Film, TV and stage actor Phyllida Law, whose daughters are actors Emma and Sophie Thompson has died, aged 94.

The news was confirmed by her manager Jacky Leggo, who said the star “died supremely peacefully at home, surrounded by all of her family”.

Law’s acting career began in 1932, when she won a place at Bristol Old Vic Theatre school, where she originally wanted to be a stage designer. After pivoting to performing, she racked up many roles in Bristol Old Vic plays – and met her future husband, Eric Thompson.

It was stage roles opposite Alec Guinness John Mortimer’s A Voyage Round My Father at the Theatre Royal Haymarket in 1971, and Alan Bennett’s Habeas Corpus at the Oxford Playhouse in 1973 that established Law as a major stage performer in the 1960s.

Her film credits started in the 1980s, with Law regularly appearing alongside her daughters Emma and Sophie. These projects included Peter’s Friends, which was directed by Emma’s then-husband, Kenneth Branagh, as well as Branagh’s version of Much Ado About Nothing, also starring Emma.

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