Helen Mirren

Ilyena Lydia Vasilievna Mironoff, better known as Dame Helen Mirren, is an English actor. She has won an Academy Award for Best Actress, four SAG Awards, four BAFTAs, three Golden Globes, four Emmy Awards, and two Cannes Film Festival Best Actress Awards.
==Early Life==
Mirren was born in Queen Charlotte's Hospital, Chiswick, West London. Her father, Vasiliy Petrovich Mironov (1913–1980), was of Russian origin, originally from Smolensk Oblast and her mother, Kitty (1909–1996), was English. Mirren's paternal grandfather, Colonel Pyotr Vasilievich Mironov, was in the Tsarist Army and fought in the 1904 Russo-Japanese War. He later became a diplomat, and was negotiating an arms deal in Britain, when he and his family were stranded during the Russian Revolution. The former diplomat became a London cab driver to support his family.
His son, Helen Mirren's father, changed the family name to the Scottish-sounding Mirren in the 1950s and became known as Basil Mirren. He played the viola with the London Philharmonic before World War II, and later drove a cab and was a driving-test examiner, before becoming a civil servant with the Ministry of Transport. Mirren's mother was from West Ham, East London, and was the 13th of 14 children born to a butcher whose father had been the butcher to Queen Victoria. Mirren considers her upbringing to have been "very anti-monarchist".
The first house Mirren remembers living in was in Westcliff-on-Sea, Essex, when she was two or three years old, after the birth of her younger brother, who was named Peter Basil after his grandfather and great-great-grandfather. Mirren was the second of three children, born two years after her older sister Katherine ("Kate"; born 1942). She later lived in Leigh-on-Sea.
Mirren attended St Bernard's High School for Girls in Southend-on-Sea, where she acted in school productions, and subsequently a teaching college, the New College of Speech and Drama in London, "housed within Anna Pavlova's old home, Ivy House" on the North End Road – which leads from Golders Green to Hampstead, N. London. At age eighteen, she auditioned for the National Youth Theatre and was accepted. By the time she was 20, she was Cleopatra in the NYT production of Antony and Cleopatra at the Old Vic, which led to her signing with the agent Al Parker.
==Career==
Mirren has also appeared in a large number of films throughout her career. Some of her earlier film roles include Age of Consent, O Lucky Man!, Caligula, Excalibur, 2010, The Long Good Friday, White Nights, When the Whales Came and The Mosquito Coast. She appeared in Some Mother's Son, Painted Lady, The Prince of Egypt and The Madness of King George. One of her other film roles was in Peter Greenaway's The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover, as the eponymous thief's wife, opposite Michael Gambon. Her favourite film is Teaching Mrs. Tingle, in which she plays sadistic History teacher, Mrs Eve Tingle.
Mirren continued her successful film career when she starred in Gosford Park with Maggie Smith and Calendar Girls where she starred with Julie Walters. Other more recent appearances include The Clearing, Pride, Raising Helen, and Shadowboxer. Mirren also provided the voice for the supercomputer "Deep Thought" in the film adaptation of Douglas Adams' The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. During her career, she has portrayed three British queens in different films and television series: Elizabeth I in the television series Elizabeth I (2005), Elizabeth II in The Queen (2006), and Queen Charlotte, the wife of George III, in The Madness of King George(1994). She is the only actress ever to have portrayed both Queens Elizabeth on the screen. 
Mirren's title role of The Queen earned her numerous acting awards including a BAFTA, a Golden Globe, and an Academy Award, among many others. During her acceptance speech at the Academy Award ceremony, she praised and thanked Elizabeth II and stated that she had maintained her dignity and weathered many storms during her reign as Queen. Mirren later appeared in supporting roles in the films National Treasure 2: Book of Secrets, Inkheart, State of Play, and The Last Station, for which she was nominated for an Oscar.
In preparation for her role as a retired Israeli Mossad agent in the film The Debt, Mirren reportedly immersed herself in studies of Hebrew language, Jewish history, and Holocaust writing, including the life of Simon Wiesenthal, while in Israel in 2009 for the filming of some of the movie's scenes. The film is a remake of a 2007 Israeli film of the same name (Hebrew: Ha-khov).
==Trivia==
*Her grandfather Piotr Vasilievich Mironoff was a Tsarist (White Russian) aristocrat who was in London negotiating an arms deal during World War I when the 1917 Russian Revolution stranded him there. His wife and son (Helen's father) joined him in London.
*Before marrying director Taylor Hackford in 1997, she had lived with him in Los Angeles since 1986.
*Used to work in Southend on Sea; Essex; UK at an amusement park "The Kursaal" as a "blagger" to attract customers on to rides.
*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.
*John Boorman said he cast her opposite Nicol Williamson in Excalibur (1981), against both of their protests, because he felt their dislike of each other made them perfect as rivals Morgana and Merlin.
*She allegedly refused the C.B.E. (Commander of Order of the British Empire) in 1996.
*Despite her Russian birth name and ancestry, she does not speak Russian, but is fluent in French.
*Her great-great-great-great-grandfather was field-marshal Kamensky, one of the Russian heroes of the Napoleonic wars.
*She is the only actress to play both Queen Elizabeth I (in "Elizabeth I" (2005)) and Queen Elizabeth II (The Queen (2006)).
*At the premiere of The Queen (2006) at the Venice Film Festival, her performance received a 5 minute standing ovation.
*Played a Queen a total of six times: The Queen (2006), "Elizabeth I" (2005), The Prince of Egypt (1998), The Snow Queen (1995), The Madness of King George (1994), and Caligula (1979).
*Became the third person, after Sigourney Weaver and Joan Plowright, to win two Golden Globes for acting in the same year. The characters she played were both Queens of England, Queen Elizabeth I and Queen Elizabeth II.
*She dedicated her BAFTA win for The Queen (2006) (for Best Actress in a Leading Role) to Ian Richardson for playing a huge part in her success story. She said (in her acceptance speech) that Richardson was very supportive towards her when she started out acting, and without him she may not have been so successful. She dedicated this award two days after Richardson died.
*Has a tattoo of a star on her left hand, acquired at a Native American reservation in Minnesota.
*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.
*According to an article in People Weekly (November 3, 1980) her tattoo is an American Indian symbol meaning "equal but opposite".
*Placed her hand and footprint in cement in front of Graumann Chinese theatre on March 28, 2011.
*Dated Liam Neeson in 1980 whom she met on the set of Excalibur (1981).
==Filmography==
===Film===
Year	Title 	Role 	Notes
1966	Press for Time 	Penelope Squires 	Uncredited
1967	Herostratus 	Advert woman 	
1968	 	Hermia 	
1969	Age of Consent 	Cora Ryan 	
1970	Red Hot Shot 	 	
1972	Savage Messiah 	Gosh Boyle 	
1972	Miss Julie 	Miss Julie 	
1973	O Lucky Man! 	Patricia 	
1976	Hamlet 	Ophelia/Gertrude 	
1979	Caligula 	Caesonia 	
1980	Hussy 	Beaty 	
1980	 	Alice Rage 	
1980	 	Victoria 	
1981	Excalibur 	Morgana 	
1981	Time Bandits 	Veronica 	
1982	 	Emily 	
1984	Cal 	Marcella 	
1984	2010 	Tanya Kirbuk 	
1985	Heavenly Pursuits 	Ruth Chancellor 	
1985	Coming Through 	Frieda von Richthofen Weekley	
1985	White Nights 	Galina Ivanova 	
1986	 	Mother Fox 	
1988	Pascali's Island 	Lydia Neuman 	
1989	When the Whales Came 	Clemmie Jenkins 	
1989	 	Georgina Spica 	
1990	Bethune: The Making of a Hero 	Frances Penny Bethune 	
1990	 	Caroline 	
1991	Where Angels Fear to Tread 	Lilia Herriton 	
1993	 	Annie Marsh 	
1993	Royal Deceit 	Geruth 	
1994	 	Queen Charlotte 	
1994	Children of God 	Narrator (voice) 	
1995	 	Snow Queen (voice) 	
1996	Some Mother's Son 	Kathleen Quigley 	Also associate producer
1997	Critical Care 	Stella 	
1998	Sidoglio Smithee 	Herself 	
1998	 	The Queen (voice) 	
1999	Teaching Mrs. Tingle 	Mrs. Eve Tingle 	
2000	Greenfingers 	Georgina Woodhouse 	
2001	 	Doctor 	
2001	No Such Thing 	The Boss 	
2001	Happy Birthday 	Distinguished woman 	Also director
2001	Last Orders 	Amy 	
2001	Gosford Park 	Mrs. Wilson 	
2003	Calendar Girls 	Chris Harper 	
2004	 	Eileen Hayes 	
2004	Raising Helen 	Dominique 	
2005	 	Deep Thought (voice) 	
2005	Shadowboxer 	Rose 	
2006	 	Queen Elizabeth II 	
2007	National Treasure: Book of Secrets 	Emily Appleton 	
2008	Inkheart 	Elinor Loredan 	
2009	State of Play 	Cameron Lynne 	
2009	 	Sofya Tolstoy 	
2009	Professor Layton and the Eternal Diva 	Trixie 	English dub
2010	Love Ranch 	Grace Bontempo 	
2010	 	Prospera 	
2010	Brighton Rock 	Ida 	
2010	RED 	Victoria Winslow 	
2010	Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole	Nyra (voice) 	
2010	The Debt 	Rachel Singer 	
2011	Arthur 	Lillian Hobson 	
2012	The Door 	Emerenc 	
2012	Hitchcock 	Alma Reville 	
2013	Monsters University 	Dean Hardscrabble (voice) 	
2013	RED 2 	Victoria Winslow 	
2014	The Hundred-Foot Journey 	Madame Mallory 	
2015	Woman in Gold 	Maria Altmann 	
2015	Unity 	Narrator (voice) 	
2015	Eye in the Sky 	Colonel Katherine Powell 	
2015	Trumbo 	Hedda Hopper 	
2016	Collateral Beauty 	Brigitte 	
2017	Cries from Syria 	Narrator (voice) 	
2017	The Fate of the Furious 	Magdalene Shaw 	Uncredited
2017	The Leisure Seeker 	Ella Spencer 	
2018	Winchester 	Sarah Winchester 	
2018	The Nutcracker and the Four Realms 	Mother Ginger 	
2019	Berlin, I Love You 	Margaret 	
2019	Anna 	Olga 	
2019	Hobbs & Shaw 	Magdalene Shaw 	
2019	The Good Liar 	Betty McLeish 	Post-production
2020	Fast & Furious 9 	Magdalene Shaw 	Filming
2020	The One and Only Ivan 	(voice) 	Post-production
===Television===
Year 	Title 	Role 	Notes
1975 	Caesar and Claretta 	Claretta Petacci 	TV film
1977 	The Country Wife 	Margery Pinchwife 	BBC Play of the Month
1978 	As You Like It 	Rosalind 	BBC Television Shakespeare
1979 	ITV Playhouse 	Joanne 	Episode: "The Quiz Kid"
1979 	S.O.S. Titanic 	Mary Sloan 	TV film
1982 	Cymbeline 	Imogen 	BBC Television Shakespeare
1985 	The Twilight Zone 	Maddie Duncan 	Episode: "Dead Woman's Shoes"
1987 	Faerie Tale Theatre 	Princess Amelia 	Episode: "The Little Mermaid"
1989 	Red King, White Knight 	Anna 	TV film
1991–2006 	Prime Suspect 	Jane Tennison 	15 episodes
1996 	Losing Chase 	Chase Phillips 	TV film
1997 	Painted Lady 	Maggie Sheridan 	Miniseries
1998 	Tracey Takes On... 	Professor Horen 	Episode: "Culture"
1999 	 	Ayn Rand 	TV film
2002 	Door to Door 	Mrs. Porter 	TV film
2002 	Georgetown 	Annabelle Garrison 	TV film
2003 	 	Karen Stone 	TV film
2005 	Third Watch 	Annie Foster 	Episode: "Revelations"
2005 	Elizabeth I 	Queen Elizabeth I 	Miniseries
2010 	Saturday Night Live 	Herself 	Episode: "Bryan Cranston/Kanye West"
2011 	Saturday Night Live 	Herself (host) 	Episode: "Helen Mirren/Foo Fighters"
2012 	Glee 	Becky's Inner Voice	Uncredited voice role; 2 episodes
2013 	Phil Spector 	Linda Kenney Baden 	TV film
2015–present	Documentary Now! 	Herself (host) 	20 episodes
2017 	World War One Remembered: Passchendaele	Herself (host) 	Miniseries
2019 	Catherine the Great 	Catherine the Great	Miniseries
==Related Links==
Official website
IMDB
de:Helen Mirren
Category:Actresses
Category:British actresses
Category:Best Actress Academy Award winners