstairs bathroom, citing embarrassment at placing them in a more prominent place ².

One of Thompson's earliest television appearances was in 1984 alongside Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie as guest stars on the sitcom The Young Ones. In 1988, she starred in and wrote the eponymous Thompson comedy sketch series for BBC1; the series was not successful with audiences or critics. Described in Time Out magazine as "very clever-little-me-ish",^{citation needed} it has never been repeated in Britain despite her Oscar successes, and Thompson has not returned to the sketch comedy field.

Thompson's recent television work has included a starring role in the 2001 HBO drama Wit, in which she played a dying cancer patient, and 2003's Angels in America, playing multiple roles, including one of the titular angels. Her Emmy Award was as a guest star in a 1997 episode of the show Ellen; in the episode, she played a fictionalised parody of herself: a closeted lesbian more concerned with the media finding out she's actually American. She also appeared in an episode of Cheers in 1992 titled "One Hugs, the Other Doesn't".

Most recently, Thompson appeared in supporting roles such as Sybill Trelawney in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban and Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. She has also appeared in the hit comedy Love Actually. The film Nanny McPhee, written by Thompson, was first released in October 2005. Thompson worked on the project for nine years, having written the screenplay and starred, alongside her mother (who has a cameo appearance). In the film Stranger Than Fiction she plays an author planning on killing her main character, Harold Crick, who turns out to be a real person. Most recently, Emma Thompson made a short uncredited cameo as a doctor introducing the cure for cancer in the form of measles in the latest film adaptation for I Am Legend, and awaiting release is the film Last Chance Harvey, where Thompson leads opposite Dustin Hoffman, with appearances from Eileen Atkins and Kathy Baker, An Education and The Boat That Rocked, the new Richard Curtis film which also stars Gemma Arterton, Philip Seymour Hoffman, January Jones, Kenneth Branagh, Bill Nighy, Nick Frost, Jack Davenport and Rhys Ifans.

Due to scheduling conflicts, Thompson will not reprise her role as Sybill Trelawney in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

Personal life

While she was at Cambridge University, Thompson had a romantic relationship with fellow student, actor Hugh Laurie, who was also a member of the Cambridge Footlights Revue.

Thompson married Kenneth Branagh, with whom she appeared in Fortunes of War, on 20 August 1989. They appeared together several times, in hit films such as Dead Again, Henry V and Much Ado About Nothing, but were eventually divorced in October 1995.

In 2003, Thompson married actor Greg Wise (who starred with her in Sense and Sensibility) with whom she has a daughter, Gaia Romilly, born in 1999. In 2003, Thompson and Wise informally adopted a 16-year-old Rwandan refugee named Tindyebwa Agaba. They are currently fighting his deportation back to Rwanda where it is thought all his family were killed in the genocide.³

Acting credits

The following is a list of Thompson's Film credits:

The following is a partial list of Thompson's Theatre credits:

• 1990 - Played The Fool in Shakespeare's King Lear and Helena in A Midsummer Night's Dream - International tour.
• 1989 - Played Alison in Look Back In Anger by John Osborne - Lyric Shaftesbury, London.
• 1984/5 - Played Sally in the musical Me and My Girl - Adelphi Theatre, London.
• 1984 - Wrote and starred in the one woman show Short Vehicle - Edinburgh Festival.
• 1982 - Appeared in Not The Nine O'Clock News - UK tour.
• 1982 - Co-wrote and appeared in Beyond the Footlights - Lyric Hammersmith, London.

Awards

• Academy Awards
  • 1992 - Best Actress - Howards End
  • 1993 - Best Actress - The Remains of the Day
  • 1993 - Best Supporting Actress - In the Name of the Father
  • 1995 - Best Actress - Sense and Sensibility
  • 1995 - Best Adapted Screenplay - Sense and Sensibility
• Emmy Awards
  • 1998 - Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series - Ellen
  • 2001 - Outstanding Lead Actress in a Miniseries or Movie - Wit
  • 2004 - Outstanding Lead Actress in a Miniseries or Movie - Angels in America
• SAG Awards
  • 1995 - Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role - Motion Picture - Sense and Sensibility
  • 1995 - Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture - Sense and Sensibility
  • 2001 - Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Miniseries or Television Movie - Wit
  • 2003 - Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Miniseries or Television Movie - Angels in America
• Golden Globe Awards
  • 1993 - Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture Drama - Howards End
  • 1994 - Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture Drama - The Remains of the Day
  • 1994 - Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture Drama - In the Name of the Father
  • 1995 - Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture Musical or Comedy - Junior
  • 1996 - Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture Drama - Sense and Sensibility
  • 2002 - Best Performance by an Actress in a Miniseries or Motion Picture Made for Television - Wit
• BAFTA Awards
  • 1993 - Best Actress in a Leading Role - Howards End
  • 1994 - Best Actress in a Leading Role - The Remains of the Day
  • 1995 - Best Adapted Screenplay - Sense and Sensibility
  • 1996 - Best Actress in a Leading Role - Sense and Sensibility
  • 2004 - Best Actress in a Supporting Role - Love Actually

Note: Bold indicates she won the award in question. Unbolded means she was merely nominated.

Further reading

• Shuttleworth, Ian (1994). Ken and Em, Headline Book Publishing, London. ISBN 0-7472-1225-2. 
• Nickson, Chris (1997). Emma: The Many Facets of Emma Thompson, Taylor Publishing. ISBN 0878339655. 
• Hewison, Robert (1984). Footlights! A Hundred Years of Cambridge Comedy, Methuen, London. ISBN 0-413-56050-3. 
• Kenneth, Branagh (1989). Beginning, St. Martin's Press, New York. ISBN 0-312-05822-5. 

References

External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:

Emma Thompson

• Emma Thompson at the Internet Movie Database
• Interview, 1/27/06, Today Entertainment
• Interview on her views on parenting, 10/01/05, Raisingkids
• Interview, 10/16/05
• Thompson answers questions on her AIDS charity work, 11/25/03
• Interview with Netribution
• Emma Thompson talks trafficking with Philip Halcrow of The War Cry