Dame Emma Thompson born 15 April is a British actress and screenwriter. Born to actors Eric Thompson and Phyllida Law , Thompson was educated at Newnham College, Cambridge , where she became a member of the Footlights troupe, and appeared in the comedy sketch series Alfresco β In , she starred in the West End revival of the musical Me and My Girl , which was a breakthrough in her career.
In , she received two Academy Award nominationsβBest Actress and Best Supporting Actress βfor the respective roles of the housekeeper of a grand household in The Remains of the Day and a lawyer in In the Name of the Father , becoming one of the few actors to achieve this feat. She portrayed Mrs. Authorised by the publishers of Beatrix Potter , Thompson has also written three Peter Rabbit children's books. Thompson was born in London on 15 April In her youth, Thompson was intrigued by language and literature, a trait she attributes to her father, who shared her love of words.
Thompson believes that it was inevitable she would become an actor, remarking that she was "surrounded by creative people and I don't think it would ever have gone any other way, really". She explained in a interview how she discovered the book The Madwoman in the Attic , "which is about Victorian female writers and the disguises they took on in order to express what they wanted to express.
That completely changed my life. At Cambridge, Thompson was invited into the Cambridge Footlights , the university's prestigious sketch comedy troupe, by its president, Martin Bergman , [ 17 ] becoming its first female member.
Our nickname for her was Emma Talented. Thompson's father died in , aged I have a definite feeling of inheriting space. And power. Thompson had her first professional role in , touring in a stage version of Not the Nine O'Clock News. It provided a breakthrough in her career, as the production earned rave reviews. Thompson achieved another breakthrough in , [ 4 ] when she had leading roles in two television miniseries: Fortunes of War , a World War II drama costarring Kenneth Branagh , and Tutti Frutti , a dark comedy about a Scottish rock band with Robbie Coltrane.
