Phyllida Law

Phyllida Ann Law (born 6 July 1932) is a British actress, known for her numerous roles in film and television. Early life Law was born in Glasgow, the daughter of Meg "Mego" and William Law, a journalist. Prior to the Second World War, her father was a newspaper journalist with the Glasgow Herald who "kept odd hours"; when the war broke out, he went into the Royal Air Force and separated from his wife, later divorcing. Law would not see her father again until she was 18. Law's mother Meg worked in a dress shop in Glasgow during the war. The family also included Law's brother, James, her elder by five years, and their maternal grandmother, the wife of a Presbyterian minister, and "a fierce Presbyterian" herself whom Law "did not like as a child but can now admire." She attended Glasgow Girls High up to age seven. The war began in September 1939 and Law and her brother were evacuated to family friends outside Glasgow in Lenzie, East Dunbartonshire, and attended a local school there, before Law transferred to Skelmorlie, Ayrshire, and then a school near the Clyde. At 13 she passed an entrance exam for Badminton School in Bristol, and became a boarder there. Leaving the school at 17, she initially accepted a place at university to read French and Literature, but disliked the experience and left. She then auditioned for the Bristol Old Vic School, intending to train as a stage designer, and discovered – by "happy mistake" – that she wanted to act instead. Law was married to actor Eric Thompson from 1957 until his death in 1982. Their daughters, Emma and Sophie Thompson, are both actresses.