There is a glow of goodness and normalcy about actress Emma Thompson (1959-). Born on this day in London, England, the radiant star graduated from Cambridge in 1982 with a degree in English Literature.

"I place a high moral value on the way people behave," she once said. "I find it repellent to have a lot, and to behave with anything other than courtesy in the old sense of the word -- politeness of the heart, a gentleness of the spirit."

Thompson wowed critics and won the Best Actress Oscar in the Merchant-Ivory adaptation of Howards End (1992). She spent five years writing the screenplay for Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility (1995, w/Kate Winslet), which won her another Oscar.

"You learn more from the experience of failing to please than you do from accepting an award," observed Thompson who speaks French fluently.

With continued excellence, the actress wrote the teleplay and starred in HBO's Wit (2001). Based on Margaret Edson's Pulitzer Prize winner, the acclaimed drama captured the passion of a poetry professor's fight against ovarian cancer.

Of the performance, Thompson said, "I hope the audience gets from it what you always want from any piece of art, to have yourself shifted outside of yourself for a second."

With her toddler daughter Gaia Romilly Wise in tow, Thompson announced plans to take time off from film-making in 2002 to travel Africa to spread awareness about HIV and AIDS.

"Celebrities can sometimes help get a good reaction for a cause," she said. "The problem with Africa is that people are not talking about their problems."

Know your power and use it.