Helen Mirren
English actor (born 1945)
Who was Helen Mirren?
Dame Helen Mirren (; born Ilyena Lydia Mironoff; 26 July 1945) is an English actor. Mirren was made a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) by Queen Elizabeth II in 2003. Mirren started her career as a performer with the National Youth Theatre, where she played Cleopatra in Antony and Cleopatra (1965). She later joined the Royal Shakespeare Company and made her West End stage debut in 1975.
Historical significance
Regarded amongst Britain's greatest actors, Mirren is the recipient of many accolades including an Academy Award, three Golden Globe Awards, four BAFTA Awards, five Emmy Awards, a Tony Award, two Cannes Film Festival Awards, a Volpi Cup and a Laurence Olivier Award. She is the only person to have achieved both the US and UK Triple Crowns of Acting, and has also received the BAFTA Fellowship, Honorary Golden Bear, Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award, and the Cecil B. DeMille Award. She went on to receive the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actress for playing Elizabeth II in the Peter Morgan play The Audience (2013). She reprised the role on Broadway and won the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play.
