It came as a sad shock on Friday, April 16, when actor Damian Lewis announced that his wife, screen and stage actress Helen McCrory, had passed away after a cancer battle. Over the weekend, her former costars from Harry Potter and Peaky Blinders took time to remember her.
McCrory, who was 52, has been active in the film world since her 1994 big screen debut in Interview with the Vampire. She gained prominence after starring as Cherie Blair opposite Michael Sheen and Helen Mirren in 2006’s The Queen and later starred in Skyfall and The Woman in Black: Angel of Death.
However, she’s probably best known to modern audiences for taking on the role of Narcissa Malfoy starting with 2009’s Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. What fans may not know is that she was originally cast as Bellatrix Lestrange in 2007’s Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix but had to back out due to her first pregnancy. That role was then taken by Helena Bonham Carter and McCrory was casted in the next film.
Her on-screen son, Tom Felton, took to his Instagram where he posted a photo from Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part II.
“I never took the chance to tell her, but she helped shape me as a person so much – on & off screen,” the Draco Malfoy actor shared. “Thank you for lighting the way forward & holding my hand when I needed it.”
View this post on Instagram
On-screen husband and father Jason Isaacs – who played Lucius Malfoy from 2002-2011 – shared the same photo of his Harry Potter family.
“I came home and said to [my wife] Emma ‘I think I’ve just met the greatest actress I’ve ever seen,’” Isaacs wrote. “As continually starstruck as I was on the Harry Potter films, being screen-married to and giggle with the great Helen McCrory will always be a highlight.”
View this post on Instagram
On television, McCrory has become known for her more recent roles as Evelyn Poole/Madam Kali on Showtime’s Penny Dreadful and the voice of Stelmaria on HBO’s His Dark Materials. Though, her biggest fame came from playing family matriarch Polly Gray on the BBC and Netflix’s Peaky Blinders. Airing since 2013, it was announced in January that the series’ upcoming sixth season will be its last.
Lead actor Cillian Murphy, who plays her nephew Tommy Shelby, shared in a statement with Entertainment Weekly, “I am broken-hearted to lose such a dear friend. Helen was a beautiful, caring, funny, compassionate human being…[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.”
On his Instagram story, Finn Cole, who played her son Michael Gray, shared, “She was witty, classy and just really f*****g cool, far too young and beautiful to play my mother.”
Her on-screen niece, Sophie Rundle (who plays Ada Shelby), similary said, “God she was so f*****g cool…[what] a privilege to have worked with her these past years, I can’t overstate how much I admired her.”
View this post on Instagram
Of course, the most heartbreaking tribute came from her husband Lewis who’s known for his roles on Homeland and Billions. In a tribute he shared with The Times, he wrote that she was hoping for her family to find love again.
“I want Daddy to have girlfriends, lots of them, you must all love again, love isn’t possessive, but you know, Damian, try at least to get through the funeral without snogging someone,” he shared that McCrory said from her bed.
The world – and not just the human world, but the many fantasy worlds McCrory inhabited – has lost a true star.
What was your favorite Helen McCrory performance? Leave a comment below or tweet us at @celebsecrets.
