PEAKY Blinders and Harry Potter actress Helen McCrory has died aged 52.

Her husband, the actor Damian Lewis, announced her death in a statement on Twitter.

He wrote: “I’m heartbroken to announce that after an heroic battle with cancer, the beautiful and mighty woman that is Helen McCrory has died peacefully at home, surrounded by a wave of love from friends and family. She died as she lived. Fearlessly. God we love her and know how lucky we are to have had her in our lives. She blazed so brightly. Go now, Little One, into the air, and thank you.”

Back in 2016 Helen joined hundreds of students graduating at the University of York picking up an honorary degree at the University's Heslington East campus.

Helen was a multi-award-winning actress who worked in theatre, film and television for thirty years. In theatre, she worked extensively at the National Theatre, including her widely acclaimed role as Hester Collyer in the National’s current production of The Deep Blue Sea, and played Medea to great acclaim. Twelfth Night and Uncle Vanya - directed by Sam Mendes - both transferred to Broadway, winning Helen awards on both sides of the Atlantic.

She has also received global recognition for her incendiary contribution as Aunt Polly in Peaky Blinders and as Evelyn Poole in US series Penny Dreadful. Helen’s other TV work includes starring roles in Anna Karenina, Leaving, Frankenstein and North Square.

In film, Helen has worked with some of the industry’s most celebrated directors - Martin Scorsese on Hugo, Stephen Frears on The Queen, where she played Cherie Blair, Sam Mendes in Skyfall and David Yates in the Harry Potter series, where she played Narcissa Malfoy. 

She married Damian Lewis in 2007 and they have a daughter Manon, born in 2006, and son Gulliver, born in 2007.