Helen Ryan
Actor
Biography
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.
Filmography
Old Guy
as Tory Dolinski 2024
Confetti
as Naturist Violinist 2006
Misunderstood
as Lucy 1983
The Hawk
as Mrs Crowther 1993
Bertie and Elizabeth
as Queen Wilhelmina 2002
The Brides in the Bath
as Mrs. Farraday 2003
Crystalstone
as Aunt 1987
The Raisin
as Woman at Door 2017
Clash of Loyalties
as Gertrude Bell 1983
Saddam Goes to Hollywood
2016
Jenny Can't Work Any Faster
as Maureen 1975
The Lift
as Margot 1965