She has become one of the most sought after actresses in Hollywood after soaring to fame playing Lady Rose MacClare in Downton Abbey.

And since starring on the beloved ITV series Lily James, 35, has gone on to play the leading lady in films such as Mamma Mia!, Yesterday, Cinderella and even took on the role of Pamela Anderson in Disney series Pam & Tommy. 

The roots of her success started with her grounded, idyllic childhood in Surrey as the child of an actress and singer - before tragedy struck and her father died when she was just 18.

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 all the way back to her grandmother - who was the actress Helen Horton - who famously played the voice of Mother in the blockbuster film Alien. 

Lily James has become one of the most sought after actresses in Hollywood after soaring to fame playing Lady Rose MacClare in Downton Abbey (pictured last week)

But behind Lily's rise to stardom and glitzy connections lies deep family heartache (seen as a child with her father Jamie who died when she was 18) 

But behind Lily James's rise to stardom and glitzy connections lies deep family heartache.

The loss of her actor father, Jamie Thomson – who died of cancer in 2008 at the age of 54 – was the low point of the then 18-year-old drama student's life 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 honour her beloved father and said his death turned her into the workaholic she is today.

The loss of her father came on the heels of the death of his brother, Bruce, who had motor neurone disease, and of her grandmother, actress Helen, who had returned to the US to care for her son.

'Drama school was a lifeline for me, it saved me,' she has previously said after the loss. 

'I found it very nurturing – I just clung on. I will never stop trying to be better at what I do.' 

She also told the Daily Telegraph magazine in 2019: 'A lot of my family died in the space of five years.

'But I am glad that my grandma 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 elder brother Charlie and younger brother Sam and she posed in a sweet snap with them as she celebrated her 35th birthday last the weekend 

Growing up in leafy Esher and her education at Arts Educational School in Tring before she subsequently went on to study 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 fairytale for Disney was a delight – until she had to play a scene in which she is told that her father is dead.

'I couldn't really go there,' she said at the time. 'Sometimes there was a coldness to me around that. I was trying so hard to hold on to something.'

Lily added that even though it has been more than a decade since her father died, she finds it difficult to speak about her hero.

'He was so artistic and so bold. There was so much life in him. He was brilliant,' she said.

'Sometimes when I speak I feel relaxed, I feel completely at peace and calm. But there are other times when I feel more on edge.'

Lily has previously opened up about her father's youth and his attempts to make it in Hollywood.  

She said in an interview in 2019: 'There were periods of his life when he went at it hard, like in the '70s when he was an actor living on Sunset Boulevard with a musician friend, when everyone was taking acid.'

Then in his early thirties Jamie was involved in a car crash and was left with big scars over his face and his shoulders.

Lily said of the change it had on his career: 'The scarring was so bad, he suddenly went from a romantic lead to a gangster.' 

Growing up in leafy Esher and her education at Arts Educational School in Tring before she subsequently went on to study acting at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London, graduating in 2010.

She has a close bond with her mother - with the pair often holidaying together, while she sometimes appears at premieres with her.

Ninette looked glamorous in a black dress as she supported 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 her and mum walking hand-in-hand in a field.

Lily looked effortlessly stylish in a pair of khaki green trousers and a baggy white shirt, with her tresses swept up in a messy bun.

Her mum looked equally fashionable in a cream shirt and dark trousers, shielding her eyes from the glare of the sun behind a pair of sunglasses. 

Captioning the sweet shot, she wrote: 'Mother Nature'.

Lily also has a close relationship with her elder brother Charlie and younger brother Sam Thomson and she posed in a sweet snap with them as she celebrated her 35th birthday over the weekend.

The beauty celebrated her birthday with her nearest and dearest with a boozy evening at the 'world's most exclusive' private members club in London on Friday.

Giving a glimpse inside the lavish evening, Lily posted photos of the group as they sipped cocktails and sat down to the intimate dinner.

Lily looked incredible in a £10,000 outfit at members' club, Apollo's Muse, which is at the back of Bacchanalia in swanky Mayfair.

After her father's death Lily has gone on to make 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 starred as the younger version of Meryl Streep's character, Donna Sheridan, in the sequel to Mamma Mia!.

In 2019 she starred opposite Gillian Anderson in West End production All About Eve. 

Her family are always supportive of her - her mother and brother are seen attending a film event with her in 2016

After her father's death Lily has gone on to make him proud with a stellar acting career (seen as Lady Rose MacClare in Downton Abbey)

In 2018 James starred as the younger version of Meryl Streep's character, Donna Sheridan, in the sequel to Mamma Mia!

Lily celebrated her 35th birthday with her nearest and dearest with a boozy evening at the 'world's most exclusive' private members club in London earlier this month

Giving a glimpse inside the lavish evening, Lily posted photos of the group as they sipped cocktails and sat down to the intimate dinner

Next, in late 2020, she was cast to play Pamela Anderson in the miniseries Pam & Tommy for Hulu where she transformed into the siren with four hours in prosthetics and makeup every day. 

She will next be seen in the upcoming indie film Greedy People.

The actress was first attached to the project in May of 2022, when Deadline revealed that she had joined its cast.

Greedy People will be centered on a police officer who is tasked with investigating a murder and the sudden discovery of a large sum of money in a sleepy town.