Emma Thompson: a career in film and TV – in pictures

Emma Thompson was born in London in April 1959. Her mother is the Scottish actress Phyllida Law, her English father, Eric Thompson, was the writer and narrator of the popular children's television series The Magic Roundabout. This portrait is from circa 1990
Photograph: Terry O'Neill/Getty Images

While studying at Cambridge University, Thomson joined the Footlights together with Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie. Later, in 1982, she toured in a stage version of Not the Nine O'Clock News' and in the same year she began to appear on television.
This photograph is from the comedy sketch show Alfresco, which ran from 1983 to 1984, and shows her with co-stars Siobhan Redmond, Stephen Fry, Ben Elton, Hugh Laurie and Robbie Coltrane Photograph: ITV/Rex Features

In 1987, Thompson came to national prominence appearing in two BBC television series. Alongside first Robbie Coltrane in Tutti Frutti and then Kenneth Branagh in Fortunes Of War Photograph: Everett Collection/Rex Features

Those two series saw Emma Thompson win her first major prize, a Bafta award for Best Actress for Tutti Frutti and Fortunes of War combined. Photograph: BAFTA/Rex Features

In 1989, Emma Thompson made her movie breakthrough in The Tall Guy alongside Jeff Goldblum. The romantic comedy was also the feature film debut of screenwriter Richard Curtis, who has had a long working relationship with Thompson. Photograph: Ronald Grant Archive

Original caption from 1991: Actress Emma Thompson reading mail as she stands next to an elegant fireplace in her home
Photograph: Ian Cook/Time & Life

Based on the EM Forster novel, 1992's Howards End saw Emma Thompson star alongside Anthony Hopkins in a tale of the class system in Edwardian England Photograph: Ronald Grant Archive

Thompson won a Bafta award for Best Actress for her role in Howards End. Photograph: Getty Images

Her performance as Margaret Schlegel in Howards End also brought her a Golden Globe and here, an Oscar for Best Actress in a Leading Role at the Academy Awards Photograph: Ron Galella/WireImage

1992 saw Thompson reunited with a host of old friends and colleagues in the British comedy drama Peter's Friends directed by Kenneth Branagh. The film also starred Emma Thompson's mother, Phyllida Law (bottom right). Photograph: Moviestore Collection/Rex Features

Emma Thompson was reunited with Anthony Hopkins in The Remains Of The Day. Based on the novel by Kazuo Ishiguro, the film was an acute study of English reserve, repressed emotions and misguided loyalties. Thompson was nominated for Best Actress at the Baftas, the Golden Globes and the Oscars. Photograph: Moviestore Collection/Rex Features

More nominations at the Golden Globes and Oscars followed in 1993, this time for Best Actress in a Supporting Role for Thompson's performance alongside Daniel Day-Lewis in In The Name Of The Father. Based on a true story, Thompson plays lawyer Gareth Peirce who campaigns for the release of the Guildford Four, falsely convicted of the 1974 IRA's Guildford pub bombings. Photograph: Ronald Grant Archive

Not so well received, a bit of casting against type saw Thompson co-star with Arnold Schwarzenegger and Danny DeVito in the 1994 comedy Junior. Photoshop was in its infancy. Photograph: Universal/Allstar

Emma Thomson won her second Oscar in 1995. She wrote the script and starred as Elinor Dashwood in Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility, directed by Ang Lee. Here she is with Kate Winslet and Emilie Francois who played Elinor's sisters Marianne and Margaret. Photograph: Columbia/Allstar

Emma Thompson won the Oscar for Best Screenplay for Sense and Sensibility. She also won a Golden Globe for the script and a Bafta award for Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role. Here she is with Jim Carrey and Elton John at the Elton John Aids Foundation Party after the Academy awards. Photograph: WireImage

In 1995 Thompson starred in Nanny McPhee, a hugely successful fantasy film based on the Nurse Matilda books. The film spawned a sequel in 2010 and is to be performed on stage by the London Children's Ballet in April. Photograph: Universal/Rex Features

Emma Thompson was photographed by the Observer's Jane Bown for a piece in the Review where she talked about her role as Nanny McPhee. Photograph: Jane Bown for the Observer

Described by the Guardian as "a small masterpiece", the 2012 Sky Arts television drama Walking the Dogs told the true story of an intruder who broke into Buckingham Palace and encountered the Queen in her bedroom. Emma Thompson played Queen Elizabeth II and gives "a masterclass in restraint and expressive silences". Playhouse Walking The Dogs Photograph: Justin Downing/Sky Arts

In 2013 Emma Thompson starred as the author of Mary Poppins, PL Travers, in Saving Mr. Banks. Here she is with Walt Disney, played by Tom Hanks. The Observer's film critic Mark Kermode said Thompson was "sheer perfection in the complex role" in his review and her performance once again brought her a host of award nominations. Photograph: Moviestore/Rex Features

Earlier this month, Emma Thompson took Broadway by storm playing Mrs Lovett in Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, alongside Bryn Terfel at the Lincoln Centre for the Performing Arts in New York. Photograph: Mike Coppola/Getty Images

Emma Thompson wrote the script for the film Effie Gray. The film looks at the relationship between Victorian art critic John Ruskin, Pre-Raphaelite artist John Everett Millais and Ruskin's teenage bride Effie Gray played by Dakota Fanning, seen in this still with Thompson who plays art historian Lady Eastlake. The film may be cleared for release after a final appeal on 10 April 2014 for two separate copyright cases brought by US authors who both claim Thompson's script was based on their work. Photograph: Joel Ryan/AP