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by Nick Levine | BBC America Anglophenia | March 13, 2023
Damian Lewis is back in A Spy Among Friends, a real-life espionage series that has just premiered on MGM+. It’s his first role since leaving Billions in 2021, so we’re making him our British Icon of the Week. Here are 10 things we admire and appreciate about the affable English actor.
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by Gingersnap | damian-lewis.com | December 14, 2022
Damian was honored with Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (CBE) for services to drama and charity on Wednesday, December 14, 2022 at Windsor Castle, which was bestowed upon him by King Charles III. His daughter Manon and son Gulliver attended their father’s ceremony, as well as Helen’s parents Iain and Anne. And did you notice Damian wore his purple socks? 🙂
The recognition was previously announced during the Queen’s Birthday Honours in anticipation of her Platinum Jubilee in June 2022 and published in the official public record of The Gazette. Damian has quietly carried out philanthropic work for several charities over many years, some of it with the late Helen McCrory. Beginning in 2020, he and Helen helped raise over £1.2 million for the FeedNHS campaign, a coalition charity helping feed NHS staff and frontline workers during the CoVid-19 pandemic, which allowed over 40,000 meals a day to be served to 100 hospitals.
The Royal recognition comes after Damian was awarded an OBE by The Duke of Cambridge Prince William at Buckingham Palace in 2014 for contributions to drama. In addition to CureEB, he is an Ambassador and Patron for a number of organizations, including youth charities Sir HvH Arts Foundation for The McCrory Award and The Prince’s Trust.
View more photos in our Gallery here.
An Investiture is the very special day when someone who has been awarded an honour receives their award in person from a Member of the Royal Family. The investee visits a Royal residence with members of their family to receive their insignia.
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by Danny Halpin | Evening Standard | December 13, 2022
Damian Lewis, William Roache and AstraZeneca’s chief executive Sir Pascal Soriot are among a number of people due to be recognised with honours at an investiture ceremony on Wednesday, December 14, 2022.
Lewis, star of the award-winning shows Homeland and Band Of Brothers and who started a fundraiser to feed NHS staff healthy meals, will be made a CBE for services to drama and charity; while Roache, who holds the world record for the longest-serving TV actor in a continuous role for playing Ken Barlow in Coronation Street, will be made an OBE.
French-born Sir Pascal will be knighted for services to UK life sciences and the response to Covid-19 at the ceremony at Windsor Castle, after his company developed a vaccine and sent billions of doses around the world.
Paralympic athletes Karen Tonge and Sophie Wells and TV presenter Matt Baker are also to receive honours. Tonge, chair of Para Table Tennis, will be made an OBE for services to Paralympic table tennis after years of promoting the sport at a grassroots level. Para-equestrian Wells, who won gold at the London Paralympic Games in 2012, will also be made an OBE for services to equestrianism.
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by James Murray | Daily Express | August 11, 2022
We invite you to vote for the Daily Express Celebrity Hero of 2022, one of the Amplifon Awards for Brave Britons. From a shortlist of ten, you can select the famous person from the worlds of show businesses, sport and politics who you believe has demonstrated “Best of British” qualities in the last 12 months to either triumph over adversity or help others in a truly significant way. The top four and winner will be announced at a ceremony hosted by Radio 2 Breakfast Show presenter Rachel Burden and Falklands War hero Simon Weston on Tuesday, October 11, 2022. Vote here now.
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by Lily Waddell | Evening Standard | June 1, 2022
Damian Lewis has been made a CBE (Commander of the Order of the British Empire) after an acting career that has spanned Second World War epics, terrorism thrillers and period dramas. The 51-year-old television, film and stage star has been honoured in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List for his services to both drama and charity.
I’m a Commander now. Scratching my head. At ease.
— Damian Lewis (@lewis_damian) June 1, 2022
Among his best known roles are Army Major Richard Winters in the HBO miniseries Band Of Brothers, Nicholas Brody in the Showtime series Homeland and Henry VIII in Wolf Hall. Lewis told the PA news agency:
“What a great honour to be awarded the CBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List for services to drama and for the charity work that I have carried out over the years and during the pandemic with my late wife, Helen McCrory. Thank you very much. She and I are both thrilled.”
He and his late wife Helen McCrory are co-founders of FeedNHS, an initiative working with restaurant Leon on the campaign of the same name in a bid to provide NHS workers with meals during the coronavirus crisis. He shares the CBE honour with Helen:
— Damian Lewis (@lewis_damian) June 1, 2022
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by Michael Holden | Reuters | May 31, 2022
LONDON, May 31 (Reuters) – Actor Damian Lewis, author Ian Rankin and former Northern Ireland first minister Arlene Foster were among more than 1,100 people recognised by Britain’s Queen Elizabeth in her annual birthday honours. The list, which is issued to mark the 96-year-old monarch’s official birthday, honours recipients for their “outstanding” contributions; most awards recognise public service or community work.
This year’s honours come ahead of four days of national celebration, beginning on Thursday, to mark Elizabeth’s 70 years on the throne. “This historic Platinum Jubilee is not only a celebration of the monarch but of the qualities she possesses,” Prime Minister Boris Johnson said. “The honours she confers this week reflect many of those qualities that have been invaluable from all different walks of life and to communities across the UK.”
Lewis, who won a Golden Globe for his role in TV drama “Homeland”, was made a CBE (Commander of the Order of the British Empire) for services both to drama and to charity for initiating a campaign with his late wife Helen McCrory to raise 1 million pounds to provide food for health service workers during the COVID-19 pandemic.
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by Gingersnap | damian-lewis.com | May 28, 2022
Damian is set to receive a gong in the Queen’s Birthday Honours this week for his NHS charity work, and will be honored with Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (CBE). He has quietly carried out philanthropic work for several charities over many years, some of it with Helen. Last year he and Helen helped raise £1.5 million to feed NSH staff during the CoVid-19 pandemic, which allowed 40,000 meals a day to be served to 100 hospitals.
The Sun quoted a friend stating, “This is richly deserved for all the work Damian has done for so many people with so much done with little or no public fanfare.”
The Royal recognition comes after Damian was awarded an OBE by The Duke of Cambridge Prince William at Buckingham Palace in 2014 for contributions to drama. He is an ambassador for a number of organizations, including youth charities Sir HvH Arts Foundation and The Prince’s Trust.
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire award (MBE, OBE, CBE) is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organizations, and public service outside the Civil Service. The Queen’s Birthday Honours 2022 will be printed in a special Gazette supplement in June 2022.
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by PRWeek UK Staff | PR Week | October 28, 2020
Nominated: Best Ethical or Good Cause Initiative During the Coronavirus Crisis
Nominated and Won: Best Proactive Communications During the Coronavirus Crisis
Judge’s comment:
Brilliant campaign, well executed with passion.
And the winner is, FeedNHS! This campaign aimed to raise £1m to get hot, healthy meals to frontline NHS staff during the coronavirus crisis, as many struggled to get them amid lockdown closures. It was set up by Leon Restaurants co-founder and chief executive John Vincent, actors Damian Lewis and Helen McCrory, and actor and comedian Matt Lucas.
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By Louis Wise | Telegraph | October 16, 2020
As Billions returns, the actor explains why he isn’t interested in playing 007 – or bothered about turning the big 5-0.
Damian Lewis’s next birthday is the big 5-0: at the risk of seeming indelicate, does it mean people will stop asking if he’s the next James Bond? The actor, star of Homeland, Wolf Hall and Billions, hoots gruffly down the phone. “Well, no! You’re proof of the rule!”
Oh dear. Sorry. I had read this summer he really was dismissing all chances of becoming 007, so it only seemed fair to check. Talking from his home in north London, which he shares with his wife Helen McCrory and their two children, he is happy(ish) to clarify again.
“I don’t want to play Bond. I’m ambitious for different things,” he sighs. “I don’t know who they’ll choose – he’ll be fantastic, or she will be fantastic. But I don’t want to play Bond – even if I was asked!”
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by Lucy Dunn | The Telegraph | May 16, 2020
Two months ago the world changed and the people we took notice of changed, too. A new gravity gripped the nation. Almost overnight headlines pronounced ‘the death of celebrity’. Pampered individuals living in bubbles with carefully crafted Instagram fantasies quickly felt off-key.
We suddenly wanted to witness great acts of altruism. We wanted to read about people rolling up their sleeves and pitching in. Ordinary people suddenly became the new stars – who knew that a 100-year-old veteran called Captain (now Colonel) Tom would become such a national treasure?
Conversely, some people in the public eye came in for criticism for reading the mood wrongly. Like singer Sam Smith, who posted a ‘quarantine meltdown’ picture crying on the steps of their £12 million mansion. (Smith later insisted the video had been a joke that backfired.) Or Victoria Beckham, whose fashion label sought £150,000 in taxpayer funds to place 30 staff on furlough. (Following a backlash about the Beckhams’ personal wealth, the brand later reversed its decision.) And like Aston Villa captain Jack Grealish, who was caught breaking lockdown rules 24 hours after imploring his 297,000 Twitter followers to ‘Stay home. Protect the NHS. Save Lives’.
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by Gingersnap | damian-lewis.com | May 16, 2020
FeedNHS is expanding its fundraising efforts from £1M to £2M. So far, £1,239,800 (*updated June 12) has been raised of the £2,000,000 target (61%). Just launched on March 27, it took the coalition only 10 days to raise the first £1M. And now they want to do it again in order to expand nationwide.
For more information, visit their FeedNHS website here and to donate, please visit the JustGiving campaign here. Here is a recent story Damian and Helen shared online:
“Hi, we’ve been raising as much money as we can to help feed NHS workers one healthy meal each day. We started in the hardest hit London hospitals and with the help of our coalition partners we’ve now taken it nationwide.
We had a target to raise 1 million pounds for our scheme and thanks to the public’s overwhelming generosity we’ve raised it. Thank you! But as more hospitals have heard about what we’re doing it’s become clear that we mustn’t stop. So our aim now is to raise 2 million (in total ) which will enable us to feed even more hospital workers across the nation. So if you can, and we know not everyone can, please donate. With you, we know we can make up the difference.
We’re Damian and Helen and like all the best things in life, this started with a chat to a friend.”
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by Gingersnap | damian-lewis.com | May 8, 2020
In a special hour long edition of The One Show, Alex Jones and Huw Edwards celebrate the 75th anniversary of VE Day. Guests include Sir Rod Stewart and Penny Lancaster, Damian Lewis and Helen McCrory, Fiona Bruce and Dan Snow. Alfie Boe gives a heartwarming performance of the Bill Wither’s classic Lean on Me and our One Big Thank You cameras spring a surprise on Nanny Sue, a 69 year old nurse who really has gone above and beyond to help all her patients and her local community.
You can watch Damian and Helen’s segment below:
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