Helen McCrory (1968-2021)
Saturday, April 17, 2021 at 7:00PM by Nathaniel R
It is with great sadness that we share the unexpected news that the always wonderful British actress Helen McRory has passed away. She died of cancer (a diagnosis she had kept hidden as she continued on with charity work during the pandemic) at the age of 52 on Friday.
She made her big screen debut inauspiciously, as so many stars do, playing a doomed young woman in Interview with the Vampire (1994)...
That small gig proved prescient. Many more lush period dramas and supernatural projects would follow. Neil Jordan wasn't the last lauded director she ended up working with, either. Stephen Frears and Martin Scorsese were also in her future.
Still she remained more than a little unsung despite tremendous talent. Her career moved up considerably in billing and character size (she's billed just as "2nd whore" in this classic vampire blockbuster) and this past decade things really began heating up. Most people surely remember McCrory best as "Narcissa Malfoy" in the Harry Potter franchise from 2009-2011 due to the cultural ubiquity of those films. But she had true range and enormous talent that weren't well showcased there given the role's marginal nature...
in the Harry Potter films
In fact, she had originally been cast in a much more prominent Potterverse role. She had to give up playing "Bellatrix LeStrange" in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2007) due to pregnancy. It's hard not to wonder what her Bellatrix would have been like especially since she later got to share scenes with Helena Bonham-Carter who replaced her.
in "A Little Chaos"
in "Hugo"
in "Peaky Blinders"
She was much better showcased in her five seasons as "Aunt Polly" on Peaky Blinders (National Film Awards nomination, Best Actress TV). She was scheduled for the sixth and final season (which hasn't yet aired but had started filming) but we're unsure if she had filmed episodes before her passing or what the show will do about her character's absence.
McCrory was always a welcome sight in films like Hugo, A Little Chaos, and The Queen (London Critics Circle Best Supporting Actress nomination) though her roles were often too small for her talents. So many fans were surely waiting for the movies and TV to catch up to her magic. Her stage work was, at least, celebrated. She received both London Evening Standard and Olivier nominations.
My personal favourite of McCrory's screen performances was her devilishly well-modulated work as "Madame Kali" HBO's Penny Dreadful. In her early episodes she appears to be just a smooth operator and possible charlatan of a psychic but as she unfolded the character revealing a much more highly stylized and bigger performance in season two, she became mesmerizingly unsettling. And satanic. It was the only performance on that underappreciated and shortlived series to fully match what Eva Green was throwing down with her spectacularly moody and committed star turn in the leading role.
Our hearts go out to Helen's husband, the Emmy-winning actor Damian Lewis (Homeland) and their children. She will be greatly missed onscreen and stage, by her fans, especially since her best felt so likely 'yet to come'.
What was your favourite Helen McCrory performance?
Damian Lewis, Helen McCrory, Peaky Blinders, Penny Dreadful, RIP
Reader Comments (26)
So devastated! Was finally getting around to streaming Peaky Blinders, mostly because she was in it. About to start season 5. My favorite performance so far, mostly because it has given her so much to do. Also enjoyed her Penny Dreadful performance. My wife and I were just saying how we thought the females were doing so much better acting wise on that show (especially after Adrian Brody, yikes!). Will miss her, time to appreciate what we have.
I was gonna get mad if you didn't mention her performance in Penny Dreadful. I'm a little fonder of the acting overall than you, I think, but she was aces.
I wish I got to see her stage work. I can only imagine how awesome her Medea would've been
Very sad news.
Also want to praise her performance in the miniseries Quiz. Her monologue on memory is wonderful.
I admit that I am Medea-obsessed. Without a back story to explain my obsession, I seek out and as many productions of the Greek drama as I can. The National Theater put Helen McCrory's extraordinary performance on film.
McCrory brought a rich insight to the character. In the modern dress production, McCrory fully embodies the rage and anguish of betrayal without losing the vulnerability of loss. This was an actress who made thoughtful decisions about her performance that helped us as an audience see infanticide as still repulsive but comprehensible. Hard to do, particularly when you are a happily married woman with two young children.
Without question, the National Theater production of Medea is the apex of McCrory's career and a must see for all who savor the best of great actresses.
She was an excellent stage actress. I had the pleasure of seeing her on stage many years ago in Sam Mendes production of "Uncle Vanya/Twelfth Night" at the Donmar Warehouse with a cast featuring Emily Watson, Masrk Strong and Simon Russell Beale. She was excellent as Olivia and Helena.
You can also see her stage work in the National Theatre Live productions of "Medea", "Deep Blue Sea" and "The Last of the Haussmans" which can be found online. RIP
She felt like the type of actress to pull a Helen Mirren/Judi Dench and hit her stride in her later years and become a legend/Dame then.
Loved her in Hugo, and nominated her for Supporting Actress for my personal awards that year.
What sadly shocking and unexpected news!
I can't say I'm extremely well versed in all her work but I was always delighted to see her name appear in the credits. I think the first thing I really remember her in is her turn as Cherie Blair in The Queen.
She might not have been as famous as she deserved but I think the role is a good illustration of the sort of wonder she could work on a role. Mrs. Blair isn't written to make any great import on the story the film is telling but because of Helen's dryly spiky reading of it she makes a far greater impression in her brief screen time than a less forceful actress would have.
Such a tragedy for Damian Lewis and their children who are still so young.
This is heartbreaking. I loved her in Peaky Blinders and LOVED her in Penny Dreadful. May she Rest In Peace.
CRUSHED hearing this news yesterday. She was amazing on PEAKY BLINDERS and sad we're not going to see more of what she could've given us in the years to come.
I enjoyed watching her in The Queen as Cherie Blair and in The Special Relationship as she just brought a wit to that role. I also loved her as Narcissa Malfoy in the Harry Potter films as I felt she brought that motherly warmth that Draco needed and was the one person in the Malfoy family who really kept her family in check just as Draco becomes disillusioned with the Death Eaters and Lucius becoming desperate and unhinged.
She will be missed as she's just an awesome actress.
FUCK YOU CANCER!
I was saddened to hear this, as she was such a delightful British actress and seeing her name on a miniseries or small film was a sure way to get me to watch.
She is wonderful in The Queen, and I’m glad she got some recognition. She was also wonderful in the imperfect series Roadkill. I hope she can score a posthumous Emmy nod for it. Her take on the PM role is pretty wonderful.
Nooooo! :(
She was amazing in The Deep Blue Sea and every scene she had in Penny Dreadful, with a voice so distinct with character. I'm going to miss her presence whenever she showed up on screen.
R.I.P.
Life is just a dash between two dates, birth day and death. What you make out of it is what matters.
So sad that she had to die by Cancer!
This also shows that no matter who or where you are, there's always a pain.
Rest In Peace..
Helens performance in The Deep Blue Sea is amongst the best I have ever seen on stage. Staggering.
May she rest in peace and power.
I'm so fucking angry.
It’s beyond devastating - I can’t really process it and it’s all I’ve been able to think about since the news broke on Friday. One of my holy trinity of actresses (the others being Isabelle Huppert and Judy Davis) - unquestionably one of the most exquisitely gifted performers of our time. As a Brit, I was fortunate enough to see much of her major work in theatre and on the small screen after I fell in love with her in 1998. It’s almost impossible to pick highlights, as she was utterly riveting in everything - so present, so bold, a blazing talent. I’m heartbroken that we won’t get to see all the major roles she was still destined to play. Her film career hadn’t quite lifted off internationally in the way her talent dictated it should and we’ve all been robbed of that which was surely coming - a Mirren or Dench-esque late-blooming revelation for overseas audiences.
Her achievements in theatre are perhaps the greatest of her career. I defy anybody to watch her Medea or Hester in ‘Deep Blue Sea’ without being both emotionally destroyed and completely exhilarated by her searing, complex and profoundly empathetic work. There really are not enough superlatives to throw at her.
By all accounts she was also an incredibly generous, vibrant and wickedly funny human being off-stage too and her dedication to motherhood caused her to turn down significant roles in the prime of her career (although she still managed to work at quite a pace in the UK where she could return to her kids every day). Outpouring of emotion and retrospective acclaim often follows the death of a cherished actor and it can sometimes seem hyperbolic but in this case every accolade is earned and then some... in all the obituaries and features here there is a expression of grief, shock and unfathomable loss to our industry, beyond what might be apparent to audiences outside the UK.
Please seek out her work wherever you can - she elevated even the more mediocre material and made it worth a watch. ‘Medea’ is currently streaming through’ NT at Home’ - not sure about international availability but that’s what VPNs were made for.
It’s desperately sad that somebody so full of life can be ripped away so soon.. My heart goes out to her family and all who loved her. RIP Helen McCrory.
@ James, Manos and Sally W
Thanks for the comments. It would be worth it for people to check their library's streaming content as well. My local library has all the RNT stuff available for free.
Like everyone else here, shocked and grieved by this news. She was so young and had so much left to give the world. And she's such a terrific presence on screen, it surprised me to realize she hasn't actually had that many high-profile movie roles. She deserved more, and I'm confident would have gotten them had she lived.
And for me, she *was* PEAKY BLINDERS, just as much as Cillian Murphy. I don't see how the show survives without her.
I wish I'd had the chance to see her on stage.
Catching up on the news this is so sad. I ADORED her in Penny Dreadful. Like Peggy Sue moments of anger over the news can occur, but it would be self centred and not truly honoring her to leave the comment at that. Reading these comments has inspired me to check out Peaky Blinders which apparantly may contain arguably her best work. R.I.P.
What a loss. I couldn't agree more about her being the only one to match Eva Green on Penny Dreadful. When they got to spar, it was magic. Heading to the National Theatre Live App to watch everything they have of her stage work.
As someone already wrote, it was always a joy to see her name in the opening credits, because you knew you would get some fine acting.
I always remembered her from The Queen, and then it was such a joy to see her chewing the scenery and stealing every scene in Penny Dreadful.
She was so charismatic in everything, even making the most of her steely cameo in Skyfall, and being so memorable in what could have been a forgettable part in Hugo.
I will miss her, and her death really makes me sad because i think she was just starting to take flight.
My first exposure to Helen McCrory was her brilliant performance in the wonderful 'Penny Dreadful;' what an actress! So sad for her family and all who loved her.
The fantastic body of work she leaves behind will live on forever. RIP Helen.
Always very good, she was amazing in The Deep Blue Sea.
love this story of hers...
"Lauren Bacall came backstage after a show I did with Emily Watson on Broadway and rasped: ‘You were fabulous. I’ve been a fan of yours for years, I love all your work. I adored you in Breaking the Waves.’ I thought Oh God, she’s got the wrong f—-ing person, oh s—t, oh s—t, so I quietly pointed out she actually meant Emily.” Bacall was mortified, whereupon quick-witted McCrory smoothly broke the tension by declaring: “It’s such a pleasure to meet you, because ever since Philadelphia Story, Miss Hepburn, I’ve always been a great fan of yours.” The Hollywood legend burst into laughter, and duly swept her off to supper."
The Lauren Bacall anecdote is for the ages.
Wow this is devastating. She’s been one of my ten favorite working actresses since The Queen put her on my radar. Absolutely incredible in Medea and The Last of the Haussmans and carried quite a few miniseries on her back. I agree that I expected her to reach Dench levels of respect in her later years. What a tragic loss.