Helen Ryan

Known for ActingBorn 1938-06-16 (age 87)Liverpool, England, UK

Helen Ryan (born June 16, 1938, in Liverpool, Lancashire) is a British actress, who is notable for playing several royal roles. The Liverpool native played Princess and then Queen Alexandra in the British television series Edward the Seventh, for which she received a BAFTA nomination in 1975. She also played Princess Alexandra in the 1980 movie The Elephant Man and the Sherlock Holmes story "The Mazarin Stone". She played another royal, Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands, in the 2002 television drama Bertie and Elizabeth. Her other credits include Madame Balzac in the TV series Prometheus: The Life of Balzac (1975), Mrs. McFarlane in the Sherlock Holmes story "The Norwood Builder", and films such as Clash of Loyalties (1983), Misunderstood (1984) and The Hawk (1993). More recently, Ryan has appeared as Peggy Roath, a personal aide to Queen Elizabeth II, in the fifth season of The Crown in 2022. In 2023, she appeared in the BBC soap opera Doctors as Thelma Scott. She was formerly married to the theatre director Guy Slater, with whom she had a daughter, Rebecca, and a son, Daniel.Read more

Movies & web series

The Christmas Tree

The Crown

Saddam Goes to Hollywood

Sherlock Holmes

The Elephant Man

The Duchess of Duke Street

The Lift

Midsomer Murders

Clash of Loyalties

Heartbeat

Crystalstone

Misunderstood

Bertie and Elizabeth

Edward the Seventh

Persuasion

The Hawk

Van der Valk

My Brother Jonathan

Old Guy

The Brides in the Bath

Confetti

Harry

The Raisin

Fallen Angel

Bella Block

Jenny Can't Work Any Faster