page_title: Emma Thompson
section_title: 1990–1993: A leading British actress
hierarchical_section_title: Emma Thompson / Acting career / 1990–1993: A leading British actress
caption_attribution_description: English: Anthony Hopkins on location at Tempelhof Airport in Berlin to shoot some scenes for the movie "The Innocent" - cropped from Image:I Rossellini A Hopkins.jpg
context_page_description: Dame Emma Thompson DBE is a British actress, screenwriter, activist, author and comedian. She is one of Britain's most acclaimed actresses and is the recipient of numerous accolades, including two Academy Awards, a Primetime Emmy Award, three BAFTA Awards and two Golden Globe Awards.
  Born in London to English actor Eric Thompson and Scottish actress Phyllida Law, Thompson was educated at Newnham College, University of Cambridge, where she became a member of the Footlights troupe. After appearing in several comedy programmes, she came to prominence in 1987 in two BBC TV series, Tutti Frutti and Fortunes of War, winning the BAFTA TV Award for Best Actress for her work in both series. Her first film role was in the 1989 romantic comedy The Tall Guy. In the early 1990s, she often collaborated with her husband, actor and director Kenneth Branagh. The pair became popular in the British media and co-starred in several films, including Dead Again and Much Ado About Nothing.
  In 1992, Thompson won an Academy Award and a BAFTA Award for Best Actress for the period drama Howards End.
context_section_description: Thompson and Branagh are considered by American writer and critic James Monaco to have led the "British cinematic onslaught" in the 1990s. She continued to experiment with Shakespeare in the new decade, appearing with Branagh in his stage productions of A Midsummer Night's Dream and King Lear. Reviewing the latter, the Chicago Tribune praised her "extraordinary" performance of the "hobbling, stooped hunchback Fool". Thompson returned to cinema in 1991, playing a "frivolous aristocrat" in Impromptu with Judy Davis and Hugh Grant. and Thompson was nominated for Best Supporting Female at the Independent Spirit Awards. Her second release of 1991 was another pairing with Branagh, who also directed, in the Los Angeles-based noir Dead Again. She played a woman who has forgotten her identity. Early in 1992, Thompson had a guest role in an episode of Cheers as Frasier Crane's first wife.
  A turning point in Thompson's career came when she was cast opposite Anthony Hopkins and Vanessa Redgrave in the Merchant Ivory period drama Howards End (1992), based on the novel by E. M. Forster. The film explored the social class system in Edwardian England, with Thompson playing an idealistic, intellectual, forward-looking woman who comes into association with a privileged and deeply conservative family. She actively pursued the role by writing to director James Ivory, who agreed to an audition and then gave her the part. According to the critic Vincent Canby, the film allowed Thompson to "[come] into her own", away from Branagh. Upon release, Roger Ebert wrote that she was "superb in the central role: quiet, ironic, observant, with steel inside". Howards End was widely praised, a "surprise hit", and received nine Academy Award nominations. Among its three wins was the Best Actress trophy for Thompson, who was also awarded a Golden Globe and BAFTA for her performance. Reflecting on the role, The New York Times writes that the actress "found herself an international success almost overnight".
  For her next two films, Thompson returned to working with Branagh. In Peter's Friends (1992), the pair starred with Stephen Fry, Hugh Laurie, Imelda Staunton, and Tony Slattery as a group of Cambridge alumni who are reunited ten years after graduating. The comedy was positively reviewed, and Desson Howe of The Washington Post wrote that Thompson was its highlight: "Even as a rather one-dimensional character, she exudes grace and an adroit sense of comic tragedy." She followed this with Branagh's screen version of Much Ado About Nothing (1993). The couple starred as Beatrice and Benedick, alongside a cast that also included Denzel Washington, Keanu Reeves, and Michael Keaton. Thompson was widely praised for the on-screen chemistry with Branagh and the natural ease with which she played the role marking another critical success for Thompson. Her performance earned a nomination for Best Female Lead at the Independent Spirit Awards.
  Thompson reunited with Merchant–Ivory and Anthony Hopkins to film The Remains of the Day (1993), a film which has been described as a "classic" and the production team's definitive film. Based on Kazuo Ishiguro's novel about a housekeeper and butler in interwar Britain, the story is acclaimed for its study of loneliness and repression, though Thompson was particularly interested in looking at "the deformity that servitude inflicts upon people", since her grandmother had worked as a servant and made many sacrifices. She has named the film as one of the greatest experiences of her career, considering it to be a "masterpiece of withheld emotion". The Remains of the Day was a critical and commercial success, receiving eight Oscar nominations, including Best Picture and a second Best Actress nod for Thompson.
  Along with her Best Actress nomination at the 66th Academy Awards, Thompson was also nominated in the Best Supporting Actress category, making her the eighth performer in history to be nominated for two Oscars in the same year. It came for her role as the lawyer Gareth Peirce in In the Name of the Father (1993), a drama about the 
caption: Anthony Hopkins starred with Thompson in Howards End (1992) and The Remains of the Day (1993).
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