Actings First Lady: Celebrity Profiles Helen Mirren

Helen Mirren is a admired and award winning actress famous internationally for a diverse and powerful body of work. Born in London in 1945, Helen Mirren had a career in stage acting before debuting at the tender age of 20 as Cleopatra in the 1965 production of Antony and Cleopatra. One of her most famous early roles in Caligula in 1980 opposite actors Malcolm MacDowell and Peter O’Toole, was notable for its strong violence and explicit sex scenes, and established Mirren as a daring adventurous actor.

From Caligula she went on to appear in critically acclaimed films Mosquito Coast directed by Peter Weir and the challenging black comedy crime drama The Thief, The Cook, His Wife and Her Lover directed by Peter Greenaway. In 1996 she earned her first Academy Award nomination for The Madness of King George, a film charting the monarchs slow descent into insanity. Her next film British crime mystery Gosford Park, led to an Academy Award nomination, as well as a Golden Globe award. This string of award-winning productions gained the notice of Queen Elizabeth and, in 2003, Mirren was invested as a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire. In 2007 Helen Mirren ascended to the upper echelons of fame in Hollywood with her portrayal of Queen Elizabeth II in The Queen directed by Stephen Frears. Her performance in The Queen landed the actress with both an Oscar and a Golden globe for Best Actress, which she triumphantly followed with a Golden Globe and Emmy award for her role as Queen Elizabeth I in the HBO networks production Elizabeth I. The actress shows no sign of slowing down with a recent production Hitchcock about the life of the acclaimed director earning praise from both critics and viewers.