Emma Thompson

British actress and screenwriter (born 1959)

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Born 1959 · age 67United Kingdom

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Wikipedia
80 languages
Cross-language footprint
Age
67
Born 1959
Known for
Harry Potter and the P…
2004

Summary

Updated 2026-08-27

She won an Oscar for acting, then won another for writing the screenplay — the only person to pull off both. Thompson moves between period-piece gravitas and broad comedy without friction, equally at home in Austen and Harry Potter.

Biography

About

Born in 1959 to actor parents, Thompson studied at Cambridge and cut her teeth with the Footlights comedy troupe before breaking through in the West End musical Me and My Girl in 1985. Two BBC series in 1987 — Tutti Frutti and Fortunes of War — won her back-to-back BAFTA TV awards and set the trajectory. She married Kenneth Branagh and appeared in his Shakespeare films through the early '90s, then took the Oscar for Howards End in 1992. The following year she became one of the rare actors nominated in two categories at once — Best Actress for The Remains of the Day, Best Supporting for In the…

Voice

In their own words

Sourced, dated quotes from Emma Thompson

Emma Thompson

said19 Apr 2019

Unfortunately sometimes I have to fly, but I don't fly nearly as much as I did, because of my carbon footprint, and I plant a lot of trees. [Interviewer: Do you fly economy, to...

— Extinction Rebellion protest, 19 April 2019

Emma Thompson

said27 Mar 1996

I don't really know how to thank the Academy for this. And if I try we'll be here till Christmas. So I better get on...

— 68th Academy Award Speech after winning best screenplay award Los Angeles, California (March 27, 1996)

Emma Thompson

said27 Mar 1996

Before I came, I went to visit Jane Austen's grave in Winchester Cathedral to pay my respects, you know, and tell her about the grosses.

— 68th Academy Award Speech after winning best screenplay award Los Angeles, California (March 27, 1996)

Emma Thompson

said21 Jan 1996

Thank you very much. Good Heavens. Um, I can't thank you enough, Hollywood Foreign Press, for honouring me in this capacity.

— Speech for Golden Globe for Best adapted screenplay (21 January 1996)

Emma Thompson

said21 Jan 1996

Four a.m., having just returned from an evening at the Golden Spheres, which despite the inconveniences of heat, noise and overcrowding was not without its pleasures.

— Speech for Golden Globe for Best adapted screenplay (21 January 1996)

via Wikiquote · CC BY-SA

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