Remembering Helen McCrory: husband Damian Lewis leads tributes to the Harry Potter and Peaky Blinders star who died age 52 after a secret cancer battle
- McCrory appeared in James Bond film Skyfall and Martin Scorsese’s Hugo, and played Cherie Blair in The Queen and Narcissa Malfoy in the Harry Potter series
- Michael Sheen, J.K. Rowling and Peaky Blinders’ Cillian Murphy paid tributes to an actress who sought meatier female roles and drove the UK’s FeedNHS charity
British actor Helen McCrory, who starred in the television show Peaky Blinders and the Harry Potter movies, died aged 52. Her husband, fellow actor Damian Lewis, said McCrory died “peacefully at home” after a “heroic battle with cancer”.
“She died as she lived. Fearlessly,” Lewis wrote on Twitter on Friday (April 16). “God we love her and know how lucky we are to have had her in our lives. She blazed so brightly. Go now, Little One, into the air, and thank you.”
McCrory was one of Britain’s most respected actors, making her mark by playing a succession of formidable and sometimes fearsome women.
She 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 central role of gangland boss Tommy Shelby in Peaky Blinders, set in the early 20th century English underworld, said he was “broken-hearted to lose such a dear friend”.
“Helen was a beautiful, caring, funny, compassionate human being,” he said in a statement. “She was also a gifted actor – fearless and magnificent.
“She elevated and made humane every scene, every character she played,” Murphy added. “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.”
