Who died from Peaky Blinders in real life?
Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man landed on Netflix on 20 March 2026, thirteen years and 36 episodes after Cillian Murphy first rode into Small Heath. A reunion that size has gaps in the line-up, and viewers going back through the cast list have been working out which of those gaps are permanent.
Six actors from the series have died since it began in 2013.
The six
- Helen McCrory — Polly Gray. Died 16 April 2021, aged 52, of breast cancer, before filming started on series 6.
- Benjamin Zephaniah — Jeremiah "Jimmy" Jesus, in all six series. Died 7 December 2023, aged 65, eight weeks after being diagnosed with a brain tumour.
- Tim Woodward — Lord Suckerby, the MP Tommy blackmails in the series 5 opener. Died November 2023, aged 70, of cancer.
- Karl Shiels — Ryan, the IRA man who arrives and dies inside a single series 1 episode, shot by Grace. Died July 2019, aged 47, following a chronic illness.
- Toby Kirkup — a police officer in a small role. Died August 2020, aged 48, of a cardiac arrest on the day he was discharged from hospital with gastritis.
- Kenneth Colley — Vicente Changretta, head of Birmingham's Italian family. Died June 2025, aged 87, after contracting COVID-19 and developing pneumonia.
Polly's death was written into the series
McCrory died between series 5 and 6. Rather than quietly retiring the character, Steven Knight put her death in the plot: Polly is murdered as fallout from the failed attempt on Oswald Mosley, which sets Michael against Tommy for the rest of the run. Murphy has repeatedly praised the choice.
Murphy called her "one of the greatest human beings and one of the greatest actors" he had encountered, speaking to LADbible in 2026.
Zephaniah's Jeremiah, by contrast, survives everything the series throws at him, right through to the finale gunfight against Captain Swing.
Two absences that aren't deaths
Paul Anderson (Arthur) and Harry Kirton (Finn) are both alive and both missing from The Immortal Man. Arthur's absence is written in — he died two years before the film begins, strangled by Tommy — while Finn's is never mentioned. Kirton said during series 6 press that he had no interest in still playing the part into his late twenties.
For the record: Zephaniah collected 20 honorary doctorates and publicly refused an OBE, objecting to the word "empire" in a 2003 Guardian piece. Colley's 60-year CV runs from Jesus in Monty Python's Life of Brian to Admiral Piett in The Empire Strikes Back, which is a fair distance to travel before being murdered by Arthur Shelby.