Helen Mirren

Actress

1 title

Date of Birth: 1945-07-26 (age 81)
Nationality: United Kingdom
Place of birth: Hammersmith, London, England, UK

Mini Bio

Dame Helen Mirren (/ˈmɪrən/; born Ilyena Lydia Vasilievna Mironov; July 26, 1945) is an English actor. The recipient of numerous accolades, she is the only person to achieve the Triple Crown of Acting in both the United States and the United Kingdom. She received an Academy Award and a British Academy Film Award for her portrayal of Queen Elizabeth II in The Queen, a Tony Award and a Laurence Olivier Award for the same role in The Audience, three British Academy Television Awards for her performance as DCI Jane Tennison in Prime Suspect, and four Primetime Emmy Awards, including two for Prime Suspect. Excelling on stage with the National Youth Theatre, Mirren's performance as Cleopatra in Antony and Cleopatra in 1965 saw her invited to join the Royal Shakespeare Company before she made her West End stage debut in 1975. Since then, Mirren has also had success in television and film. Aside from her Academy Award-winning performance, Mirren's other Oscar-nominated performances were for The Madness of King George (1994), Gosford Park (2001), and The Last Station (2009). For her role on Prime Suspect, which ran from 1991 to 2006, she won three consecutive British Academy Television Awards for Best Actress (1992, 1993 and 1994), a joint-record of consecutive wins shared with Julie Walters, and two Primetime Emmy Awards. Playing Queen Elizabeth I in the television series Elizabeth I (2005), and Queen Elizabeth II in the film The Queen (2006), she is the only actor to have portrayed both the regnant Elizabeths on screen. After her breakthrough film role in The Long Good Friday (1980), other notable film roles included Cal (1984), for which she won the Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Actress, 2010 (1984), The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover (1989), Teaching Mrs. Tingle (1999), Calendar Girls (2003), Hitchcock (2012), The Hundred-Foot Journey (2014), Woman in Gold (2015), Trumbo (2015), and The Leisure Seeker (2017). She also appeared in the action films Red (2010) and Red 2 (2013) playing an ex-MI6 assassin, and in the Fast & Furious films The Fate of the Furious (2017), Hobbs & Shaw (2019), and F9 (2021). In the Queen's 2003 Birthday Honours, Mirren was appointed a Dame (DBE) for services to drama, with investiture taking place at Buckingham Palace. In 2013 she was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and in 2014 she received the BAFTA Fellowship for lifetime achievement from the British Academy of Film and Television Arts. In 2021, she was announced as the recipient of the Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award.

Backstage

Helen Mirren at an event for RED 2 (2013)
Dame Helen Mirren was born in Queen Charlotte's Hospital in West London. Her mother, Kathleen Alexandrina Eva Matilda (Rogers), was from a working-class English family, and her father, Vasiliy Petrovich Mironov, was a Russian-born civil servant, from Kuryanovo, whose own father was a diplomat. Mirren attended St. Bernards High School for girls, where she would act in school productions. After high school, she began her acting career in theatre working in many productions including in the West End and Broadway.
Her great-great-great-great-grandfather was field-marshal Kamensky, one
She was initially hesitant to sign on to RED (2010) due to film's graphic violence, but changed her mind upon learning of Bruce Willis' involvement.
Has a tattoo of a star on her left hand, acquired at a Native American reservation in Minnesota.
She was awarded the Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the 2003 Queen's Birthday Honours List for her services to drama.
Lived with Liam Neeson for 4 years after meeting on the set of Excalibur (1981). Subsequently lived for further 4 years with British photographer and fashion designer James Wedge. Mirren first met Wedge when she posed for his cover photo for the July 11, 1971 edition of the "Observer" magazine titled, "Shakespearean Star Helen Mirren Shows How to Dress with Drama". Some of his erotica portraits of her appeared in her 2008 autobiography - "In the Frame: My Life in Words and Pictures".
Became the third person, after Sigourney Weaver and
She is the only actress to play both Queen Elizabeth I (in
Despite her Russian birth name and ancestry, she does not speak Russian, but is fluent in French.
She holds the record for second-largest "Best Actress" award sweep (40 wins) for her performance as Queen Elizabeth II in The Queen (2006), following Cate Blanchett (41 wins) for her performance as Jasmine French in Blue Jasmine (2013).
Met husband-to-be Taylor Hackford when he directed her in White Nights (1985). When the couple married in the Scottish Highlands, Hackford was dressed in a traditional Scottish tartan kilt.
She was considered for the role of Miranda Priestly in The Devil Wears Prada (2006) that went to Meryl Streep.
Used to work in Southend-on-Sea, Essex at an amusement park "The Kursaal" as a "blagger" to attract customers on to rides.

TV Series

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