MONTANO, MARGARET “ELEANOR”

Margaret “Eleanor” DeCapua Montano of Hamden died peacefully at home on April 13, 2021. She was the wife of the late George J. Montano. Eleanor was born in New Haven on April 29, 1928 to the late Dominic and Josephine Caputo DeCapua. She worked briefly at SNET before starting her family. Eleanor enjoyed oil painting and had a great eye for decorating and was an avid swimmer and reader. She and George always looked forward to spending time every year in Palm Springs. Eleanor was a devout Catholic and devoted her time to caring for her family. Whether it was giving them rides anywhere they needed to go or preparing a family dinner, Eleanor was always there for them and when it came time to care for her, her family was by her side. She was a loving mother to Ellyn (Gary) Buteau, John and Stephen (Cathi) Montano; sister of Dolores Kingston and proud grandmother of Sarah (Genaro), Joseph, Daniel, Julie, Stephen, Michael, Nicole and Jenna and great-grandmother to Josephine. Eleanor’s family would like to thank the staff and caregivers at Benchmark Assisted Living and Constellation Hospice for the compassionate care they provided her.

Visiting hours will be Monday morning from 9:30-10:30 in the Iovanne Funeral Home, Inc., 11 Wooster Place, New Haven. A Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated in St. Michael Church at 11 a.m. Burial will follow in All Saints Cemetery. Masks and social distancing are mandatory at all services. Memorial contributions may be made to Parkinson’s Foundation www.parkinson. org. Share a memory and sign Eleanor’s guest book online at www.iovanne.com. included the vengeful Greek heroine “Medea” at the National Theatre in 2014. At the same theater, she excelled as a woman caught between a dull husband and a feckless lover in Terence Rattigan’s “The Deep Blue Sea” in 2016.

While many performers struggle to find meaty female roles in film and television, McCrory played a string of them.

“Having said that, there are a lot of things I turn down,” she told The Associated Press in 2016, describing the sort of roles where “all your lines are ‘But what did you do at work?’ ‘That’s so clever, darling.’ ‘How did you do that?’ ‘And then what did you do?’”

“Of course, there’s so much sexism within the profession,“McCrory said.

“But I think you approach it in different ways, and my approach is just to forge forward.”

Others remembered McCrory for her charity work, including on FeedNHS, a campaign to provide meals for frontline health care workers during the coronavirus pandemic.

“Helen McCrory will be remembered not just for her remarkable stage and screen performances, but also for her selflessness and generosity,“comedian Matt Lucas tweeted. “She and Damian were the motor driving FeedNHS, working tirelessly during the pandemic to raise millions for others. What a tremendous loss.”

McCrory and Lewis, star of the TV series “Homeland” and “Billions,” married in 2007 and had two children.