LONDON: British film, television and stage actress Helen McCrory has died aged 52 from cancer, her husband and fellow actor Damian Lewis said on Thursday.

McCrory “died peacefully at home surrounded by a wave of love from friends and family”, Lewis wrote on Twitter, calling his late wife “beautiful and mighty”.

“We love her and know how lucky we are to have had her in our lives. She blazed so brightly,” the actor added, explaining she had died “after an heroic battle with cancer”.

McCrory was best known as a star of hit BBC crime drama “Peaky Blinders” and for the role of Narcissa Malfoy in the “Harry Potter” films, as the mother of the boy wizard’s school-aged rival.

She played Cherie Blair, the wife of former British prime minister Tony Blair, twice in both the “The Queen” (2006) and “The Special Relationship” (2010), and played fictional British interior minister Clair Dowar in the the James Bond film “Skyfall” (2012).

AFP

Born in Paddington in west London in 1968 to a Welsh mother and Scottish-born father, McCrory was the eldest of three children.

She attended school in southeast England and spent a year living in Italy before studying acting at London’s Drama Centre.

A lengthy acting career followed, which saw her play a multitude of roles on the small and big screen, as well as on stage.

McCrory and Lewis, who starred in the US TV series Homeland, married in 2007. The pair met performing in the Shakespeare play “Much Ado About Nothing” as comedic protagonists Beatrice and Benedick.

In 2011, she told the Independent newspaper she had eschewed celebrity but was honoured to have played such interesting roles.

An actor’s job, she said, was to “reassure the audience that life, as muddled and as wonderful as it is, is worth living”.

The Final Adieu

The year 2020 has been an unprecedented one. A global pandemic forced humanity into lockdown, bringing in its wake much uncertainty, fear and gloom.

2020 was also a year of loss as we lost many talented personalities from the world of showbiz across the world.

From Bollywood actor Sushant Singh Rajput’s shocking suicide to Irrfan Khan and Rishi Kapoor both succumbing to cancer and passing away within hours of each other, this year of the pandemic has snatched many icons.

It was also the year when the deadly novel coronavirus claimed the lives of singer SP Balasubramaniam, Bengali thespian Soumitra Chatterjee, and music composer Wajid Khan among others.

The world mourned collectively as international personalities including Kobe Bryant, Diego Maradona, Kirk Douglas and Sean Connery passed away.

Here is a look at all the influential figures we lost this year.

Irrfan Khan

Irrfan Khan’s demise on April 29 left cinema fans – across India, Japan, US and other parts of the world – devastated. The ‘Maqbool’ and ‘The Namesake’ actor was 54 years of age at the time of his demise.

After announcing his neuroendocrine tumour diagnosis in March 2018, Khan sought treatment abroad and returned to India in February 2019. He died due to colon infection in Mumbai after a two-year-long battle.

Tributes poured in on social media for the character-actor who had established his presence internationally as well with some fine acting. Khan was known for bringing to life his roles in ‘Hindi Medium’, ‘Life In A Metro’, ‘Maqbool’, ‘Life Of Pi’, among others.

Rishi Kapoor

2020 started on a sad note for the Kapoors. In January, Ritu Nanda, the daughter of Raj Kapoor, and actor Rishi Kapoor’s sister, passed away after battling cancer for a long time. She was 71.

Three months after her demise, 67-year-old Rishi Kapoor succumbed to cancer on April 30. The actor had been diagnosed with cancer for the first time in 2018.A year of treatment followed in New York where his wife Neetu Singh kept him company. Many friends from the film industry including the Ambanis inquired after the actor’s health when they visited the US.

Kapoor, who shot to fame with his debut film ‘Bobby’ opposite Dimple Kapadia, went on to star in many romantic films for three decades till the ‘90s.

Sushant Singh Rajput

June 14 marked the death of popular Bollywood actor Sushant Singh Rajput. . The 34-year-old actor was found hanging in his Bandra apartment. His unnatural death resulted in a probe which had to be constituted following a legal complaint by his father.

Before the Narcotics Control Bureau’s arrest in procuring drugs for the late actor, girlfriend Rhea Chakraborty had confirmed to the police and the Central Bureau of Investigation – which was probing the case as well – that the two were planning to tie the knot in November this year.

The late actor had become a household name after his debut in Ekta Kapoor’s TV show, ‘Pavitra Rishta’, in 2009. In 2013, he made his big screen debut with ‘Kai Po Che!’. He was later seen in ‘Shuddh Desi Romance’, ‘M.S. Dhoni: The Untold Story’, ‘Detective Byomkesh Bakshy!’, ‘Drive’, ‘Kedarnath’, and ‘Chhichhore’. A month after his death, his last film ‘Dil Bechara’ made a digital debut on Disney+ Hotstar on July 24.