Phyllida Law has died aged 94

Phyllida Law has died aged 94.

Born in Glasgow in 1932, Law trained at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School in the early 1950s.

Law’s stage career included roles in the original West End productions of John Mortimer’s A Voyage Round My Father in 1971 and Alan Bennett’s Habeas Corpus in 1973, both alongside Alec Guinness. In 1967, she joined the cast of A Day in the Death of Joe Egg at the Comedy Theatre.

She later joined the National Theatre in 1979 for productions including For Services Rendered and When We Are Married, and appeared in the 1986 West End premiere of the musical La Cage aux Folles at The London Palladium.

Her screen work included roles in Kenneth Branagh’s film adaptations of Peter’s Friends (1992) and Much Ado About Nothing (1993). She starred alongside her daughter Emma Thompson in Alan Rickman’s 1997 film The Winter Guest, and appeared alongside her daughter Sophie in the 1996 film Emma. On television, her credits included Dixon of Dock Green, Rumpole of the Bailey, Doc Martin, and Kingdom.

Law was appointed OBE in 2014 for services to drama and charity. During her time at Bristol Old Vic school, she met actor and director Eric Thompson, whom she married in 1957. Thompson died in 1982. The couple had two daughters, the actors Emma Thompson and Sophie Thompson.