The James Bond actor calls his partially paralyzed sister who passed away from Covid-19 an 'inspiration' and urges the government to increase provision for the disabled.

• May 12, 2020

AceShowbiz - James Bond star Rory Kinnear has called for governments and citizens to improve provision for the disabled after losing his partially paralysed sister to Covid-19.

The British actor, who plays 007's secret service ally Bill Tanner in the espionage franchise, revealed his sibling Karina, 48, who suffered brain damage at birth and has been paralysed from the waist down since the age of 19, had passed away in a heartfelt essay in The Guardian.

After announcing she had recently tested positive for coronavirus, the star told how his family had said goodbye to her over the weekend.

"A nurse, Patricia, held up Karina's iPad while my mum, via FaceTime on her mobile, narrated a favourite story of hers for the last time and thanked her for the happiness she had brought us all," he wrote. "Mum then held up her home phone to her mobile, where my other sister, Kirsty, at hers, was able to say how much she loved her and would miss her."

"And then Kirsty held up her husband's phone to hers where I, on loudspeaker, from my house, played Karina one of her favourite songs and told her how proud I was to have been her brother and what gratitude I felt for what she had taught me about life."

Karina had lived for many years in a home for the severely disabled that his mother, the actress Carmel Cryan, established and named after his father, "Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory" star Roy Kinnear.

In his essay, Rory blamed his sibling's passing on Covid-19 rather than the "underlying conditions" she had lived with, and expressed his hope that the pandemic leads to a change in attitudes towards provision for people like Karina who need constant care.

"Maybe we might transfer our common sense of purpose, our shared determination to 'defeat' an 'enemy' that 'preys' on the needy, once 'the fight against coronavirus' has been 'won,' to invest - financially and emotionally and with a similar level of heroism and selflessness - in the lives of those who will continue to need it most. It is a sustaining hope for now, at least," he wrote, before calling his sister an "inspiration."