Theatre director Claire van Kampen dies on actor husband’s birthday

Daughter Juliet confirmed her mother’s death on behalf of her family.

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“Claire Louise van Kampen, Lady Rylance, has died this morning, Saturday the 18th of January at 11.47, in the ancient town of Kassel, Germany, surrounded by her family,” statement to People read.

“Claire has died of cancer on Mark Rylance’s 65th Birthday. Her youngest daughter having died in 2012, she leaves her eldest daughter, Juliet Rylance, her two husbands, and countless beloved friends in England and America.”

They described van Kampen as “one of the funniest and inspiring women we have ever known”.

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The statement ended by saying: “We thank her for imbuing our lives with her magic, music, laughter, and love.”

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van Kampen joined the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1986 and became the first female musical director, according to BBC.

She met her husband at the Royal National Theatre a year later. The couple married in 1989.

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At the time van Kampen was mother to two daughters with her late ex-husband Christopher van Kampen.

Her youngest daughter Nataasha died in 2012 aged 28 from a suspected brain haemorrhage on a flight from New York.

In recent years, van Kampen worked as an associate and senior research fellow for early modern music at the Globe Theatre.

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Rylance said his late wife “completely changed [his] life” when they met, telling The Guardian she introduced him to “that world of classical and modern music, and it was very much around music that we fell in love”.

“Claire came to me with two children whom I raised with her and Chris, but we never had children of our own so, to some degree, our projects have been our children.

“They are incredible,” he said, adding that she’s “the rock of my life”.

In 2015 he won an Academy Award and a BAFTA for Best Supporting Actor for his portrayal of Rudolf Abel in Steven Spielberg’s Bridge of Spies.

The actor was knighted by Prince William in 2017 for his work in theatre and films alongside Victoria Beckham