Joyful star lit up stage and screen
Helen McCrory Actress
BORN AUGUST 17, 1968 – DIED APRIL 16, 2021, AGED 52
AGE ENRICHED the talents of award-winning actress Helen McCrory, who could hold theatre audiences spellbound as effortlessly as she could shine on the big screen. Television viewers were gripped by her portrayal of gangsters’ matriarch Aunt Polly in Peaky Blinders but may not have realised how she also blossomed in middle age into a powerful and versatile stage performer.
In 2002 she played Olivia in Twelfth Night and Yelena in Uncle Vanya at London’s Donmar Theatre, earning some of the best reviews of her career.
Nominated for an Olivier award for her performance as Rosalind in As You Like It at the Wyndham Theatre in 2005, the following year she found wider acclaim for playing Cherie Blair in the film The Queen. Cherie herself commended McCrory for capturing her mannerisms and style of speech.
To her surprise, having avoided exploitative sex scenes as a young actress, McCrory found herself cast as a lustful mother having an affair with a much younger man in Leaving by Tony Marchant in 2012.
Following a relationship with actor Rufus Sewell, she fell for Homeland star Damian Lewis when they appeared in the play Five Gold Rings. They married in 2007 and had a daughter, Manon, and a son, Gulliver.
“I’ve never known anyone so consciously spread happiness,” Lewis said. Following her battle with cancer, he added: “She’s shown no fear, no bitterness, no self-pity, only armed us with the courage to go on and insisted that no one be sad, because she is happy. I’m staggered by her. She’s been a meteor in our lives.”
Helen Elizabeth McCrory was born in London to Glaswegianborn diplomat Iain and Welsh physiotherapist Ann.
She mostly grew up in embassies around the world, including Norway, Tanzania and France. In Africa she was chased by a rhino but nothing could stop her enjoying the outdoor lifestyle there.
After attending Queenswood School in Hertfordshire, she learned her craft at London’s Drama Centre.
Her film debut came in 1994 with the role of “2nd whore” in Interview With The Vampire and the following year she won a Welsh Bafta for playing a single mother in Streetlife.
In the Harry Potter films she played Draco Malfoy’s mother Narcissa. Bond fans will remember her as Home Secretary Clair Dowar in 2012’s Skyfall.
She is survived by her husband and their teenage children.