Emma Thompson

Name: Emma Thompson
Date of Birth: April 15, 1959
Place of Birth: Paddington, London, England, UK

Biography: Emma Thompson was born in London on April 15, 1959, into a family of actors - her father was Eric Thompson, who has passed away, and her mother, Phyllida Law, has co-starred with Thompson in several f...( read more

)ilms (her sister, Sophie Thompson, is an actor as well). Thompson's wit was earlier cultivated by a cheerful, clever, creative family atmosphere, and she was a popular and successful student. She attended Cambridge University, studying English Literature, and was part of the university's Footlights Group, the famous group where, previously, many of the Monty Python members had first met.

Thompson graduated in 1980 and embarked on her career in entertainment, beginning with stints on BBC radio and touring with comedy shows. She soon got her first major break in television, on the comedy skit program "Alfresco" (1983), writing and performing along with her fellow Footlights Group alums Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie. She also worked on other TV comedy review programs in the mid-1980s, occasionally with some of her fellow Footlights alums, and often with actor Robbie Coltrane.

Thompson found herself collaborating again with Fry in 1985, this time in his stage adaptation of the play "Me and My Girl" in London's West End, in which she had a leading role, playing Sally Smith. The show was a success and she received favorable reviews, and the strength of her performance led to her casting as the lead in the BBC television miniseries "Fortunes of War" (1987) (mini), in which Thompson and her co-star, Kenneth Branagh, play an English ex-patriate couple living in Eastern Europe as the Second World War erupts. Thompson won a BAFTA award for her work on the program. She married Branagh in 1989, continued to work with him professionally, and formed a production company with him. In the late 80s and early 90s, she starred in a string of well-received and successful television and film productions, most notably her lead role in the Merchant-Ivory production of Howards End (1992), which confirmed her ability to carry a movie on both sides of the Atlantic and appropriately showered her with trans-Atlantic honors - both an Oscar and a BAFTA award.

Since then, Thompson has continued to move effortlessly between the art film world and mainstream Hollywood, though even her Hollywood roles tend to be in more up-market productions. She continues to work on television as well, but is generally very selective about which roles she takes. She writes for the screen as well, such as the screenplay for Ang Lee's Sense and Sensibility (1995), in which she also starred as Elinor Dashwood, and the teleplay adaptation of Margaret Edson's acclaimed play Wit (2001) (TV), in which she also starred.

Thompson is known for her sophisticated, skillful, though her critics say somewhat mannered, performances, and of course for her arch wit, which she is unafraid to point at herself - she is a fearless self-satirist. Thompson and Branagh divorced in 1994, and Thompson is now married to fellow actor Greg Wise, who had played Willoughby in Ang Lee's Sense and Sensibility (1995). Thompson and Wise have one child, Gaia, born in 1999.

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Comments

vivickybins

hi Emma is a very gentle lady i like her very much.

posted 58 days ago
prinzessinclara

hang on, emma doesn't actually read this, guys. She is so cool! I love her so much in Much Ado about Nothing. And of course Love Actually. Well there are so many more movies but hey. I think that if i could trade lives with one person, it would probably be Emma Thompson, and not just because it think Kenneth Branagh is hot as.

posted 321 days ago
xxxxxxxxxxxxxx999999

thanx so much for adding me. oh i just watched howards end with my grandma. ive never seen it b4. i love it!!! it was rlly good. same w/ nanny mcphee and sense and sensability. i love all those kinds of movies. there awsome. well toodles =)

posted 330 days ago
astirox

i luv u emma
u r my totally fave actress eva!!!!!
u rox my sox!!
=)

posted 339 days ago
chrissyk87

Hey Emma my name is Chrissy I Love you you Rock I Love how you did the capten in treasure planet keep up the good work
you are the best

posted 379 days ago
msryyhcmsurya

hi emma
i love u . plz accept me and write me soon.

posted 393 days ago
missinguall123

Happy Birthday Emma! All your movies are so great!

posted 397 days ago
shaakti14

Emma, you are a really cool actress. i love your work in Treasure Planet. Keep up the good work.

posted 412 days ago
acnew

EMMA IS SOOOOOOOOOOOOOO GREAT in NANNY MC PHEE!!!!!!!!! Really, I just love her!!!!!!! She is so talented and soooooooooooooooo horrible at the beginning and so beautiful at the end!!!!!!!!!!!!

posted 414 days ago
pirateprincess100

I loved Emma's performance in Sense and Sensibility. She is a wonderful actress and I think she's very pretty. She is very talented and has never done a bad job in the movies that I've seen her in.
I think it's very interesting that she married Greg Wise the one who played Willoughby in Sense and Sensibility.
God bless you Emma. You have a great talent in acting. I also think you have the most beautiful smile in the world.

posted 422 days ago