'Transformers' star Sophia Myles' father dies of coronavirus, actor shares heartbreaking picture from hospital
Sophia Myles, best known for her role as Darcy in 'Transformers: Age of Extinction', was devastated after her father died after contracting COVID-19. She tweeted to her followers on March 21 to share the sad news.
This was just hours after she had posted a final heartbreaking snap of herself at the hospital visiting her father, Peter, who was 67 years old. He was also suffering from Parkinson's Disease. The actress tweeted: "RIP Peter Myles. My dear dad died only a few hours ago. It was the coronavirus that finally took him."
The picture shows her stroking her dad's head with purple latex gloves on as he breathes with the help of a ventilator in his hospital bed. She is also shown wearing other protective gear including a cloth face mask and apron. She wrote about the moment in the photo, tweeting: "Yesterday I went on a journey to see my father. This is the harsh reality of the coronavirus." The shot was taken by the CBS news crew when she visited her dad in hospital on March 20.
Myles had tweeted on Saturday morning that the footage from the visit would be broadcasted on March 23 to demonstrate the brutal reality of coronavirus. She also posted a "thank you" video after her feed was flooded by condolence tweets. She said, "Thank you all so so much for all your lovely lovely tweets to me. I am sorry I am not able to reply to every tweet in person... but I'm touched."
She had been documenting her father's decline on her Twitter account over the last two weeks. The first video she posted about this had her talking to her followers, telling them that her dad had "the coronavirus... on top of various other health problems that he's had for some time".
She updated her feed with a complementary warning PSA-like clip, in which the actress said: "Just a warning to everyone, my father now is in a locked ward with a bunch of people who have the virus and they're all dying. Most of them are elderly... Please, please take this seriously guys." His age and profile fit the one categorized as most-at-risk of dying because of COVID-19.
Myles had also shared a sweet family photo of herself, her brother and Peter, just an hour before his death, captioning it: "a nice memory to share." Back in August 2018, Sophia had revealed that Peter had been diagnosed with Parkinson's, which was among the "various health problems" she had told her followers about.
On the evening of March 21, PM Boris Johnson warned that "the numbers are very stark and they are accelerating" as the UK COVID-19 death toll soared to 233. Hospitals have been scrambling after being flooded with severely ill patients, many of them struggling to breathe. The NHS has warned that many team members will fall ill – or even die – from coronavirus because of a chronic shortage of protective equipment.
Operating theatres are being frantically converted into intensive care wards and regular patients are being discharged to make way for a massive surge in coronavirus cases. Myles' father is one among this avalanche of cases that has caught media attention because of her advocacy around spreading awareness about COVID-19. The actress, who has starred in 'Doctor Who', and the films 'Underworld' and 'Transformers: Age of Extinction', is also a mother-of-one to son Luke, who is five years old.