Mark Rylance shares heartbreaking statement after wife Claire van Kampen dies on his birthday

Sir Mark and her daughter described her as 'one of the funniest and (most) inspiring women'

She passed away on Saturday morning in the German town of Kassel after being diagnosed with cancer.

A statement, shared on behalf of Sir Mark and her daughter Juliet, described her as "one of the funniest and (most) inspiring women we have ever known", Sky News reports.

It continued: "We thank her for imbuing our lives with her magic, music, laughter, and love.

"Ring the bell, sound the trumpets reverie, something is done, something is beginning. One of the great wise ones has passed."

Van Kempen was the first female musical director at both the Royal Shakespeare Company and the National Theatre. She was also a concert pianist composer, playwright, theatre director and worked in various roles at Shakespeare's Globe for around two decades.

She and Sir Mark met through the National Theatre, when she was the musical director of a play he was in. They went on to marry in 1989, the same year she composed the music for the Royal Shakespeare Company production of Hamlet which he starred in.

Van Kempen also worked as a Tudor music advisor and arranger for the BBC television series Wolf Hall, which her husband starred in as Thomas Cromwell.

She had two daughters with her previous husband, architect Christopher van Kampen.

Her youngest daughter Nataasha, a filmmaker, died aged 28 in 2012 after suffering a brain haemorrhage.