Helen McCrory

Helen McCrory
Helen McCrory; OBE
	McCrory in 2016
Born	17 August 1968; Paddington, London, England
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1990–present
Spouse(s)	Damian Lewis (m. 2007)
Children	2

Helen Elizabeth McCrory, OBE (born 17 August 1968)[1][2] is a British actress.

McCrory portrayed Cherie Blair in both The Queen (2006) and The Special Relationship (2010). She also portrayed Françoise in the film Charlotte Gray (2001), Narcissa Malfoy in the final three Harry Potter films, Mama Jeanne in Martin Scorsese's family film Hugo (2011), Clair Dowar in the James Bond film Skyfall (2012), Polly Gray in Peaky Blinders (2013–present), Emma Banville in Fearless (2017) and Kathryn Villiers in MotherFatherSon (2019).

Early life

McCrory was born in Paddington in England, UK. Her mother, Ann (née Morgans), is Welsh and her father, Iain McCrory (born 29 March 1940), is a diplomat from Glasgow; they married in 1974.[3] She is the eldest of three children.

She was educated at Queenswood School near Hatfield, Hertfordshire, and 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.[4] 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 London's West End. In April 2008, she made a "compelling" Rebecca West in a production of Ibsen's Rosmersholm at the Almeida Theatre, London.[5]

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 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 TV adaptation of Frankenstein. 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.[6][7] McCrory reprised her role in the final films, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1 and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2; McCrory's performance was well received by fans of the books. She also played the principal villain role of Rosanna Calvierri in the episode "The Vampires of Venice" of the BBC television series Doctor Who.

McCrory starred in The Last of the Haussmans 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.[8]

In 2013, McCrory narrated poetry for The Love Book App, an interactive anthology of love literature developed by Allie Byrne Esiri.[9] Again, in 2013 McCrory played 'Lady Macbeth' at the Little Angel Theatre. The same year, she started playing Polly Gray in Peaky Blinders.

In 2014, McCrory played the title role in the National Theatre's production of Medea, directed by Carrie Cracknell. Also in 2014, McCrory 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 August 2016, McCrory was confirmed to play Emma Banville in ITV drama series Fearless, which began airing in June 2017.[10]

Personal life

On 4 July 2007, McCrory married actor Damian Lewis. They have a daughter, Manon (b. 8 September 2006), and a son, Gulliver (b. 2 November 2007).[11] They have homes in Tufnell Park, north London, and near Sudbury in Suffolk.[12]

She is an honorary patron of the London children's charity Scene & Heard.[13]

McCrory was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2017 New Year Honours for services to drama.[14]

During the COVID-19 pandemic McCrory and Lewis supported Feed NHS, a scheme to give food from high street restaurants to NHS staff, and had raised £1m for the charity by early April of that year. The initiative started in London but following its success plans were announced to roll it out to other cities in the UK.[15]

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1994	Interview with the Vampire	2nd Whore
1994	Uncovered	Lola
1997	The James Gang	Bernadette James
1998	Dad Savage	Chris
2000	Hotel Splendide	Lorna Bull
2001	Charlotte Gray	Francoise
2002	The Count of Monte Cristo	Valentina Villefort
2002	Deep Down	Dana	Short film
2003	Does God Play Football	Sarah Ward	Short film
2004	Enduring Love	Mrs. Logan
2005	Casanova	Casanova's Mother
2006	Normal for Norfolk	Clare	Short film
2006	The Queen	Cherie Blair
2007	Becoming Jane	Mrs. Radcliffe
2008	Flashbacks of a Fool	Peggy Tickell
2009	Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince	Narcissa Malfoy
2009	Fantastic Mr. Fox	Mrs. Bean (voice)
2010	4.3.2.1.	Mrs. Jones
2010	Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1	Narcissa Malfoy
2011	Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2	Narcissa Malfoy
2011	Hugo	Mama Jeanne (Jehanne D'Alcy)
2012	Flying Blind	Dr. Frankie Lethbridge
	Skyfall	Clair Dowar MP
	The Cable Club (Soho)	Stella	Short film
2014	A Little Chaos	Madame Françoise Le Nôtre
2015	The Woman in Black: Angel of Death	Jean Hogg
2015	Bill	Queen Elizabeth I
2016	Their Finest	Sophie Smith
2017	Loving Vincent	Louise Chevalier

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1993	Full Stretch	Vicki Goodall	Episode: "Risky Business"
1993	Performance	Jean Rice	Episode: "The Entertainer"
1995	Screen Two	Jo	Episode: "Streetlife"
1995	Dirty Old Town	Claire
1996	The Fragile Heart	Nicola Pascoe	3 episodes
1996	Witness Against Hitler	Freya von Moltke
1997	Trial & Retribution	Anita Harris	2 episodes
1998	Spoonface Steinberg	Mother
1998	Stand and Deliver	Christina
1999	Split Second	Angie Anderson
2000	Anna Karenina	Anna Karenina	4 episodes
2000	North Square	Rose Fitzgerald	10 episodes
2001	In a Land of Plenty	Mary Freeman	3 episodes
2002	The Jury	Rose Davies	6 episodes
	Dickens	Kate Dickens	3 episodes
	Dead Gorgeous	Antonia Ashton
2003	Lucky Jim	Margaret Peel
	Carla	Carla French
	Charles II: The Power and The Passion	Lady Castlemaine (Barbara Villiers)
2004	Sherlock Holmes and the Case of the Silk Stocking	Jenny Vandeleur
2005	Messiah 4 : The Harrowing	Dr. Rachel Price
2007	Frankenstein	Dr. Victoria Frankenstein
2009	Life	Amanda Puryer	5 episodes
2010	Doctor Who	Rosanna Calvierri	Episode:"The Vampires of Venice"
2010	The Special Relationship	Cherie Blair
2011	Phineas and Ferb	Lucy Fletcher	Episode: "My Fair Goalie"
2012	We'll Take Manhattan	Lady Clare Rendlesham
2012	Leaving	Julie Ranmore	3 episodes
2013–present	Peaky Blinders	Aunt Polly / Polly Gray	30 episodes
2014	Inside No. 9	Tabitha	Episode: "The Harrowing"
2014	Tommy Cooper: Not Like That, Like This	Mary Kay
2014–2015	Penny Dreadful	Evelyn Poole (Madame Kali)	12 episodes
2017	Fearless	Emma Banville	6 episodes
2019	MotherFatherSon	Kathryn Villiers	8 episodes
	Have I Got News For You	Self, Host	1 episode (Series 58, Episode 7)
	His Dark Materials	Stelmaria
2020	Quiz	Sonia Woodley QC	2 episodes

Stage

Year	Title	Role
1990	The Importance of Being Earnest	Gwendolen Fairfax
	Teechers	Gail Saunders
	Macbeth	Witch
1991	Pride and Prejudice	Lydia Bennet
1991	Blood Wedding	The Bride
1992	Fuente Ovejuna	Jacinta
1992	Don't Fool With Love	Camille
1993	Trelawny of the 'Wells'	Rose Trelawny
1994	Venice Preserved	Belvidera
1994	The Seagull	Nina Mikhailovna Zarechnaya
1994–1995	The Devil's Disciple	Judith Anderson
1995	Keely And Du	Keely
1995	Macbeth	Lady Macbeth
1995–1996	Les Enfants Du Paradis	Claire "Garance" Reine
1998	In a Little World of Our Own	Deborah
1998	How I Learned to Drive	Li'I Bit
1999	The Triumph of Love	Princess Leonide (alias Phocion)
2000–2001	Platonov	Anna Petrovna
2002	Uncle Vanya	Helena Andreyevna Serebryakova (Yelena)
2002	Twelfth Night	Olivia
2003–2004	Five Gold Rings	Miranda
2004	Old Times	Anna
2006	As You Like It	Rosalind
	Orson's Shadow	Vivien Leigh
	A Tribute to Look Back in Anger	Helena Charles
2008	Rosmersholm	Rebecca West
2010–2012	The Late Middle Classes	Celia Smithers
2012	The Last of the Haussmans	Libby Haussmans
2013	Macbeth at the Little Angel Theatre	Lady Macbeth (voice)
2014	Medea	Medea
2016	The Deep Blue Sea[16]	Hester Collyer

Awards and nominations

Year	Title	Award	Category	Result
1991	Blood Wedding	Manchester Evening News Theatre Awards	Best Actress	Won
1993	Trelawny of the 'Wells'	Ian Charleson Award	Best Actress	3rd place
1995	Macbeth	Shakespeare Globe Awards	Richard Burton Award For Most Promising Newcomer	Won
	Streetlife	Monte-Carlo Television Festival	Best Actress	Won
		Royal Television Society	Best Actress	Won
1997		BAFTA Cymru	Best Actress	Won
1997	The Fragile Heart	London Film Critics' Circle	Actress of the Year	Nominated
2001	North Square	London Film Critics' Circle	Best Actress	Won
2001	North Square	Broadcasting Press Guild Awards	Best Actress	Won
2002	Uncle Vanya	Evening Standard Theatre Awards	Best Actress	Nominated
2003		Drama Desk Awards	Outstanding Featured Actress in a Play	Nominated
2003		WhatsOnStage Awards	Best Actress in a Play	Nominated
2004	Charles II: The Power and The Passion	Satellite Awards	Best Supporting Actress – Series, Miniseries or Television Film	Nominated
2005	Charles II: The Power and The Passion	L.A. Television Awards	Best Actress	Nominated
2006	As You Like It	WhatsOnStage Awards	Best Actress in a Play	Nominated
2006	As You Like It	Laurence Olivier Award	Best Actress	Nominated
2007	The Queen	London Film Critics' Circle	Supporting Actress of the Year	Nominated
2008	Rosmersholm	Evening Standard Theatre Awards	Best Actress (longlisted]	Nominated
2011	The Late Middle Classes	WhatsOnStage Awards	Best Actress in a Play	Nominated
2012	The Late Middle Classes	Royal Television Society	Best Actress	Nominated
	Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows–Part 2	Gold Derby Awards	Ensemble Cast	Nominated
	The Last of the Haussmans	Evening Standard Theatre Awards	Best Actress	Nominated
2013		Glamour Awards	Theatre Actress of the Year	Won
		WhatsOnStage Awards	Best Supporting Actress in a Play	Nominated
		Laurence Olivier Award	Best Actress in a Supporting Role	Nominated
2014	Peaky Blinders	Biarritz International Festival of Audiovisual Programming	TV Series and Serials: Actress	Won
	Peaky Blinders	Crime Thriller Awards	Best Supporting Actress	Nominated
	Medea	Evening Standard Theatre Awards	Best Actress	Nominated
2015	Medea	Critics' Circle Theatre Award	Best Actress	Won
2015	Penny Dreadful season 2	Satellite Awards	Best Supporting Actress – Series, Miniseries or Television Film	Nominated
2016	Penny Dreadful season 2	Critics' Choice Television Award	Best Supporting Actress in a Drama Series	Nominated
	The Deep Blue Sea	Evening Standard Theatre Awards	Best Actress	Nominated
	The Deep Blue Sea	WhatsOnStage Awards	Best Actress in a Play	Nominated

gollark: Did I miss any projects?

gollark: I'm sure you'd like to think so.

gollark: ?tag lyricly projects

gollark: Says the one who failed at macron AND mindbreak?

gollark: There's still "nationstates classic" code around, which feeds the RSS feed I have from it.

References

Births, Marriages & Deaths Index of England & Wales, 1916–2005.; at ancestry.com
"Mrs Damian Lewis, professionally known as Ms Helen McCrory Authorised Biography – Debrett's People of Today, Mrs Damian Lewis, professionally known as Ms Helen McCrory Profile". Debretts.com. 17 August 1968. Archived from the original on 27 June 2012. Retrieved 2 October 2011.
Lee, The. "Helen McCrory profile". thescotsman.com. Archived from the original on 26 August 2009. Retrieved 2 October 2011.
Fowler, Rebecca. "Triumphant first acts". Sunday Times. 13 March 1994.
Spencer, Charles (27 May 2008). "Rosmersholm: passions lost in the gloom". The Daily Telegraph. London. Archived from the original on 30 May 2008. Retrieved 4 May 2010.
Adler, Shawn (12 November 2007). 'Harry Potter' Cast Grows: Helen McCrory Joins 'Half-Blood Prince'. MTV. Archived from the original on 20 April 2008. Retrieved 2 April 2008.
"EXCLUSIVE: Narcissa cast in Potter 6". Newsround. 9 November 2007. Archived from the original on 11 November 2007. Retrieved 9 November 2007.
"The Last of the Haussmans" Archived 5 June 2012 at the Wayback Machine at National Theatre web site
"The Love Book App, poetry read by great actors". Iliterature.net. Archived from the original on 23 September 2013. Retrieved 24 July 2017.
"ITV commissions six part drama series Fearless". ITV Press Centre. ITV. 16 August 2016. Archived from the original on 29 July 2017. Retrieved 24 July 2017.
Cummins, Fiona (1 April 2006). "Exclusive: Baby for Helen". Mirror.co.uk. Archived from the original on 11 December 2008. Retrieved 3 July 2020.
Jarvis, Gemma. "Actors Damian Lewis and Helen McCrory urges Suffolk to "dig deep" after launching FeedNHS". East Anglian Daily Times.
"Who We Are". Scene & Heard. Archived from the original on 10 February 2009. Retrieved 13 May 2011.
"No. 61803". The London Gazette (Supplement). 31 December 2016. p. N13.
"Homeland and Peaky Blinders stars raise nearly £1m to feed NHS workers". BBC News. BBC. 10 April 2020. Retrieved 11 April 2020.
Billington, Michael (9 June 2016). "The Deep Blue Sea review – Helen McCrory blazes in passionate revival". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 22 June 2016.

External links

Helen McCrory at the British Film Institute
Helen McCrory on IMDb
Helen McCrory at AllMovie

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[birth-1] Births, Marriages & Deaths Index of England & Wales, 1916–2005.; at ancestry.com

[2] "Mrs Damian Lewis, professionally known as Ms Helen McCrory Authorised Biography – Debrett's People of Today, Mrs Damian Lewis, professionally known as Ms Helen McCrory Profile". Debretts.com. 17 August 1968. Archived from the original on 27 June 2012. Retrieved 2 October 2011.

[3] Lee, The. "Helen McCrory profile". thescotsman.com. Archived from the original on 26 August 2009. Retrieved 2 October 2011.

[4] Fowler, Rebecca. "Triumphant first acts". Sunday Times. 13 March 1994.

[5] Spencer, Charles (27 May 2008). "Rosmersholm: passions lost in the gloom". The Daily Telegraph. London. Archived from the original on 30 May 2008. Retrieved 4 May 2010.

[6] Adler, Shawn (12 November 2007). 'Harry Potter' Cast Grows: Helen McCrory Joins 'Half-Blood Prince'. MTV. Archived from the original on 20 April 2008. Retrieved 2 April 2008.

[mccrory-newsround-7] "EXCLUSIVE: Narcissa cast in Potter 6". Newsround. 9 November 2007. Archived from the original on 11 November 2007. Retrieved 9 November 2007.

[8] "The Last of the Haussmans" Archived 5 June 2012 at the Wayback Machine at National Theatre web site

[9] "The Love Book App, poetry read by great actors". Iliterature.net. Archived from the original on 23 September 2013. Retrieved 24 July 2017.

[10] "ITV commissions six part drama series Fearless". ITV Press Centre. ITV. 16 August 2016. Archived from the original on 29 July 2017. Retrieved 24 July 2017.

[11] Cummins, Fiona (1 April 2006). "Exclusive: Baby for Helen". Mirror.co.uk. Archived from the original on 11 December 2008. Retrieved 3 July 2020.

[12] Jarvis, Gemma. "Actors Damian Lewis and Helen McCrory urges Suffolk to "dig deep" after launching FeedNHS". East Anglian Daily Times.

[13] "Who We Are". Scene & Heard. Archived from the original on 10 February 2009. Retrieved 13 May 2011.

[14] "No. 61803". The London Gazette (Supplement). 31 December 2016. p. N13.

[15] "Homeland and Peaky Blinders stars raise nearly £1m to feed NHS workers". BBC News. BBC. 10 April 2020. Retrieved 11 April 2020.

[16] Billington, Michael (9 June 2016). "The Deep Blue Sea review – Helen McCrory blazes in passionate revival". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 22 June 2016.