Middle School
Worksheets
Emma Thompson
Emma Thompson
Reading Comprehension for April 15
Many of the more memorable parts played by Emma Thompson leave you laughing. Laughter was an important part of her family growing up. Emma was born into an acting family on April 15, 1959. In the 1970s, Monty Python's Flying Circus was popular, and Emma and her family loved it. Imitating her favorite show, Emma started writing some of her own comedy material. Though her parents were both in the acting profession, she had not developed an interest in it. This changed in 1975 when the acting bug hit.
Emma started attending college to study English literature. She soon joined the school's theater club and knew she wanted to be a performer. She tried a career as a stand-up comedian. When that didn't work out, she began to act in small roles on the stage and on British television. In 1982, tragedy struck when her father died at the age of 52. Emma was devastated. In 1985, Emma got the lead part in the London stage musical, Me and My Girl. She played the part for sixteen months, and the production earned rave reviews.
The following year she was cast in the BBC television miniseries Fortunes of War. She met Kenneth Branagh, another actor. Their relationship grew slowly over the next few years from just friendship to romance. In 1989, they married. However, the marriage was not successful, and they parted in 1995.
