Emma Thompson (Frances)

Emma Thompson made Academy Award history as the first Oscar-winning actress (for her role in Merchant Ivory's Howard's End) to also win an Academy Award for Best Screenplay Adaptation (for Sense and Sensibility). The script also won Thompson the Golden Globe Award, the USC Scripter Award, and Best Screenplay awards from the Writers Guild, the Boston Society of Film Critics, the Broadcast Film Critics, the Chicago Film Critics, the Los Angeles Film Critics and the New York Film Critics. The script also received a nomination from the British Academy of Film and Television. Thompson's performance in Sense and Sensibility garnered her the BAFTA and National Board of Review awards for Best Actress, along with an Academy Award nomination, a Golden Globe nomination and a Screen Actors Guild nomination.

In addition to the Oscar, Thompson's performance in Howard's End won her Golden Globe and BAFTA Awards, and awards from the New York Film Critics, the Los Angeles Film Critics and the National Society of Film Critics.

Before graduating from Cambridge University with a degree in English literature, Emma Thompson acted for three years with Cambridge Footlights. She appeared in twelve revues, one of which, "The Cellar Tapes" won the Perrier Pick of the Fringe at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

Thompson made her West End debut in 1985 in "Me and My Girl," starring opposite Robert Lindsay. In 1988 she was directed by Dame Judi Dench in John Osborne's "Look Back in Anger," co-starring Kenneth Branagh. Following her own comedy series "Thompson," she appeared alongside Robbie Coltrane in John Byrne's BAFTA Award-winning comedy drama series "Tutti Frutti." Thompson won a BAFTA Award for Best Actress for her roles in "Tutti Frutti" and in the 1986 seven hour BBC series "Fortunes of War," starring opposite Kenneth Branagh.

Thompson's films include The Tall Guy, Henry V, Impromptu, Peter's Friends, Much Ado About Nothing and Dead Again. In her second collaboration with Merchant Ivory Productions, Thompson starred with Anthony Hopkins in The Remains of the Day. Her performance garnered her an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress. That same year, Thompson was also nominated for an Academy Award and a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role opposite Daniel Day-Lewis in Jim Sheridan's In the Name of the Father. In 1994, she co-starred with Arnold Schwarzenegger and Danny DeVito in the comedy Junior, and then switched gears to star opposite Jonathan Pryce in Christopher Hampton's biographical drama Carrington. Thompson recently completed filming Mike Nichols' Primary Colors with John Travolta.