Sir Mark Rylance's wife, Claire van Kampen, dead at 71
Sir Mark Rylance's wife, composer Claire van Kampen, has died of cancer.
Sir Mark Rylance's wife has died.
The 'BFG' star's beloved spouse Claire van Kampen passed away at the age of 71 in Kassel, Germany, on Saturday (18.01.25) - the actor's 65th birthday - "surrounded by her family" after battling cancer.
Mark and Claire's daughter Juliet - who she had from her marriage to architect Christopher van Kampen - remembered the theatre director and composer as "one of the funniest and (most) inspiring women we have ever known".
They added in a statement: "We thank her for imbuing our lives with her magic, music, laughter, and love.
"Ring the bell, sound the trumpets reverie, something is done, something is beginning. One of the great wise ones has passed."
Claire studied at the Royal College of Music on London before joining the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1986. A year later, she joined the Royal National Theatre and later became artistic associate to her actor husband at Shakespeare's Globe theatre from 1996 to 2006.
When Mark left the theatre, Claire stayed on as a musical consultant and resident composer to his successor Dominic Dromgoole, from 2007 to 2015.
Most recently, she worked as a creative associate at the Old Vic Theatre in London and was also involved with TV series 'Wolf Hall' as a Tudor music advisor and arranger.
Claire and Mark married in 1989, the same year she composed the music for the RSC's production of 'Hamlet', which the 'Ready Player One' actor appeared in.
She also composed the original scores for a number of Broadway productions, including 'True West', Boeing-Boeing' and 'La Bete', and adaptations of 'Twelfth Night' and 'Richard III'.
Claire was nominated for a number of Olivier Awards and Tony Awards after writing the play 'Farinelli And The King', which her husband starred in as King Philippe V of Spain.
The couple experienced tragedy in 2012 when Claire and Christopher's other daughter, Natasha, passed away at the age of 28 after suffering a brain haemorrhage.
Mark previously credited his wife for having "completely changed" his life.
He told The Guardian newspaper in 2023: "Claire completely changed my life. We met at the National Theatre when she was musical director of a play I was in.
“She introduced me to that world of classical and modern music, and it was very much around music that we fell in love.
“We’ve always loved working together, from Phoebus Cart, our own theatre company in the 90s, to our years at the Globe, to 'Farinelli and the King'.
“From the beginning, we were always imagining stories that we could tell together. I’ve lost count of how many projects we’ve imagined, sitting there at our kitchen table.”
