Emma Thompson

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Emma Thompson (born April 15, 1959) is a two-time Academy Award, Emmy Award and BAFTA-winning English actress, comedian, and screenwriter.

1 Biography
2 Selected filmography
3 References
4 External links
- 4.1 Websites
- 4.2 Interviews

[edit] Biography

[edit] Early life

Thompson was born in Paddington, London to Eric Thompson (an English actor known for narrating the television series The Magic Roundabout) and Phyllida Law (a Scottish actress). Her sister is actress Sophie Thompson.

Thompson went to Camden School for Girls and then took English Literature at Newnham College, Cambridge, where she was also a member, as well as vice-president, of the Footlights comedy club. While there, Thompson dated Footlights member and future actor, Hugh Laurie. After completing her education, 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 drama serial, Fortunes of War.

[edit] Acting career

Thompson's first major film role was in a romantic comedy, The Tall Guy (1989). 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 who got the Guildford Four out of jail, in 1993's In the Name of the Father, The Remains of the Day opposite Anthony Hopkins, and as real life British painter Dora Carrington in the movie Carrington (1995). 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 actress role. Consequently, Thompson is the first, and so far only, person to have won Oscars for both acting and writing; 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. ^[1]

Thompson's recent television career has included a starring role in the 2001 HBO drama Wit, in which she played a dying cancer victim. In 1984 she starred alongside Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie as guest stars on British sitcom The Young Ones, in a role that parodies upper class England. In 1988, she starred in and wrote the eponymous "Thompson" comedy sketch series for BBC1. In 2003, she joined the cast of Angels in America, playing multiple roles, including one of the titular angels. Her one Emmy Award came as result of her appearance as a guest star in a 1997 episode of the show Ellen; in the episode, she played a parody of herself. She also appeared in an episode of Cheers in 1992. Her character, Nanette "Nanny" Gee, was the host of a children's television program and Frasier Crane's first wife.

Most recently, Thompson appeared in supporting roles in films of a lighter nature, including her role as Sybill Trelawney in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004) and the comedy Love Actually (2003).

The film Nanny McPhee, written by Thompson, was first released in October 2005. Thompson has worked on the project for 9 years, having written the screenplay and starred, alongside her mother (who has a cameo appearance). In her newest film, "Stranger Than Fiction", she plays an author planning on killing her main character, who turns out to be a real person.

[edit] Private life

Thompson as Professor Trelawney in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

Thompson married Kenneth Branagh, with whom she appeared in Fortunes of War, on August 20, 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 of 1995.

In 2003, Thompson married actor Greg Wise (who starred with her in Sense and Sensibility with Kate Winslet), with whom she has a daughter, Gaia Romilly, born in 1999.

[edit] Selected filmography

Year	Title	Role	Other notes
2007	Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix	Professor Sybill Trelawney
2006	Stranger Than Fiction	Karen Eiffel
2005	Nanny McPhee	Nanny McPhee	Script Writer
2004	Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban	Professor Sybill Trelawney
2003	Love Actually	Karen
2003	Imagining Argentina	Cecilia
2001	Wit	Vivian Bearing	Television movie
1998	Primary Colors	Susan Stanton
1995	Sense and Sensibility	Elinor Dashwood	Winner, Academy Awards for Best Adapted Screenplay
1995	Carrington	Dora Carrington
1994	Junior	Dr. Diana Reddin
1993	In the Name of the Father	Gareth Peirce	Nominated Academy Awards for Best Supporting Actress
1993	The Remains of the Day	Miss Kenton	Nominated Academy Awards for Best Actress
1993	Much Ado About Nothing	Beatrice
1992	Peter's Friends	Maggie Chester
1992	Howards End	Margaret Schlegel	Winner, Academy Award for Best Actress
1991	Dead Again	Grace/Margaret Strauss
1990	The Tall Guy	Kate Lemmon

Preceded by: Jodie Foster for The Silence of the Lambs	Academy Award for Best Actress 1992 for Howards End	Succeeded by: Holly Hunter for The Piano
Preceded by: Eric Roth for Forrest Gump	Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay 1995 for Sense and Sensibility	Succeeded by: Billy Bob Thornton for Sling Blade