A petite, brunette performer, Scott Thomas gained attention from American audiences as Fiona, the unmarried tart-tongued friend, in "Four Weddings and a Funeral" (1994). She projects the air of a free spirit, an attitude which allowed her to jump the channel to France and the continent at age 18, where she did some stage work and made her feature film debut in a bit part with the performer formerly known as Prince in "Under the Cherry Moon" (1986). Her career heated up in 1988 when she essayed a finely-tuned performance as Lady Brenda in "A Handful of Dust". Based in Paris, Scott Thomas continued to act in the films of many countries, including the French "Aux Yeux du monde/In the Eyes of the World" (1991), the Romanian "An Unforgettable Summer" (1994) and Roman Polanski's "Bitter Moon" (1994) in which she again played a woman named Fiona opposite Hugh Grant.

Scott Thomas' TV work has been sporadic, but also of an international scope. She won critical acclaim for her work as a nun returning to the secular world in the miniseries "Body and Soul" (PBS, 1993) and for her performances in the Hallmark Hall of Fame presentation of "Graham Greene's The Tenth Man" (CBS, 1988), the Showtime cable films "The Endless Game" and "Framed" (both 1990) and the miniseries "Titmuss Regained" (PBS, 1992).

Scott Thomas' turn in "Four Weddings and a Funeral" gained her more notice (and name recognition) in her native Britain than in the US. Still, numerous roles followed, including a haunting Lady Anne in "Richard III", starring Sir Ian McKellen and a poor woman romanced by a naturalist in 19th Century England in "Angels and Insects" (both 1995). Scott Thomas also played a major role in "Mission Impossible" (1996), opposite Tom Cruise and Vanessa Redgrave, and earned a Best Actress Oscar nomination for her portrayal of an Englishwoman who engages in an adulterous affair with Ralph Fiennes in "The English Patient" (also 1996). The actress then landed the coveted female lead opposite Robert Redford in "The Horse Whisperer" (1998) and starred opposite Harrison Ford in the ill-fated romance "Random Hearts" (1999). She was on surer ground as an impoverished Englishwoman who makes foolhardy decisions in "Up at the Villa" (2000) and as the haughty and icily nasty hostess of a weekend shooting party during which a murder is committed in "Gosford Park" (2001).