Phyllida Law, 1932 – 2026

Scottish actress Phyllida Law, 94, died on Aug. 18. The wife of actor Eric Thompson and mother of actresses Emma and Sophie Thompson, Law acted with the Bristol Old Vic, and was in the original London cast of La Cage Aux Folles. From the 1950s through 2020, she appeared in such films and TV shows (sometimes with her husband and/or daughters) as Dr. Finley’s Casebook, Dixon of Dock Green, Otley, he Way We Live Now, Upstairs Downstairs The Barchester Chronicles, Peter’s Friends, The House of Eliott, Emma, Anna Karenina, Monarch of the Glen, Nanny McPhee, Miss Potter, Foyle’s War, Doc Martin, and And Then Came You, among many others. “When your children grow up, you have to keep a strict rein on yourself,” Law said in 2009. “Suddenly, it's university and then wheeeeee, that's it, baby. You're so used to running a family and sorting things, it's very difficult to stop. But my daughters organise my life now. I have three grandchildren. I'm a very doting grandmother. I think you're allowed to spoil when you're a granny, that's what grannies are for. In my house, chocolate biscuits are called ‘don't tell Dad’ because that's what I say to them when they see the chocolate biscuits.”