Miriam Margolyes, ‘Harry Potter’ star, says doesn’t have ‘long to live’

Miriam Margolyes, who played Professor Pomona Sprout in the “Harry Potter films,” said in a recent interview she doesn’t have much longer to live.

“When you know that you haven’t got long to live — and I’m probably going to die within the next five or six years, if not before, I’m loath to leave behind performing,” she told Edinburgh Live. “It’s such a joy. I yearn to play roles that don’t confine me to wheelchairs, but I’m just not strong enough.”

According to the report, Margolyes had an aortic valve replacement surgery in 2023 that saved her “from having open heart surgery.”

However, the 84-year-old still suffers with spinal stenosis, arthritis and rheumatism.

“I’ve got a cow’s heart now,” Margolyes told the “Jessie and Lennie Ware’s Table Manners” podcast. “Well, not the whole heart. I’ve had an aortic valve replaced by a cow’s aortic valve. I don’t know how common it is. I’d never heard of that operation. But it saves you from having open heart surgery, which would be infinitely more invasive.”

Mark Heim is a reporter for The Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter@Mark_Heim. He can be heard on “The Opening Kickoff” on WNSP-FM 105.5 FM in Mobile or on the free Sound of Mobile App from 6 to 9 a.m. daily.