She has become one of the most sought-after actresses in Hollywood after rising to fame playing Lady Rose MacClare in Downton Abbey.
And since starring in the beloved ITV series, Lily James, 35, has played the female lead in films such as Mamma Mia!, Yesterday, Cinderella and even taken on the role of Pamela Anderson in Disney series Pam & Tommy.
The roots of her success began with her idyllic and solid childhood in Surrey as the daughter of an actress and singer, before tragedy struck and her father died when she was just 18 years old.
Lily is the daughter of actor and musician Jamie Thomson and actress Ninette and grew up with her parents in Esher and her two brothers.
Her famous connections also go back to her grandmother, who was actress Helen Horton, who famously played the voice of Mother in the hit movie Alien.
Lily James has become one of Hollywood’s most sought-after actresses after rising to fame playing Lady Rose MacClare in Downton Abbey (pictured last week)
But behind Lily’s rise to stardom and her dazzling connections lies a deep family pain (seen as a child with her father Jamie, who died when she was 18).
But behind Lily James’ rise to stardom and her dazzling connections lies a deep family pain.
The loss of her father, actor Jamie Thomson, who died of cancer in 2008 at the age of 54, was the lowest point in the life of the then 18-year-old theater student, just as she had been accepted into the prestigious Guildhall school.
Tragically, he never saw his talented daughter light up the screen.
The young actress changed her name from Lily Thomson to Lily James to honor her beloved father and said his death made her the workaholic she is today.
The loss of his father came on the heels of the deaths of his brother, Bruce, who suffered from motor neurone disease, and his grandmother, actress Helen, who had returned to the United States to care for her son.
“Drama school was a lifeline for me, it saved me,” she previously said after the loss.
‘I found it very empowering, I just stuck with it. I will never stop trying to be better at what I do.’
He also told the Daily Telegraph magazine in 2019: ‘A lot of my family died in the space of five years.
‘But I’m glad my grandmother died before my dad, because if she had seen that…’
Lily is the daughter of actor and musician Jamie Thomson and actress Ninette and grew up with her parents in Esher and her two brothers (seen with her mother Ninette in 2018)
Lily also has a close relationship with her older brother Charlie and younger brother Sam and posed in a sweet photo with them while celebrating her 35th birthday last weekend.
She grew up in leafy Esher and studied at the Arts Educational School in Tring before studying acting at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London, graduating in 2010 (seen with her brothers as a child)
In the interview she also said that landing the role of Cinderella in Kenneth Branagh’s reworking of the fairy tale for Disney was a pleasure, until she had to play a scene in which she is told that her father is dead.
“I really couldn’t go there,” he said at the time. “Sometimes I felt a certain coldness around that. I was trying so hard to hold on to something.
Lily added that even though it’s been more than a decade since her father’s death, she finds it difficult to talk about her hero.
‘He was so artistic and so bold. There was so much life in him. It was brilliant,’ he said.
‘Sometimes when I talk I feel relaxed, I feel completely at peace and calm. But there are other times when I feel more nervous.
Lily previously spoke about her father’s youth and his attempts to make it in Hollywood.
She said in an interview in 2019: “There were periods in his life when he tried really hard, like in the ’70s, when he was an actor and lived on Sunset Boulevard with a musician friend, when everyone was taking acid.”
Then, in his early thirties, Jamie was involved in a car accident and was left with extensive scars on his face and shoulders.
Lily said of her career change: “The scars were so bad that he suddenly went from being a romantic lead to a gangster.”
He grew up in leafy Esher and studied at the Arts Educational School in Tring before studying acting at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London, graduating in 2010.
She has a close bond with her mother: the couple often spends holidays together, and she sometimes appears at premieres with her.
Ninette looked glamorous in a black dress while supporting her daughter Lily at the Stockholm premiere of Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again! in 2018.
In October 2022, Lily also shared a touching post of her and her mother Ninette on Instagram.
She took to social media to post a photo of herself and her mother walking hand in hand in a field.
Lily looked effortlessly chic in a pair of khaki green pants and a loose-fitting white shirt, with her hair up in a messy bun.
Her mother looked equally fashionable in a cream shirt and dark pants, shielding her eyes from the sun’s glare behind a pair of sunglasses.
Captioning the sweet photo, she wrote: “Mother Nature.”
Lily also has a close relationship with her older brother Charlie and younger brother Sam Thomson and posed in a sweet photo with them while celebrating her 35th birthday over the weekend.
The beauty celebrated her birthday with her nearest and dearest with an evening of drinking at the “world’s most exclusive” private club in London on Friday.
Giving a glimpse into the lavish evening, Lily posted photos of the group as they sipped cocktails and sat down to enjoy an intimate dinner.
Lily looked incredible in a £10,000 outfit at members club, Apollo’s Muse, which is located at the back of Bacchanalia in posh Mayfair.
After her father’s death, Lily made him proud with a stellar acting career.
Her television credits include playing Ethel Brown in the 2010 BBC production of Richmal Crompton’s Just William, while she played Poppy in the fourth series of ITV’s Secret Diary of a Call Girl in 2011 before landing her role in Downton Abbey.
Then in 2016, she returned to television in the 2016 BBC historical drama series War & Peace, playing Natasha Rostova.
She also starred in her second major film, as Elizabeth Bennet in the action-horror film Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, a parody of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice.
Then, in 2018, James played the younger version of Meryl Streep’s character, Donna Sheridan, in the Mamma Mia! sequel.
In 2019 he starred alongside Gillian Anderson in the West End production All About Eve.
Her family always supports her: her mother and brother are seen attending a film event with her in 2016.
After her father’s death, Lily did him proud with a stellar acting career (seen as Lady Rose MacClare in Downton Abbey).
In 2018, James played the younger version of Meryl Streep’s character, Donna Sheridan, in the Mamma Mia sequel.
Lily celebrated her 35th birthday with her nearest and dearest with a boozy evening at the “world’s most exclusive” private club in London earlier this month.
Giving a peek inside the lavish soirée, Lily posted photos of the group as they sipped cocktails and sat down to enjoy an intimate dinner.
Then, in late 2020, she was cast as Pamela Anderson in the miniseries Pam & Tommy for Hulu, where she transformed into the mermaid with four hours of prosthetics and makeup every day.
She will next be seen in the upcoming independent film Greedy People.
The actress first joined the project in May 2022, when Deadline revealed that she had joined its cast.
Greedy People will focus on a police officer who is tasked with investigating a murder and the sudden discovery of a large sum of money in a quiet town.