Helen Elizabeth McCrory (17 August 1968 – 16 April 2021) was an English actress. After studying at the Drama Centre London, she made her professional stage debut in The Importance of Being Earnest in 1990. Other theatre roles include playing Lady Macbeth in Macbeth at Shakespeare's Globe, Olivia in Twelfth Night, Rosalind in As You Like It in the West End for which she received a Laurence Olivier Award nomination, and Medea in the eponymous play at the Royal National Theatre.
McCrory is known for her film roles as Françoise in Charlotte Gray (2001); Cherie Blair in both The Queen (2006) and The Special Relationship (2010), alongside Michael Sheen, who portrayed husband and Prime Minister Tony Blair in both; Narcissa Malfoy in the final three Harry Potter films (2009, 2010, 2011); Mama Jeanne in Hugo (2011); and Clair Dowar in the James Bond film Skyfall (2012). She was also known for her television roles as Polly Gray in the BBC series Peaky Blinders (2013–2019); Madame Kali in the Showtime series Penny Dreadful (2014–15); Emma Banville in the ITV series Fearless (2017); and Kathryn Villiers in the BBC mini-series MotherFatherSon (2019).
Early life and education Helen Elizabeth McCrory was born on 17 August 1968 in Paddington, London.Births, Marriages & Deaths Index of England & Wales, 1916–2005.; at ancestry.com Her mother, Ann (née Morgans), was a Welsh physiotherapist, and her father, Iain McCrory, was a diplomat from Glasgow; they were married in 1968. She was the eldest of three children.
McCrory was educated at Queenswood School near Hatfield, Hertfordshire, then spent a year living in Italy. Upon her return to Britain, she began studying acting at the Drama Centre in London.
Career McCrory won third prize at the Ian Charleson Awards for her 1993 performance as Rose Trelawny in Trelawny of the 'Wells' at the National Theatre.Fowler, Rebecca. "Triumphant first acts". The Sunday Times. 13 March 1994. In 2002, she was nominated for a London Evening Standard Theatre Award for Best Actress (for playing Elena in Chekhov's Uncle Vanya at the Donmar Warehouse). She was later nominated for a 2006 Laurence Olivier Theatre Award for her role as Rosalind in As You Like It in the West End. In April 2008, McCrory made a "compelling" Rebecca West in a production of Ibsen's Rosmersholm at the Almeida Theatre, London. She appeared in Charles II: The Power and The Passion (2003), as Barbara Villiers, Countess of Castlemaine and in supporting roles in such films as Interview with the Vampire (1994), Charlotte Gray (2001), The Count of Monte Cristo (2002) and Casanova (2005). In the critically acclaimed film The Queen (2006), she played Cherie Blair, a role she reprised in Peter Morgan's follow-up The Special Relationship (2010).
She appeared in a modernised television adaptation of Frankenstein (2007). In 2006, her first pregnancy forced her to pull out of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2007), in which she had been cast as Bellatrix Lestrange (she was replaced by Helena Bonham Carter). McCrory was later cast as Bellatrix's sister Narcissa Malfoy in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, released in July 2009. In 2010 and 2011, she reprised her role in the final films, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1 and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2. She also played the principal villain role of Rosanna Calvierri in the 2010 episode "The Vampires of Venice" of the BBC television series Doctor Who.
McCrory starred in The Last of the Haussmans alongside Julie Walters and Rory Kinnear at the Royal National Theatre, which began 12 June 2012. The production was broadcast to cinemas around the world on 11 October 2012 through the National Theatre Live programme. In the same year, she also appeared in the twenty-third James Bond film Skyfall as Clair Dowar MP. McCrory also played lead role, wedding director Julie Ranmore, in the three-part ITV drama Leaving. In 2013, McCrory narrated poetry for The Love Book App, an interactive anthology of love literature developed by Allie Byrne Esiri. Again in 2013, she played Lady Macbeth in Macbeth at the Little Angel Theatre. The same year, she began playing Polly Gray in Peaky Blinders, which she continued to star in alongside Cillian Murphy for 5 series until 2019. In 2020, she was set to star in the final series of Peaky Blinders until production was shut down five days before filming was set to begin in March due to the COVID-19 pandemic. When production resumed in January 2021, she was unable to return due to breast cancer and the script had to be rewritten following her death. She appears in series 6 through archive and unreleased footage.
In 2014, McCrory played the title role in the National Theatre's production of Medea, directed by Carrie Cracknell. Her performance was critically acclaimed. Also in 2014, she made a guest appearance on the TV series Penny Dreadful. She returned as a regular for the show's second season, playing the main antagonist. In 2014, McCrory also starred in A Little Chaos, opposite Kate Winslet and Alan Rickman who also directed the film. In 2016, she starred as Hester in the stage play The Deep Blue Sea, which was filmed and shown live in cinemas worldwide on 1 September 2016 as part of National Theatre Live. McCrory was confirmed to play the lead role, human-rights lawyer Emma Banville, in six-part ITV drama series Fearless, which aired in June 2017.
In 2019, McCrory starred as Kathryn Villiers in Tom Rob Smith's MotherFatherSon alongside Richard Gere and Billy Howle. It averaged 2.69 million viewers. In 2020, she played Sonia Woodley QC in the ITV drama Quiz, which received a large audience while it was on the air during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns with the first episode seen live by an average of 5.3 million viewers in the UK. In June 2020, McCrory was featured in an episode of the BBC Radio 4's programme Desert Island Discs; Donna Ferguson from The Guardian called the episode one of five key shows in the programme's 80 year history. In her final television performance, she starred as Prime Minister Dawn Ellison in the BBC four-part drama Roadkill, which aired in October 2020. Her final performance was in the animated biographical film Charlotte, which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2021 and was released in 2022.
Personal life
On 4 July 2007, McCrory married actor Damian Lewis; the couple had a daughter, Manon (born 2006), and a son, Gulliver (born 2007). Their main home was in Tufnell Park, north London, and they had another near Sudbury in Suffolk.
Philanthropy McCrory served as an honorary patron of the London children's charity Scene & Heard. She also served as patron for the charity Sir Hubert von Herkomer (HVH) Arts Foundation, dedicated to offering youth a gateway to the arts, which her husband Damian Lewis took over as patron in 2021 following her death. During the COVID-19 pandemic, she and Lewis supported Feed NHS, a programme to give food from high-street restaurants to NHS staff, and had raised £1 million for the charity by early April 2020. In 2022, Lewis received a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) partially for their charity work with the NHS, which he shared with McCrory by posting to Twitter with the hashtag #CBESharingItWithHelen and telling the PA news agency "She and I are both thrilled". McCrory was also an ambassador with the charity The Prince's Trust, which she spoke about on Good Morning Britain in her final public appearance in March 2021.
Death McCrory died of breast cancer at her home in London on 16 April 2021, aged 52. Announcing the death on Twitter, husband Damian Lewis stated that she had died "peacefully at home, surrounded by a wave of love from friends and family." She had kept her diagnosis private while receiving treatment and continuing to work. "Very, very few people" knew of her illness before her death as she did not want her illness to overshadow her professional and charitable work.
Following her death, the storyline for season 6 of Peaky Blinders had to be altered and certain parts were reshot. In addition to Peaky Blinders, her last appearances include the 2016 stage production of The Deep Blue Sea at the National Theatre, an episode of the show Have I Got News For You in 2019, two series of the drama His Dark Materials, the 2020 ITV drama Quiz, the BBC drama Roadkill, and the animated film Charlotte.
Acting credits
Film Year Title Role Notes 1994 Interview with the Vampire 2nd Mistress Uncovered Lola 1997 The James Gang Bernadette James 1998 Dad Savage Chris 2000 Hotel Splendide Lorna Bull 2001 Charlotte Gray Francoise 2002 Valentina Villefort Deep Down Dana Short film 2003 Does God Play Football Sarah Ward 2004 Enduring Love Mrs. Logan 2005 Casanova Casanova's Mother 2006 Normal for Norfolk Clare Short film Cherie Blair 2007 Becoming Jane Mrs. Radcliffe 2008 Flashbacks of a Fool Peggy Tickell 2009 Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince Narcissa Malfoy Fantastic Mr. Fox Mrs. Bean (voice) 2010 4.3.2.1. Mrs. Jones Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1 Narcissa Malfoy 2011 Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2 Hugo Mama Jeanne (Jehanne D'Alcy) 2012 Flying Blind Dr. Frankie Lethbridge Skyfall Clair Dowar MP 2014 A Little Chaos Madame Françoise Le Nôtre 2015 The Woman in Black: Angel of Death Jean Hogg Bill Queen Elizabeth I 2016 Their Finest Sophie Smith 2017 Loving Vincent Louise Chevalier (voice) 2021 Charlotte Paula Lindberg-Salomon (voice) Posthumous release
Television Year Title Role Notes 1993 Full Stretch Vicki Goodall Episode: "Risky Business" Performance Jean Rice Episode: "The Entertainer" 1995 Screen Two Jo Episode: "Streetlife" Dirty Old Town Claire Television film 1996 The Fragile Heart Nicola Pascoe 3 episodes Witness Against Hitler Freya von Moltke Television film1997 Trial & Retribution Anita Harris 2 episodes 1998 Spoonface Steinberg Mother Television film Stand and Deliver Christina Television special1999 Split Second Angie Anderson Television film2000 Anna Karenina Anna Karenina 4 episodes North Square Rose Fitzgerald 10 episodes 2001 In a Land of Plenty Mary Freeman 3 episodes 2002 Rose Davies 6 episodes Dickens Kate Dickens 3 episodes Dead Gorgeous Antonia Ashton Television film 2003 Lucky Jim Margaret Peel Carla Carla French Charles II: The Power and the Passion Lady Castlemaine (Barbara Villiers) 4 episodes 2004 Sherlock Holmes and the Case of the Silk Stocking Jenny Vandeleur Television film 2005 Messiah: The Harrowing Dr. Rachel Price 3 episodes 2007 Frankenstein Dr. Victoria Frankenstein Television film 2009 Life Amanda Puryer 5 episodes 2010 Doctor Who Rosanna Calvierri Episode: "The Vampires of Venice" The Special Relationship Cherie Blair Television film 2011 Phineas and Ferb Lucy Fletcher (voice) Episode: "My Fair Goalie" 2012 We'll Take Manhattan Lady Clare Rendlesham Television film Leaving Julie Ranmore Main role; 3 episodes 2013–2022 Peaky Blinders Polly Gray Main role (Series 1-5); Archive footage (Series 6); 30 episodes 2014 Inside No. 9 Tabitha Episode: "The Harrowing" Tommy Cooper: Not Like That, Like This Mary Kay Television film 2014–2015 Penny Dreadful Evelyn Poole (Madame Kali) Recurring (Season 1); Main role (Season 2); 12 episodes 2017 Fearless Emma Banville Main role; 6 episodes 2019 MotherFatherSon Kathryn Villiers Main role; 8 episodes Have I Got News for You Herself (host) Episode #58.7 2019–2020 His Dark Materials Stelmaria (voice) Voice cast (Series 1-2); 4 episodes 2020 Quiz Sonia Woodley QC Main role; 2 episodes Roadkill Dawn Ellison Main role; 4 episodes
Theatre