Claire van Kampen, who was a theatrical director and the wife of actor Mark Rylance, has passed away after being stricken with cancer. She was 71 years old.
On Saturday, January 18, Rylance’s 65th birthday, Rylance and her daughter Juliet sent a statement to PEOPLE confirming that she passed away in Kassel, Germany, “surrounded by family.”
The family reported, “This morning, Saturday, January 18th, at 11:47, Claire Louise van Kampen, Lady Rylance, passed away in the ancient town of Kassel, Germany, surrounded by her family.”
On Mark Rylance’s 65th birthday, Claire passed away from cancer. She leaves behind her oldest daughter, Juliet Rylance, her two husbands, and many cherished friends in England and America. Her youngest daughter passed away in 2012.
According to her family, Claire was “one of the funniest and most inspiring women we have ever known.” They went on to say, “We are grateful to her for filling our lives with her magic, music, laughter, and love.”
According to BBC News, Claire was diagnosed with cancer before to her loss.
She was born in London and studied piano and music theory at the Royal College of Music. According to the site, Claire began her career in theater by joining the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1986, where she became the first female musical director.
According to Sky News U.K., Claire began working at the Royal National Theatre the following year, when she met Rylance while serving as the musical director for a play in which he was acting. Afterward, she worked for 20 years at the Globe Theatre, where she served as Rylance’s assistant to the creative director.
In 1989, the couple were married, and Rylance became the stepfather to Claire’s two kids, whom she had with her late ex-husband, Christopher van Kampen. According to Sky News, her youngest daughter, Nataasha, passed away tragically at the age of 28 in 2012 due to a brain hemorrhage.
According to BBC News, Claire has worked as a Globe associate and senior research fellow for early modern music at the Globe Theatre, as well as a creative associate at the Old Vic Theatre in London, in recent years.
According to The Guardian, Rylance remarked of his late wife in 2023, “Claire profoundly transformed my life … She was the one who introduced me to the world of classical and current music, and it was through music that we fell in love with each other.
“Claire came to me with two children, and I raised them with her and Chris. However, we never had children of our own, so in a way, our projects have been our children.” He went on to say, “They are incredible,” and he also said of his wife, “the rock of my life.”
