Dame Helen Mirren’s talents have always been undeniable. Long before she won an Academy Award for her understated portrayal of Elizabeth II in The Queen, she became the golden child of British theater thanks to her enigmatic presence and unique versatility. Born to a working-class English mother and a Russian father who played viola with the London Philharmonic, 13-year-old Mirren first discovered her passion for acting after seeing an amateur production of Hamlet.
“I was overwhelmed by all this over-the-top drama,” she once said The times in the United Kingdom. “We grew up without TV and never went to the cinema again, so after that Hamlet, all I wanted was to go back to that world where all those fantastic things were possible.”
Mirren got an early taste of fame with her starring role in the National Youth Theater production Anthony and Cleopatra at the Old Vic. The then 20-year-old received such critical acclaim for the production that she became the youngest actor ever invited to the Royal Shakespeare Company, taking on roles such as Lady Macbeth and Miss Julie during her tenure. A documentary was soon commissioned to document her time at the RSC, aptly titled Doing her own thing.
Not until it was her lover’s turn Detective Jane Tennison in the 1991 British proceedings Main suspect that Mirren became a household name all over the world. But she’s always understood the brief, whether it’s making light of the role of a feisty Yorkshire housewife who bares all in her bare skin. Calendar girls or sparring with Vin Diesel in it The Fast and furious franchise. And while she has never strayed far from her theater roots, Mirren’s career – which counts more than 130 film and television credits alone – reflects the layered and idiosyncratic characters she has brought to life over the past fifty years.
Here, just for fun, Fashion digs through the archives to put together a photographic tribute to the divine lady.
