British actress Emma Chambers, who was best known in the U.S. for her role as Honey Thacker in “Notting Hill,” has died of natural causes at the age of 53.Chambers was best known in the U.K. for her role in “The Vicar of Dibley,” on which she played Alice Tinker, the verger. The show ran from 1994 to 1998, with several winter specials that aired in the early 2000s.
Her agent John Grant remembered her to the BBC: “Emma created a wealth of characters and an immense body of work. She brought laughter and joy to many.”
Chambers won the British Comedy Award for best actress for her role in “The Vicar” in 1998. Her other credits include the roles of Helen Yardley in “How Do You Want Me?,” Martha Thompson in the made-for-TV movie “Take a Girl Like You,” and part of the voice cast for the animated “The Wind in the Willows.”
Chambers’ “Vicar” co-star Dawn French remembered her as well.
“Emma was a very bright spark and the most loyal and loving friend anyone could wish for,” she said. “I will miss her very much.”
“Notting Hill” star Hugh Grant also paid tribute to the actress on Twitter, calling her a “very warm person” and “of course a brilliant actress.”
She is survived by her husband, Ian Dunn.
Hugh Grant, who played Chambers’ on-screen sibling in the 1999 film from director Roger Michell, called her a “hilarious and very warm person and of course a brilliant actress.”
Richard Curtis screenwriter of Notting Hills said, “We’re obviously terribly sad. She really was a great, great comedy performer and a very fine actress. And a tender, sweet, funny, unusual, loving human being,” Curtis said in a statement to EW. “In my work, she worked opposite Dawn French and Julia Roberts, and was more than the measure of the pair of them repors internet.
