is an Oscar winning actress and writer. She achieved fame in the United States in a series of literary adaptations, notably "Howards End" (1992), for which she won the best actress Academy Award and "Sense and Sensibility" (1995), which earned her the Oscar for best adapted screenplay. She is the only person ever to win both acting and screenplay Oscars. She has appeared in more than 25 films, at least 10 television dramas as well as a host of theatre productions. Ms Thompson starred most recently in Brideshead Revisited and Last Chance Harvey opposite Dustin Hoffman.

Ms Thompson is chair of the Helen Bamber Foundation and an ambassador for Action Aid. She is co-curator of an interactive art installation - Journey - which uses seven transport;containers to illustrate the brutal and harrowing experiences of women;sold into the sex trade.

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