Dame Helen Mirren DBE (born
Helen Lydia Mironoff; born 26 July 1945) is an English actor. The recipient of
numerous accolades, she is the only performer to have achieved 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, four
Primetime Emmy Awards and a
Children's and Family Emmy Award.
Mirren's stage performance as
Cleopatra in
Antony and Cleopatra at the
National Youth Theatre in 1965 provided her an opportunity to join the
Royal Shakespeare Company, before making her
West End stage debut in 1975. She subsequently went on to achieve success in film and television, appearing in films such as
The Madness of King George (1994),
Gosford Park (2001), and
The Last Station (2009), receiving Academy Award nominations for each of those performances. 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 record of consecutive wins shared with Dame
Julie Walters—and two
Primetime Emmy Awards. She played
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 of the regnant Elizabeths on screen.
After her breakthrough role in
The Long Good Friday (1980), Mirren appeared in a variety of other films including
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),
The Tempest (2010),
The Debt (2010),
Hitchcock (2012),
The Hundred-Foot Journey (2014),
Woman in Gold (2015),
Eye in the Sky (2015),
Trumbo (2015), and
The Leisure Seeker (2017). She has also appeared in several action films such as
Red (2010) and its sequel
Red 2 (2013), as well as in the
Fast & Furious film franchise
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. She's received numerous honours including a star on the
Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2013, the
BAFTA Fellowship for lifetime achievement in 2014, and
Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award in 2022.
