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Helen McCrory

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She did a great job as Aunt Polly, the main female role in the television series “Peaky Blinders”, although she is also remembered as Narcissa Malfoy in the Harry Potter saga. Helen McCrory died on April 15, 2021, at the age of 52, as a result of cancer, according to what her husband, actor Damian Lewis, announced via Twitter. “It breaks my heart to announce that after a heroic battle against cancer, the beautiful and powerful woman that is Helen McCrory has died peacefully, at home, in a wave of love, with her friends and family,” the tweet wrote. interpreter.

Born in London on August 17, 1968, Helen Elizabeth McCrory –her full name– was the daughter of a Scottish diplomat and a Welsh woman. She spent her childhood in different locations around the world with her family clan. Upon her return to the UK, she studied acting at the University of the Arts in her hometown.

She made her debut in 1994 with a supporting role, as a prostitute, in Interview with the Vampire and as the niece of the owner of the painting that the protagonist is restoring, in La tabla de Flandes , an adaptation of a novel by Arturo Pérez-Reverte . Next, Helen McCrory played Cherie Blair, wife of Prime Minister Tony Blair, in The Queen , opposite Michael Sheen and Helen Mirren . She always painstakingly prepared her papers. “Throughout my career, I’ve always made scrapbooks for every role, looking for as many details as possible. I’ve made some directors nervous by taking notes,” she has commented.

He lavished himself in the theater, especially with the Drama Center, in his hometown. She earned an Olivier Award nomination in 2006 for a production of William Shakespeare ‘s “As You Wish . ” She fell in love with  Damian Lewis  when they met in the play “Five Golden Rings” by Joanna Laurens at the Almeida Theater in London. They were married on July 4, 2007. The couple has two children, Manon and Gulliver. “As a child, I never daydreamed about getting married and having children,” she recalled. “I was very surprised to find out that I was getting married, and I was delighted to see that I was up to the task. When I got pregnant, Damian sold his house, I sold mine. We sold his car, because I didn’t have one, we moved to a new home, and nine months later she gave birth. 

In 2000, she starred in a television version of Anna Karenina , and was also a secretary of the British Parliament, in Skyfall , a film from the James Bond saga. For another important franchise, the one starring Harry Potter, Helen McCrory had been chosen to play Bellatrix Lestrange, but she had become pregnant shortly before shooting, so she was replaced by Helena Bonham Carter . She subsequently was given another role, Narcissa Malfoy, mother of Draco Malfoy. Martin Scorsese gave her the role of Mama Jeanne, wife of Georges Méliès , in The Invention of Hugo .

In series, her work as the spiritualist Evelyn Poole, in Penny Dreadful , is remembered . Helen McCrory  played the role of her best known, Aunt Polly, matriarch of a Birmingham crime family in the early 20th century, in Peaky Blinders , the sixth season of which was set to shoot when she was killed. “My character  has run the gang for four years while the guys are in the trenches,” she said in an interview. “She  ‘s the mastermind with Tommy behind the family and you see the difference in how to rule. One from the male point of view, which is much more physical, violent and threatening, and another from the female point of view, which is just as violent and threatening physically, but also psychologically.”

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