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Emma Thompson is a Actor, Scriptwriter, Executive Producer, Songs and Thanks British born on 15 april 1959 at Paddington (United-kingdom)

Emma Thompson

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Nationality United-kingdom
Birth 15 april 1959 (65 years) at Paddington (United-kingdom)
Awards Academy Award for Best Actress, Primetime Emmy Award, List of awards and nominations received by Emma Thompson, Writers Guild of America Award

Emma Thompson (born 15 April 1959) is a British actress, comedienne, screenwriter, and author. Cited as one of the greatest British actresses of her generation, she is known for her portrayals of reticent women in period dramas and literary adaptations, often playing haughty or matronly characters with a sense of irony.

Born in London to English actor Eric Thompson and Scottish actress Phyllida Law, Thompson was educated at Newnham College, University of Cambridge, where she became a member of the Footlights troupe. After appearing in several comedy programmes, she first came to prominence in 1987 in two BBC TV series, Tutti Frutti and Fortunes of War, winning the BAFTA TV Award for Best Actress for her work in both. Her first film role came in the 1989 romantic comedy The Tall Guy, and in the early 1990s she frequently collaborated with her then husband, actor and director Kenneth Branagh. The pair became popular in the British media, and co-starred in several films including Dead Again (1991) and Much Ado About Nothing (1993).

In 1992, Thompson won multiple acting awards, including an Academy Award and a BAFTA Award for Best Actress, for her work in the British drama Howards End. In 1993, Thompson garnered dual Academy Award nominations for her roles in The Remains of the Day, as a stately housekeeper, and In the Name of the Father, as a lawyer. Thompson scripted and starred in 1995's Sense and Sensibility, which earned her (among other awards) an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay and a BAFTA Award for Best Actress. Other notable film and television credits include the Harry Potter film series, Wit (2001), Love Actually (2003), Angels in America (2003), Nanny McPhee (2005), Stranger than Fiction (2006), Last Chance Harvey (2008), Men in Black 3 (2012), and Brave (2012). In 2013, she received acclaim and several award nominations for her portrayal of P. L. Travers in Saving Mr. Banks.

Thompson is married to actor Greg Wise, with whom she lives in London and has one daughter and an adopted son. She has been outspoken on issues such as religion, the environment and human rights, and has authored two books adapted from The Tale of Peter Rabbit.

Biography

Thompson, although born in London, has confessed to feeling Scottish: "not only because I am half Scottish but also because I've spent half my life here". She frequently returns to Scotland and visits Dunoon in Argyll and Bute when on holiday, owning a home there.

Thompson's first husband was the actor and director Kenneth Branagh, whom she met in 1987 while filming the television series Fortunes of War. The couple married in 1989 and proceeded to appear in several films together, with Branagh often casting Thompson in his own productions. Dubbed a "golden couple" by the British media, the relationship received considerable press interest. The pair attempted to keep their relationship private, refusing to be interviewed or photographed together. In September 1995, Thompson and Branagh announced that they had separated; their statement to the press explained: "Our work has inevitably led to our spending long periods ... away from each other and, as a result, we have drifted apart."

Thompson was living alone as the relationship with Branagh deteriorated, and entered into a depression. In a later interview, she revealed that working on the Sense and Sensibility screenplay was the only thing that stopped her from "going under in a very nasty way." While filming the 1995 movie, Thompson began a relationship with her co-star Greg Wise. Commenting on how she was able to overcome her depression, she told BBC Radio Four, "Work saved me and Greg saved me. He picked up the pieces and put them together again." In 1999, the couple had a daughter, Gaia, born when Thompson was 39. The pregnancy was achieved through IVF treatment; afterwards Wise and Thompson attempted to have another child using the same method. Three years of further IVF treatment were unsuccessful.

In 2003, Thompson and Wise were married in Dunoon. The family's permanent residence is in West Hampstead, London, on the same road where Thompson lived in her youth. Also in 2003, Thompson and her husband informally adopted a Rwandan orphan and former child soldier named Tindyebwa Agaba. They met at a Refugee Council event when he was 16, and invited him to spend Christmas at their home. "Slowly," Thompson has commented, "he became a sort of permanent fixture, came on holiday to Scotland with us, became part of the family." Tindy became a British citizen in 2009.

Views and activism

Thompson has said of her religious views: "I'm an atheist; I suppose you can call me a sort of libertarian anarchist. I regard religion with fear and suspicion. It's not enough to say that I don't believe in God. I actually regard the system as distressing: I am offended by some of the things said in the Bible and the Qur'an and I refute them." Despite this, she has said that "The guiding moral principles, the ethical principles, much of the philosophy [of the Christian tradition], if properly applied, is very good", and that she observes the Christmas tradition. She is supporter of the Labour Party and she told the BBC Andrew Marr Show in March 2010 that she had been a member of the party "all my life." She opposed Scottish independence in the 2014 referendum.

Thompson is a supporter of Greenpeace. It was announced on 13 January 2009 that, with three other members of the organisation, she had bought land near the village of Sipson, under threat from a proposed third runway for Heathrow Airport. It was hoped that possession of the land, half the size of a football pitch, would make it possible to prevent the government from carrying through its plan to expand the airport. In August 2014, Thompson and her daughter, Gaia, went on a Greenpeace Save the Arctic expedition to raise awareness of the dangers of drilling for oil.

Thompson is an ambassador for the charity ActionAid and has travelled to Uganda, Mozambique, Ethiopia, Liberia and Burma to raise awareness of its work. Thompson is also an activist for Palestinians, having been a member of the British-based ENOUGH! coalition that seeks to end the "Israeli occupation of the Gaza Strip and West Bank." Additionally, she is a patron of the Elton John AIDS Foundation and the Refugee Council and an Ambassador for the Galapagos Conservation Trust.