Helen McCrory's Real Name: Helen Elizabeth McCrory

Quick answer: Helen McCrory's full name was Helen Elizabeth McCrory. She was born on August 17, 1968, in London. She was a leading British stage actor and became widely known as Aunt Polly in Peaky Blinders and as Narcissa Malfoy in the Harry Potter films. She died of cancer at 52 on April 16, 2021; her husband, actor Damian Lewis, announced her death (The Guardian; BBC News).

Real name and early life

The Guardian obituary closes with the line "Helen Elizabeth McCrory, actor, born 17 August 1968; died 16 April 2021." The Library of Congress name authority files her as "McCrory, Helen." It gives her birthplace as Paddington, London, and her death as April 16, 2021, in London, at 52.

According to the Guardian, she was the eldest of three children of Iain McCrory, a Glaswegian diplomat, and Ann (née Morgans), a physiotherapist born in Cardiff. Because of her father's postings, the family lived in Cameroon, Tanzania, Norway, and France. She returned to Britain to attend Queenswood School in Hertfordshire, where drama teacher Thane Bettany, father of actor Paul Bettany, encouraged her. She was turned down by the Drama Centre in London and told the school she would apply every year until they took her. After working in Paris and traveling in Italy, she was admitted the following year.

Career highlights

McCrory made her professional debut in 1990 at Harrogate Theatre, as Gwendolen in The Importance of Being Earnest. Richard Eyre brought her to the National Theatre soon after. The Guardian lists major stage roles including Nina in The Seagull, Lady Macbeth at the Tricycle in 1995, and Yelena and Olivia in Sam Mendes's 2002 Donmar double bill of Uncle Vanya and Twelfth Night. Her later National Theatre work included Medea (2014) and Hester Collyer in The Deep Blue Sea (2016).

On screen she played Cherie Blair in The Queen (2006) and Narcissa Malfoy in the last three Harry Potter films, and she appeared in the James Bond film Skyfall (2012). From 2013 to 2019, she played the Shelby family matriarch Polly Gray in all five series of BBC's Peaky Blinders. She was appointed OBE in 2017. She married Lewis in 2007, and they had two children, Manon and Gulliver. During the pandemic, the couple raised more than £1 million to provide meals for NHS workers.

Death

Lewis announced that she had died peacefully at home "after an heroic battle with cancer," the BBC reported. "She died as she lived. Fearlessly," he wrote. National Theatre director Rufus Norris called her "unquestionably one of the great actors of her generation."

Name notes for searchers

Helen McCrory was her real name; Elizabeth was her middle name. She did not take her husband's surname professionally.