Actor Helen Mccrory dies after cancer battle
British actor Helen Mccrory, who starred in the television show “Peaky Blinders” and the “Harry Potter” movies, has died, her husband said Friday. She was 52 and had been suffering from cancer.
Her husband, fellow actor Damian Lewis, said Mccrory died “peacefully at home.”
“She died as she lived. Fearlessly,” Lewis wrote on Twitter. “God we love her and know how lucky we are to have had her in our lives. She blazed so brightly.”
Mccrory, one of Britain’s most respected actors, played the matriarch of a crime family on “Peaky Blinders” and the scheming Voldemort ally Narcissa Malfoy in the “Harry Potter” movies.
Cillian Murphy, who plays the role of gangland boss Tommy Shelby in “Peaky Blinders,” said he was “broken-hearted to lose such a dear friend.”
“Helen was a beautiful, caring, funny, compassionate human being,” he said. “She was also a gifted actor — fearless and magnificent.
“She elevated and made humane every scene, every character she played,” Murphy said. “It was a privilege to have worked with this brilliant woman, to have shared so many laughs over the years. I will dearly miss my pal. My love and thoughts are with Damian and her family.”
Mccrory also starred as a human rights lawyer in the TV thriller “Fearless,” played lawyer Cherie Blair, wife of British Prime Minister Tony Blair, in the movie “The Queen,” and had roles in Martin Scorsese’s film “Hugo” and the James Bond thriller “Skyfall.”
“Harry Potter” author J.K. Rowling tweeted that she was “devastated to learn of the death of Helen Mccrory, an extraordinary actress and a wonderful woman who’s left us far too soon.”
Mccrory and Lewis, star of the TV series “Homeland” and “Billions,” married in 2007 and had two children.