British actress, comedienne and screenwriter Emma Thompson has become the latest addition to the landmark Hollywood Walk of Fame, receiving the 2,416th star in a ceremony held on Friday.

Actress Maggie Gyllenhaal (L) and British actor Hugh Laurie (R) pose with British actress Emma Thompson who was honored for her motion picture career with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, in Hollywood, California August 6, 2010. [Xinhua/Reuters]

"It's so appropriate this is outside of a pub," Thompson said of her star on Hollywood Boulevard. "It's the last thing you step on before you get your first drink and the last thing you step on when you reel out."

The Oscar-winner actress, 51, dedicated her star to her late father, Eric Thompson, an English actor, writer and director. "He was a wonderful man and a great inspiration to me," Thompson noted. "He inspired me to write for children without writing for children."

Recalling that her father was taking her to the Walk of Fame when he was in Los Angeles in the 1970s to direct a production of "The Norman Conquests" at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, Thompson said, "We looked at all the stars and I remember being really fascinated by this, thinking, 'What a lovely thing to do, put people's names in the pavement where everyone walks about all the time.'"

"I was thrilled by that," she said.

Thompson's former boyfriend who dated her when both attended the University of Cambridge, Actor Hugh Laurie, praised her for her enormous talent.

"She was the most obnoxiously talented person -- and still is -- that I've ever come across," said Laurie, who played the protagonist of the Fox Broadcasting medical drama "House." He has received two Golden Globe awards and several Emmy nominations for his portrayal in the series.

Born on April 15, 1959, in London, Thompson made her television debut while still in college on the British Broadcasting Corp.'s "Friday Night, Saturday Morning."

She appeared frequently on both TV and the stage in England in the 1980s and played her first film role in the 1989 romantic comedy "The Tall Guy."

In 1995, Thompson scripted and starred in "Sense and Sensibility," a film adaptation of the Jane Austen novel, which earned her an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay and a British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role.

Thompson also played as professor Sybill Trelawney in 2004's "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban," a role she reprised three years later in "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix."