English theater, film and television actress Haydn Gwynne has died of cancer at the age of only 66. She was known from series such as “Rome,” “Drop the Dead Donkey” and “The Windsors.”
Just a few weeks after her cancer diagnosis, English actress Haydn Gwynne passed away surrounded by her loved ones, as quoted by The Guardian from a statement released by her agency. She was 66 years old.
Born in West Sussex, Gwynne first studied sociology and taught English at an Italian university before turning to acting back in Britain. In series, she was known as Calpurnia from the HBO series Rome or Camilla from the Royal satire The Windsors. In addition, she starred in the news comedy Drop the Dead Monkey, the medical series Peak Practice, as well as several crime formats. Sherlock fans will recognize her, for example, as the art curator from the first season finale.
However, Gwynne was most at home on the theater stage – often in London’s West End, where she could be seen in productions such as “Billy Elliot – The Musical” and “City of Angels. She has also appeared in numerous plays by the Royal Shakespeare Company and was on stage with Kevin Spacey for a production of “Richard III” or with Rory Kinnear in the English version of Brecht’s “Threepenny Opera” produced by the National Theatre in London.
Most recently, she starred in the fifth season of The Crown on Netflix and in the musical version of “The Great British Bake-off.”