| Emma
Thompson was born 15 April 1959 in Paddington,
London, England. She will play the part
of Professor Trelawney in the Harry
Potter series.
Extraordinarily gifted and appealing
actress who catapulted to stardom with
her brilliant, Oscar-winning performance
as Margaret Schlegel in the Merchant-Ivory
adaptation of Howards End (1992). Thompson
began acting at Cambridge University
with the comedy troupe Footlights, and
after experience on television with
fellow troupe members Stephen Fry and
Hugh Laurie, she starred in her first
stage musical, "Me and My Girl,"
opposite Robert Lindsay. She won a British
Academy Award for her work on the BBC
series "Tutti Frutti" and
"Fortunes of War" and became
friends with her "Fortunes"
costar, Kenneth Branagh, who cast her
as Katherine of France in his Oscar-winning
adaptation of Shakespeare's Henry V
(1989). Branagh and Thompson were married
after the film's release and since then,
she has starred in many of his films:
in the dual role of a present-day Californian
and a forties European woman in Dead
Again (1991), in a deliciously funny
performance as a nerdy, neurotic cat
lover in Peter's Friends (1992), and
most memorably, as Beatrice opposite
Branagh's Benedick in the rousing Much
Ado About Nothing (1993). They starred,
as well, in a BBC production of Look
Back in Anger (1993). Thompson has also
appeared in The Tall Guy (1990) and
Impromptu (1991), and was featured in
a memorable episode of television's
"Cheers." She reteamed with
her Howards End costar Anthony Hopkins
in the Merchant-Ivory film The Remains
of the Day (1993), and played a lawyer
defending an accused IRA terrorist in
In the Name of the Father (1993), earning
Oscar nominations for both performances.
She made an unbilled cameo as Gerard
Depardieu's girlfriend in My Father
the Hero and teamed with her least likely
costar, Arnold Schwarzenegger, in Junior
(both 1994) before taking the title
role in Carrington (1995). (Source:
IMdb) |
