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Mark Rylance and Claire van Kampen.
David M. Bennett/Jed Cullen/Dave Bennett/Getty ImagesMark Rylance mourning the loss of his wife, Claire van Kampenwho died of cancer aged 71 on Saturday, January 18 — his 65th birthday.
“Claire Louise van Kampen, Lady Rylance, died this morning, Saturday the 18th of January at 11:47, in the ancient town of Kassel, Germany, surrounded by her family,” announced Rylance and their daughter Juliet in a statement.
“Claire has died of cancer on Mark Rylance’s 65th birthday. After the death of her youngest daughter in 2012, she leaves her eldest daughter, Juliet Rylance, her two husbands, and countless dear friends in England and America.”
Claire – a British theater director and composer who was the first female musical director of the Royal Shakespeare Company and the National Theater – was described by her family as “one of the funniest and most inspiring women we have ever known.”
Hollywood mourned many celebrities in 2024, including Shannen Doherty and Liam Payne. Us Weekly confirmed Doherty’s death on July 14. The Beverly Hills, 90210 star first battled breast cancer from 2015 to 2017, sharing nearly three years later that it had returned. In 2023, Doherty shared that her stage 4 breast cancer had spread to (…)
“We thank her for infusing our lives with her magic, music, laughter and love,” they added.
Rylance married Claire in December 1989, and became stepfather to her children with an ex-husband Chris van Kampen: Juliet, 45, and Nataasha, who died suddenly in 2012 aged 28 after suffering a brain haemorrhage on a flight from New York to London.
“It’s a lost land if something tragic like this happens to you. You become aware that it has happened to many people. You make your own decisions about how you get through it,” Rylance said The Sunday Times in 2016.
After Nataasha’s death, Rylance went on to be nominated for an Emmy and win a BAFTA for his role as Thomas Cromwell, advisor to Henry VIII and grieving father and widower, in the TV series Hall of the Wolf. He also won the Best Supporting Actor Oscar in 2015 for his role in Steven Spielberg‘s Bridge of Spies.
Sir Mark Rylance poses with his wife Claire van Kampen and their daughter Juliet Rylance after he was knighted by the Duke of Cambridge during an investiture ceremony at Buckingham Palace on April 19, 2017 in London, England.
John Stillwell – WPA Pool/Getty ImagesClaire was diagnosed with cancer before she died. Born in London in 1953, she eventually trained at the Royal College of Music, studying piano and music theory, according BBC News. He then embarked on a theater career, joining the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1986 and, a year later, the Royal National Theater where he met Rylance. He later became Rylance’s artistic associate at the Globe Theatre, where he worked for 20 years.
He composed original scores for Broadway productions incl True West, Boeing-Boeing a La Beteas well as adaptations of Shakespeare’s work Twelfth Night a Richard III.
Dame Judi Dench got her start in the theater as Ophelia in Shakespeare’s Hamlet and grew to become one of Britain’s most successful actresses by starring in films such as Chocolat, The Chronicles of Riddick and Shakespeare in Love. Born in North Yorkshire in England in 1934, Dench made her professional debut in 1957 with the Old Vic Company. Dench had grown up in (…)
“Claire completely changed my life… she introduced me to that world of classical and modern music, and it was very much about music that we fell in love,” Rylance said of Claire in 2023, back The Guardian.
“Claire came to me with two children that I raised with her and Chris, but we never had children of our own so, to some extent, our children are our projects. They’re amazing,” he continued, adding that Claire was “the rock of my life.”
