British theater director Claire van Kampen, wife of actor Sir Mark Rylance, has died at the age of 71 following a battle with cancer.
The playwright, whose credits include creating Farinelli And The King, which Rylance starred in, passed away on Saturday (January 18) in a town in Germany.
Sadly, van Kampen’s death came on the same day as her husband’s 65th birthday.
Taking to Instagram, Juliet Rylance posted a statement on behalf of their family.
It read: “Our beloved mother, and wife, Claire Louise van Kampen, has passed peacefully this morning, Saturday the 18th of January at 11:47, in the ancient town of Kassel Germany, surrounded by her family.
“Concert Pianist, Composer, Musical Director, Theatre Director, Playwright, Mentor and Friend. And one of the funniest, and most inspiring women we have ever known. Claire has died of cancer on Mark’s 65th Birthday.
“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. Juliet & Mark Rylance.”
Her play, Farinelli And The King, was nominated for several Olivier Awards – which are presented annually by the Society of London Theatre to recognize excellence in professional theatre industry in London.
It also received nominations for the Tony Awards, which is the same, but representing Broadway in New York.
Speaking of his wife during a 2023 interview with The Guardian, he explained how van Kampen was ‘the rock of my life‘.
Eddie Redmayne asked: “Could you tell me about your creative relationship with your wife, Claire?”
To which Rylance replied candidly: “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.”
He continued: “Claire came to me with two children whom I raised with her and Chris [her first husband], but we never had children of our own so, to some degree, our projects have been our children.
“They are an incredible, creative joy to us and Claire is the rock of my life. I won’t last long if she goes first.”
Tragically, van Kampen lost Nataasha, one of her two children, back in 2012 at the age of just 28 after the filmmaker suffered a brain haemorrhage.
