Helen Mirren

Hopefully I'm on the downhill side of my project.

I'll do my best to keep up a once a day post.

Helen has her own site. It is here. Go visit!

Find Helen Mirren stuff here.

Helen was born on July 26, 1945 in Chiswick, London, England, UK as Ilyena Lydia Vasilievna Mironoff (Wow, did not know that. -ed.). She is 5' 4" [1.63 m] tall.

There is not enough space for me to tell you about Helen Mirren. I'll just say this, using some of the slang we used to use… "At the age of 66, she's still a looker."

Factoids:

• Daughter of Vasily Mironoff and Kathleen Rogers.
• 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. (Wow. -ed.)
• Used to work in Southend on Sea; Essex; UK at an amusement park "The Kursaal" as a "blagger" to attract customers on to rides. (I would have been one. -ed.)
• 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.
• Nominated for Best Actress, Laurence Olivier Theatre Award for her performance of "Orpheus Descending" at the Donmar Warehouse. [2001]
• Nominated for Best Actress, Laurence Olivier Theatre Award for her performance in "Mourning Becomes Electra" at the Royal National Theatre: Lyttelton Stage. [2004]
• Nominated for Best Actress, Tony Award for "Dance of Death" by August Strindberg. [2002]
• 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.
• Member of the jury at the Venice Film Festival in 2004.
• 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. [2007]
• Nominated for Best Actress, Tony Award for "A Month in the Country" by Ivan Turgenev. [1995]
• She won an Oscar for playing Queen Elizabeth II in The Queen (2006), making her the most recent of 12 actors to win the Award for playing a real person who was still alive at the evening of the Award ceremony (as of 2007).
• Won Film Achievement, Greatest Britons. [2007]
• Won 29 major awards for her portrayal of Queen Elizabeth II in The Queen (2006), including all the awards that are considered the biggest (except Cannes). She was also nominated for 3 more awards for the same film.
• Is one of eight actresses to have won the Academy Award, BAFTA Award, Critics' Choice Award, Golden Globe Award and SAG Award.
• 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".
• Nominated for the 2002 Tony Award (New York City) for Actress in a Drama for "Dance of Death".
• Was in consideration for the part of Sarah/Anna in The French Lieutenant's Woman (1981) but Meryl Streep, who went on to receive a Best Actress Oscar nomination for her performance, was cast instead.
• Plays Prospero (now Prospera) in The Tempest (2010/11), and Hobson in Arthur (2011). Both roles were originally written for a man, and had in fact previously been played by John Gielgud. Both films also cast her opposite Russell Brand.
• Placed her hand and footprint in cement in front of Graumann Chinese theatre on March 28, 2011.

Quotes:

• The trick in life is learning how to deal with it.
• [About the Academy Awards] It's the creme-de-la-creme of bulls**t.
• Actors are rogues and vagabonds. Or they ought to be. I can't stand it when they behave like solicitors from Penge." "I'm a would-be rebel. The good girl who'd like to be a bad one.
• All you have to do is to look like crap on film and everyone thinks you're a brilliant actress. Actually, all you've done is look like crap.
• Flesh sells. People don't want to see pictures of churches. They want to see naked bodies
• [on becoming Dame Helen Mirren in 2003] In England, it's a big deal. I do feel it's a great honor. But I had to think about it quite seriously for a couple of weeks. It does sort of squash you into the establishment thing. In the end, my baser feelings got the better of me. I succumbed to pride.
• [In 2006] Being me right now is sort of amazing.
• [Part of her BAFTA acceptance speech, BAFTA Film Awards, 2007] This is great. What an honor, especially to be nominated - just to be nominated - amongst those incredible powerhouse performances this year from women. - I applaud them. I think they were absolutely fantastic. Write more roles for us like that please.
• [on Ian Richardson, BAFTA Film Awards, 2007] Many years ago, when I started off as an actress, I had the immense good fortune to work with an actor that was so generous at sharing his craft - He became a mentor to me, he helped me believe in myself. Ian Richardson, I'm not too sure I would be here today if it wasn't for you.
• [on her role in National Treasure: Book of Secrets (2007)] I get half-drowned, jump across an abyss and fly. I loved every minute of it. Getting attached to wires and flying was the most glorious feeling. It's a lot easier than acting!
• [on the participation of celebrities in social movements] I've been involved with Oxfam on the proliferation of the illegal sale of small arms throughout the world, which is causing such, such devastation. The only way you can sometimes garner attention is by sending someone like me as a front person.
• There's nothing sexy about doing a nude scene. It's rather uncomfortable. I like dressing up rather than dressing down.
• I was never going to be anyone's mum or grandmother. But I can dig that beautiful earth-mother thing, feeding the masses. I'm thinking of Nigella Lawson. Does she have children? She does. Do you know what I mean? She's sort of gorgeously fertile. That's sexy.
• I actually won my first Golden Globe for something called Losing Chase (1996) (TV). Kyra Sedgwick and me fell in love with each other, and it was a lovely piece about women loving women. In my heart of hearts I love women more than I love men. I mean sexuality aside - I'm heterosexual. I guess I'm heterosexual. I loved my friend I had at college because there was a sense of camaraderie and physical closeness that doesn't have to be sexual.
• [on asking to be interviewed by male rather than female journalists]: ...I prefer male journalists because there's a streak of female journalism - the bitches - who are mean-spirited and nasty because you are another woman and want to make you feel crap. It's very upsetting. I'm more careful when I'm being interviewed by a woman because, from experience as well as reading articles about other women, I know there is a little stiletto knife hidden behind the back.
• No, I am not confrontational at all. I met a great guy, then another great guy, and had a series of fantastic relationships with nice men. [And that healed me.] Until that point I was thinking men were horrible; they were boring, boorish, vulgar, selfish and arrogant. Then I met a guy who was funny and lovely to me and I loved him. That was Ken, my first boyfriend (Sadly, it was not me. -ed). I learnt from wonderful men, wonderful relationships. They gave me support, made me feel good and made me laugh. Now I think men are absolutely great.
• My poshed-over voice was learnt and assimilated. I was an Essex girl.
• You can't ask people: "Did you cast me in this because I won an Oscar?" They'd always deny it: "No! No! We would've had you anyway!" Liars!
• I didn't cry when I got my Oscar [for The Queen (2006)], but I cried then [when applauded by baggage handlers at Heathrow Airport]. I had my Oscar in my bag, so I got it out. I was shameless, but they loved it.
• [on going to the Oscars] Oh, it's such a palaver! It's like a day's work. You have to decide what you're going to wear. You put on your costume. You do your performance. It's exhausting. And if you win, everyone wants a piece of you. Of course, it's the mother ship of all ceremonies. And it's a fantastic, wonderful, carnival that you just can't resist. You jump aboard the roundabout, get whizzed round until you're vaguely nauseous and stagger off happily at the end, back to reality.
• [on filming Red (2010/I)] I should be going to the gym now but I just don't want to do it. I don't do anything like that regularly at all. But because I'm filming, I should.
• [on performing in television versus onstage] Theatre is more tiring, demanding, more frightening, everything. Film, you have to get up early in the morning, and I hate that. Both are powerful mediums. But the great thing about theatre is you do material you don't normally do on film. And you're the editor of your performance onstage.

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In the movies below, Helen plays a Ex-spy who is an expert marksman, Morgana, the Sorceress and the Queen of England... how's that for a range of characters?

Find more Helen Mirren stuff here.

Find more Helen Mirren stuff here.