Emily Mortimer is the daughter of the late Sir John Mortimer—that larger-than-life barrister, free speech champion, raconteur, and dramatist.
In spite of Daddy’s one-time communist bent, Emily began life with all the advantages. The prestigious St. Paul’s Girls’ School led to Oxford, where she was plucked off the student stage and placed on British television.
Eventually, she traveled across the pond and became one of Hollywood’s go-to actresses. Adorable in Lars and the Real Doll, aloof in Woody Allen’s Match Point, mysterious in Shutter Island, Emily Mortimer was on a streak. She married fellow actor Alessandro Nivola, and the pair elected to live in America, away from the frowny-faced Brits who assumed everything Mortimer had was because of her famous father.