Helen Elizabeth McCrory was an English actress. After studying at the Drama Centre London, she made her stage debut in The Importance of Being Earnest in 1990. Other stage roles include playing Lady Macbeth in Macbeth at Shakespeare's Globe, Olivia in Twelfth Night, Rosalind in As You Like It in the West End, and Medea in the eponymous play in the Royal National Theatre.
McCrory in 2017
McCrory speaking at the unveiling of a statue of suffragist Millicent Fawcett in Parliament Square, London in 2018
McCrory and Damian Lewis at the 2013 BAFTA Awards
Lady Macbeth is a leading character in William Shakespeare's tragedy Macbeth. As the wife of the play's tragic hero, Macbeth, Lady Macbeth goads her husband into committing regicide, after which she becomes queen of Scotland. Some regard her as becoming more powerful than Macbeth when she does this, because she is able to manipulate him into doing what she wants. After Macbeth becomes a murderous tyrant, she is driven to madness by guilt over their crimes and kills herself offstage.
Lady Macbeth observes King Duncan (Lady Macbeth by George Cattermole, 19th century)
A print of Lady Macbeth from Mrs. Anna Jameson's 1832 analysis of Shakespeare's heroines, Characteristics of Women
Gabriel von Max's depiction of Lady Macbeth.