Actress Phyllida Law, mother of Emma and Sophie Thompson, dies at 94

Stage and screen star Phyllida Law, the mother of fellow actresses Dame Emma and Sophie Thompson, has died at the age of 94.

"It is with great sadness we have to announce that Phyllida Law died supremely peacefully at home, surrounded by all of her family, on Monday 27th July," her manager Jacky Leggo said in a statement to BBC News.

"We had worked together for over fifty years and she was a beautiful person inside and out."

Law appeared on screen alongside her daughters several times throughout a long and varied career, including in the 1996 adaptation of Jane Austen's Emma, starring Gwyneth Paltrow. Law played Mrs Bates while Sophie played her daughter Miss Bates.

She also acted with Dame Emma in 1992's Peter's Friends, directed by her then-son-in-law Sir Kenneth Branagh.

They combined on screen again the following year in Sir Kenneth's adaptation of William Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing.

And they played a mother and daughter in Alan Rickman's directorial debut, The Winter Guest, in 1997.

Later in life, Law provided the voice of Mrs Partridge in Dame Emma's 2005 film Nanny McPhee, which her eldest daughter wrote and starred in.

Born in Glasgow in 1932, Law attended the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, initially to become a stage designer but ended up studying acting instead "by happy accident".

She married fellow actor Eric Thompson - best known for The Magic Roundabout - in 1957.

The couple were together until he died of a heart attack aged 53, in 1982.

Throughout a career spanning eight decades, Law would go on to appear in numerous TV shows including Dixon of Dock Green and Rumpole of the Bailey before Midsomer Murders, Foyle's War, Doc Martin and New Tricks.

She was also known for her work on the big screen in films such as Anna Karenina, Saving Grace and Miss Potter.

On stage, Law appeared alongside Alec Guinness in John Mortimer's A Voyage Round My Father in London's West End in 1971, and in Alan Bennett's Habeas Corpus at the Oxford Playhouse in 1973, which then transferred to the capital.

She also played Jacqueline in the original London cast of La Cage Aux Folles at the London Palladium in 1986.

The actress starred alongside John Hurt in a short film entitled Love at First Sight which was shortlisted for an Oscar in 2012.

Law received an OBE in 2014 for services to drama and for charitable services.

Her daughters have both gone on to enjoy success on screen.

Emma was born in 1959 and has won two Oscars - one for acting in Howard's End and another for writing the screenplay for Sense and Sensibility - and is also known for featuring in Love Actually and the Harry Potter film series.

Sophie was born in 1964 and has appeared in films including Gosford Park and Four Weddings and a Funeral, and been nominated for seven Olivier Awards on stage.

Speaking about her daughters to the Telegraph in 2017, Law said: "They are both my colleagues in a way. They didn't follow in our footsteps, they rushed past us, trampling on us."

The family acting dynasty has continued with Dame Emma's daughter Gaia, who posted on Instagram about her grandmother: "Rest well my queen."

Speaking of her love of the arts to the same newspaper, Law joked: "I've got to have my funeral in the afternoon, curtain up 2.30pm, so people can get to the theatre afterwards."