Helen McCrory filmography and biography
Date of birth: 17 August 1968, London, England, UK
Helen McCrory biography
The award-winning actress Helen McCrory trained at the Drama Centre,
London. She began her career on stage in the UK. She won the Manchester
Evening News Best Actress Award for her performance in the National
Theatre's "Blood Wedding" and the Ian Charleson award for classical
acting for playing Rose Trelawney in 'Trelawney of The Wells'. Helen's
theatre work has continued to win her critical praise and a large fan
base through such work as the Royal Shakespeare Company's "Les Enfant
du Paradis" opposite Joseph Fiennes, Rupert Graves and James Purefoy.
At the Almeida theatre her productions have included "The Triumph of
Love" opposite Chiwetel Ejiofor and the radical verse production
"Five Gold Rings" opposite Damian Lewis.
Helen has also worked extensively at the Donmar Warehouse playing lead
roles in "How I Learnt to Drive", "Old Times" directed by
Roger Michel, and in Sam Mendes' farewell double bill of
"Twelfth Night" and "Uncle Vanya" (a triumph in both London and New
York). For her performance in "Twelfth Night", Helen was nominated for
the Evening Standard Best Actress Award, and the New York Drama Desk
Awards.
Helen also found time to found the production company 'The Public' with
Michael Sheen, producing new work at the Liverpool Everyman, The
Ambassadors and the Donmar (in which she also starred).
With over twenty productions under her belt, Michael Coveny recently
wrote 'We celebrate the careers of great actors Olivier, Ashcroft,
Richardson, Gielgud, Dench, the Redgraves, Gambon, Walter, Sher,
Russell Beale and McCrory'.
On the small screen Helen's first television film, Karl Francis' "Street
life" with Rhys Ifans, won her the Welsh BAFTA, Monte Carlo Best
Actress Award and the Royal Television society Best Actress Award, for
her extraordinary performance as Jo. The Edinburgh Film Festival wrote
'simply the best performance this year'.
She went on to win Critics Circle Best Actress Award for her role as the
barrister Rose in the Channel 4 series "North Square", having been
previously nominated for her performance in "Fragile Heart". Helen has
shown her diversity as an actress, appearing in comedies such as "Lucky
Jim" with Stephen Tompkinson or "Dead Gorgeous" with Fay Ripley as well
as dramas such as Joe Wright's "Charles II", (for which she was
nominated for the LA Television Awards), "Anna Karenina".
Helen McCrory trivia
- Brown hair.
- In her childhood she lived in Africa and Paris, and went to an English
boarding school.
- Daughter of a diplomat and a physiotherapist.
- She grew up in Norway, Nigeria, Cameroon, Tanzania, Zanzibar, Madagascar
and Paris, among other places.
- She was nominated for a 2002 London Evening Standard Theatre Award for
Best Actress for her performance in Uncle Vanya performed at the Donmar
Warehouse.
- Engaged to actor Damian Lewis in February of 2006.
- Has two children with fiancé Damian Lewis (I), daughter Manon
born on September 8, 2006 and son Gulliver, born November 2, 2007.
- Daughter, Manon.
- She originally couldn't take the role of Bellatrix Lestrange in
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix due to
pregnancy and was replaced by Helena Bonham Carter. She has now
been cast to play Narcissa Malfoy, Bellatrix's sister, in
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.
Helen McCrory quotes
- Theatre is liberating because it only works if it's truthful, That's
what it requires. That's not true of film: the camera does lie. You can
be moved by a performance on set, but when you see it on screen, it
does nothing. Yet there will be someone you simply didn't notice on set
that on screen: bam!
- I was lucky to learn early in life that you need money for food and
shelter, but there's no ambition in having money in the bank for the
sake of it!