:Helen Mirren

Mirren was born Ilyena Lydia Mironov on 26 July 1945{{cite web |url=http://www.biography.com/people/helen-mirren-547434 |title=Helen Mirren Biography: Actor (1945–) |website=Biography.com |publisher=FYI/A&E Networks |access-date=15 June 2016 |archive-date=16 June 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160616095449/http://www.biography.com/people/helen-mirren-547434 |url-status=live }}{{cite magazine |url=https://www.newyorker.com/archive/2006/10/02/061002fa_fact1 |title=Command Performance: The reign of Helen Mirren |last=Lahr |first=John |date=2 October 2006 |magazine=The New Yorker |access-date=24 October 2010 |archive-date=20 June 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100620132632/http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2006/10/02/061002fa_fact1 |url-status=live }} at Queen Charlotte's and Chelsea Hospital in the Hammersmith district of London,{{cite web |url=http://search.findmypast.com/record?id=bmd%2fb%2f1945%2f3%2faz%2f000858%2f014 |title=England & Wales births 1837–2006 Transcription |website=Findmypast |access-date=6 June 2016 |quote=Her birth was registered in the Hammersmith registration district |url-access=subscription}}{{cite news |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/theatre-dance/features/whenever-i-see-the-queen-i-think-oh-there-i-am-the-right-royal-progress-of-helen-mirren-8527736.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220509/https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/theatre-dance/features/whenever-i-see-the-queen-i-think-oh-there-i-am-the-right-royal-progress-of-helen-mirren-8527736.html |archive-date=9 May 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live |title='Whenever I see the Queen, I think, "Oh ... there I am"': The right royal progress of Helen Mirren |first=Neil |last=Norman |date=10 March 2013 |newspaper=The Independent |location=London |access-date=20 October 2019}} to an English mother and Russian father.{{cite web |url=http://www.nationsmemorybank.com/editorial/family_article_2.html |title=Helen Mirren |website=Nation's Memorybank |access-date=5 July 2008 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081207044313/http://www.nationsmemorybank.com/editorial/family_article_2.html |archive-date=7 December 2008 }} Her mother, Kathleen "Kitty" Alexandrina Eva Matilda (née Rogers; 1908–1996), was a working-class woman from West Ham, the thirteenth of fourteen children born to a butcher whose own father was the butcher to Queen Victoria.{{sfn|Mirren|2011|p=34}} Mirren's father, Vasily Petrovich Mironoff (1913–1980), was a member of an old exiled family of the Russian nobility dating back to the first half of the 15th century; he was taken to England when he was two by his father, Pyotr Vasilievich Mironov (1880–1957).{{cite web | url=https://gw.geneanet.org/tdowling?lang=en&n=mironov&p=pyotr+vasilievich | title=Family tree of Pyotr Vasilievich Mironov }} Pyotr Vasilievich Mironov owned a large family estate near Gzhatsk (now Gagarin) in the Russian Empire.{{Cite web |date=2020-11-25 |title=Смоленская королева Хелен Миррен |url=https://dzen.ru/a/X70SWAtK-AFJwEpF |access-date=2025-02-08 |website=dzen.ru}} His mother, Mirren's great-grandmother, was Countess Lydia Andreevna Kamenskaya (1848–1928), an aristocrat and a descendant of Count Mikhail Fedotovich Kamensky, a prominent Russian general in the Napoleonic Wars.{{cite news| url=https://www.latimes.com/socal/la-canada-valley-sun/news/tn-vsl-xpm-2006-09-28-lap-queen0921-story.html| title=Behind the Scene:God Save The Queen| date=28 September 2006| newspaper=Los Angeles Times| access-date=12 February 2020| first=Susan E.| last=James| archive-date=12 February 2020| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200212222317/https://www.latimes.com/socal/la-canada-valley-sun/news/tn-vsl-xpm-2006-09-28-lap-queen0921-story.html| url-status=live}} Her grandfather, Pyotr Vasilievich Mironov, also served as a colonel in the Imperial Russian Army and fought in the 1904 Russo-Japanese War. He later became a diplomat in the service of Nicholas II and was negotiating an arms deal in Britain when he and his family were stranded by the Russian Revolution in 1917.{{cite news| url=https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/21/arts/television/helen-mirren-catherine.html| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200212214734/https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/21/arts/television/helen-mirren-catherine.html| archive-date=12 February 2020| url-status=bot: unknown| title=Helen Mirren Plays Catherine II in the Years That Made Her 'the Great'| date=21 October 2019| newspaper=The New York Times| access-date=12 February 2020| first=Julia| last=Jacobs| url-access=subscription}}{{cite web |url=http://www.ssees.ucl.ac.uk/archives/mrn.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190222071030/http://www.ssees.ucl.ac.uk/archives/mrn.htm |archive-date=22 February 2019 |title=Pyotr Vasilievich Mironov Collection: The Russian Government Committee in London (1914–1939) |date=11 September 2009 |website=University College London School of Slavonic and East European Studies Library |access-date=30 December 2013 |url-status=live }} He settled in London and became a cab driver to support his family.{{cite news |url=https://www.standard.co.uk/showbiz/helen-mirrens-in-the-prime-of-life-7239430.html |title=Helen Mirren's in the prime of life |date=13 July 2017 |newspaper=Evening Standard |location=London |access-date=20 October 2019 |archive-date=15 April 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190415075324/https://www.standard.co.uk/showbiz/helen-mirrens-in-the-prime-of-life-7239430.html |url-status=live }}

Vasily Mironoff also played the viola with the London Philharmonic Orchestra before World War II. He was an ambulance driver during the war, and served in the East End of London during the Blitz.{{sfn|Mirren|2011|p=22}} He and Kathleen Rogers married in Hammersmith in 1938, and at some point before 1951 he anglicised his first name to Basil. Shortly after Helen's birth, her father left the orchestra and returned to driving a cab to support the family. He later worked as a driving-test examiner, then became a civil servant with the Ministry of Transport. In 1951, he changed the family name to Mirren by deed poll.{{London Gazette |date=12 October 1951 |issue=39356 |page= 5331 |supp=y}} Mirren considers her upbringing to have been "very anti-monarchist".{{cite web |url=http://eonline.com/news/article/index.jsp?uuid=4df5110c-c5e5-4f0c-a381-4da43eb264cc |title=Helen Mirren, British Royal Tea? |first=Natalie |last=Finn |date=26 February 2007 |website=E! News |access-date=30 December 2013 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071012090005/http://eonline.com/news/article/index.jsp?uuid=4df5110c-c5e5-4f0c-a381-4da43eb264cc |archive-date=12 October 2007 }} She was the second of three children; she has an older sister Katherine ("Kate"; born 1942) and had a younger brother Peter Basil (1947–2002).{{cite news |url=http://entertainment.inquirer.net/189510/helen-mirren-fondly-remembers-late-costar-alan-rickman |title=Helen Mirren fondly remembers late costar Alan Rickman |last=Nepales |first=Ruben V. |date=7 February 2016 |newspaper=Philippine Daily Inquirer |location=Manila |access-date=6 October 2016 |archive-date=6 November 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161106185730/http://entertainment.inquirer.net/189510/helen-mirren-fondly-remembers-late-costar-alan-rickman |url-status=live }} Her paternal cousin was Tania Mallet, a model and Bond girl.{{cite news |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-47772012 |title=Goldfinger actress dies aged 77 |date=1 April 2019 |publisher=BBC News |access-date=1 April 2019 |archive-date=25 May 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200525215926/https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-47772012 |url-status=live }} Mirren was brought up in Leigh-on-Sea, Essex.{{cite news |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/8303064/Helen-Mirren-interview.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220110/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/8303064/Helen-Mirren-interview.html |archive-date=10 January 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live |title=Helen Mirren interview |last=Piccalo |first=Gina |date=7 February 2011 |work=The Daily Telegraph |access-date=6 November 2012}}{{cbignore}}

Mirren attended Hamlet Court primary school in Westcliff-on-Sea, where she had the lead role in a school production of Hansel and Gretel,{{sfn|Mirren|2011|pp=47–48}}{{cite book |title=In the Frame: My Life in Words and Pictures |first=Helen |last=Mirren |date=25 March 2008 |publisher=Weidenfeld & Nicolson |location=London |isbn=978-1-41656-760-8 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/inframemylifeinw0000mirr }} and St Bernard's High School for Girls in Southend-on-Sea, where she also acted in school productions. She subsequently attended a teaching college, the New College of Speech and Drama in London, "housed within Anna Pavlova's old home, Ivy House" on North End Road in Golders Green. At the age of eighteen, she passed the audition for the National Youth Theatre (NYT); and at twenty, she played Cleopatra in the NYT production of Antony and Cleopatra at the Old Vic, a role which she says "launched my career" and led to her signing with agent Al Parker.{{cite news |title=Fame Academy: Where Daniel Craig, Helen Mirren and Colin Firth learned to act |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/theatre/actors/fame-academy-where-daniel-craig-helen-mirren-and-colin-firth-lea/ |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220110/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/theatre/actors/fame-academy-where-daniel-craig-helen-mirren-and-colin-firth-lea/ |archive-date=10 January 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live |access-date=22 April 2020 |newspaper=The Daily Telegraph |location=London}}{{cbignore}}{{cite book |last=Waterman |first=Ivan |date=2003 |title=Helen Mirren: The Biography |url=https://archive.org/details/helenmirren00ivan/page/18 |url-access=registration |location=London |publisher=Metro Books |pages=[https://archive.org/details/helenmirren00ivan/page/18 18–22, 26–29] |isbn=1843580535 }}

As a result of her work for the National Youth Theatre, Mirren was invited to join the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC). While with the RSC, she played Castiza in Trevor Nunn's 1966 staging of The Revenger's Tragedy, Diana in All's Well That Ends Well (1967), Cressida in Troilus and Cressida (1968), Rosalind{{cite web |url=http://www.talktalk.co.uk/entertainment/film/biography/artist/helen-mirren/biography/39?page=5 |title=Helen Mirren – Biography |website=TalkTalk |access-date=30 December 2013 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131230233618/http://www.talktalk.co.uk/entertainment/film/biography/artist/helen-mirren/biography/39?page=5 |archive-date=30 December 2013}} in As You Like It (1968), Julia in The Two Gentlemen of Verona (1970), Tatiana in Gorky's Enemies at the Aldwych (1971), and the title role in Miss Julie at The Other Place (1971). She also appeared in four productions, directed by Braham Murray for Century Theatre at the University Theatre in Manchester, between 1965 and 1967.{{cite book |last=Murray |first=Braham |author-link=Braham Murray |year=2007 |title=The Worst It Can Be Is a Disaster |location=London |publisher=Methuen Drama |isbn=978-0-7136-8490-2}}

In 1970, the director and producer John Goldschmidt made a documentary film, Doing Her Own Thing, about Mirren during her time with the Royal Shakespeare Company. Made for ATV, it was shown on the ITV network in the UK. In 1972 and 1973, Mirren worked with Peter Brook's International Centre for Theatre Research and joined the group's tour in North Africa and the US, during which they created The Conference of the Birds. She then rejoined the RSC, playing Lady Macbeth at Stratford in 1974 and at the Aldwych Theatre in 1975. In 1976, she appeared with Laurence Olivier, Alan Bates and Malcolm McDowell in a production of Harold Pinter's The Collection as part of the Laurence Olivier Presents series.

Sally Beauman reported, in her 1982 history of the RSC, that Mirren—while appearing in Nunn's Macbeth (1974), and in a letter to The Guardian newspaper—had sharply criticised both the National Theatre and the RSC for their lavish production expenditure, declaring it "unnecessary and destructive to the art of the Theatre", and adding, "The realms of truth, emotion and imagination reached for in acting a great play have become more and more remote, often totally unreachable across an abyss of costume and technicalities..." This started a big debate, and led to a question in parliament. There were no discernible repercussions for this rebuke of the RSC.{{cite web |url=https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2020/jul/23/helen-mirren-at-75-michael-billington |title=Helen Mirren at 75: wild costumes, blazing performances – and a spell as a rock banshee |newspaper=The Guardian |location=London |first=Michael |last=Billington |date=23 July 2020 |access-date=23 July 2020 |archive-date=23 July 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200723134659/https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2020/jul/23/helen-mirren-at-75-michael-billington |url-status=live }}{{cite book |last=Beauman |first=Sally |author-link=Sally Beauman |date=1982 |title=The Royal Shakespeare Company: A History of Ten Decades |url=https://archive.org/details/royalshakespeare00sall |url-access=registration |location=Oxford |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19212-209-4}}

At the West End's Royal Court Theatre in September 1975, she played the role of a rock star named Maggie in Teeth 'n' Smiles, a musical play by David Hare; she reprised the role the following year in a revival of the play at Wyndham's Theatre in May 1976. Beginning in November 1975, Mirren played in West End repertory with the Lyric Theatre Company as Nina in The Seagull and Ella in Ben Travers's new farce The Bed Before Yesterday ("Mirren is stirringly voluptuous as the Harlowesque good-time girl": Michael Billington, The Guardian). At the RSC in Stratford in 1977, and at the Aldwych the following year, she played a steely Queen Margaret in Terry Hands' production of the three parts of Henry VI, while 1979 saw her 'bursting with grace', and winning acclaim for her performance as Isabella in Peter Gill's production of Measure for Measure at Riverside Studios. Mirren has appeared in a large number of films throughout her career. Some of her earlier film appearances include roles in Herostratus (1967, Dir. Don Levy), A Midsummer Night's Dream (1968), Age of Consent (1969), and O Lucky Man! (1973).

File:Charlotte1767Cotes.jpg in The Madness of King George (1994)]]

In 1981, Mirren returned to the Royal Court for the London premiere of Brian Friel's Faith Healer. That same year she also won acclaim for her performance in the title role of John Webster's The Duchess of Malfi, a production of Manchester's Royal Exchange Theatre which was later transferred to The Roundhouse in Chalk Farm, London. Reviewing her portrayal for The Sunday Telegraph, Francis King wrote: "Miss Mirren never leaves it in doubt that even in her absences, this ardent, beautiful woman is the most important character of the story." In her performance as Moll Cutpurse in The Roaring Girl—at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in January 1983, and at the Barbican Theatre in April 1983—she was described as having "swaggered through the action with radiant singularity of purpose, filling in areas of light and shade that even Thomas Middleton and Thomas Dekker omitted." – Michael Coveney, Financial Times, April 1983.{{cite book |last1=Ward |first1=Philip |title=Becoming Helen Mirren |date=25 October 2019 |publisher=Troubador Publishing Ltd.| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Zh-3DwAAQBAJ&q=roaring+girl| isbn=978-1-8385-9714-6}} During this time, Mirren took roles in Caligula (1979), The Long Good Friday (1980)—co-starring with Bob Hoskins in what was her breakthrough film role,{{cite news| title=Dame Helen Mirren to receive Bafta fellowship| url=https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-25911227| work=BBC News| date=27 January 2014| access-date=1 March 2022| archive-date=2 March 2022| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220302000653/https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-25911227| url-status=live}} Excalibur (1981), 2010 (1984), White Nights (1985), The Mosquito Coast (1986), Pascali's Island (1988) and When the Whales Came (1989). Mirren's television performances include Cousin Bette (1971); As You Like It (1979); Blue Remembered Hills (1979); and The Twilight Zone episode "Dead Woman's Shoes" (1985).

At the beginning of 1989, Mirren co-starred with Bob Peck at the Young Vic in the London premiere of the Arthur Miller double-bill, Two Way Mirror, performances which prompted Miller to remark: "What is so good about English actors is that they are not afraid of the open expression of large emotions. British actors like to speak. In London, there's a much more open-hearted kind of exchange between stage and audience" (interview by Sheridan Morley: The Times 11 January 1989).{{cite book |last1=Bigsby |first1=Christopher |title=Arthur Miller: 1962–2005 |date=2011 |publisher=Hachette UK}} In Elegy for a Lady she played the svelte proprietress of a classy boutique, while as the blonde hooker in Some Kind of Love Story she was "clad in a Freudian slip and shifting easily from waif-like vulnerability to sexual aggression, giving the role a breathy Monroesque quality".{{cite news| title=The Coutours of Passion| newspaper=The Guardian| location=London| date=25 January 1989| page=46| last=Billington| first=Michael| url=https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/259882155/| access-date=22 October 2020| via=Newspapers.com| archive-date=24 October 2020| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201024185021/https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/259882155/| url-status=live}}

Mirren is known for her role as detective Jane Tennison in the widely viewed Prime Suspect, a multiple award-winning television drama series that was noted for its high quality and popularity. Her portrayal of Tennison won her three consecutive British Academy Television Awards for Best Actress between 1992 and 1994 (making her one of four actors to have received three consecutive BAFTA TV Awards for a role, alongside Robbie Coltrane, Julie Walters and Michael Gambon).{{cite news |url=https://www.mirror.co.uk/tv/tv-news/dame-helen-mirren-10-things-202365 |title=Dame Helen Mirren: 10 things you need to know about the Oscar nominated actress |date=18 February 2010 |newspaper=Daily Mirror |location=London |access-date=7 November 2012 |archive-date=17 January 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130117003000/http://www.mirror.co.uk/tv/tv-news/dame-helen-mirren-10-things-202365 |url-status=live }} Primarily due to Prime Suspect, in 2006 Mirren came 29th on ITV's poll of TV's 50 Greatest Stars voted by the British public.{{cite news| url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/5142726.stm| title=ITV to salute '50 greatest stars'| date=3 July 2006| work=BBC News| access-date=2 October 2020| archive-date=8 August 2017| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170808160749/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/5142726.stm| url-status=live}} A further stage breakthrough came in 1994, in an Yvonne Arnaud Theatre production bound for the West End, when Bill Bryden cast her as Natalya Petrovna in Ivan Turgenev's A Month in the Country. Her co-stars were John Hurt as her aimless lover Rakitin and Joseph Fiennes in only his second professional stage appearance as the cocksure young tutor Belyaev.{{cite news |title=A Month in the Country |last=Thaxter |first=John |date=4 March 1994 |newspaper=Richmond & Twickenham Times |quote=Instead of a bored Natalya fretting the summer away in dull frocks, Mirren, dazzlingly gowned, is a woman almost wilfully allowing her heart's desire for her son's young tutor to rule her head and wreak domestic havoc....Creamy shoulders bared, she feels free to launch into a gloriously enchanted, dreamily comic self-confession of love.}} Prior to 2015, Mirren had twice been nominated for Broadway's Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play: in 1995 for her Broadway debut in A Month in the Country{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1995/04/26/theater/theater-review-turgenev-s-inquiry-into-calamitous-love.html |title=Theater Review; Turgenev's Inquiry Into Calamitous Love |last=Canby |first=Vincent |date=26 April 1995 |newspaper=The New York Times |access-date=20 October 2019 |quote=Miss Mirren's performance is bigger and more animated than the one she gave last year in an entirely different London production. |archive-date=20 October 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191020145855/https://www.nytimes.com/1995/04/26/theater/theater-review-turgenev-s-inquiry-into-calamitous-love.html |url-status=live }} and then again in 2002 for The Dance of Death, co-starring with Sir Ian McKellen, their fraught rehearsal period coinciding with the terrorist attacks on New York on 11 September 2001.

Mirren appeared in The Madness of King George (1994), Some Mother's Son (1996), Painted Lady (1997) and The Prince of Egypt (1998). In Peter Greenaway's colourful The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover, Mirren plays the wife opposite Michael Gambon. In Teaching Mrs. Tingle (1999), she plays sadistic history teacher Mrs. Eve Tingle.{{cite news |title=All Helen Mirren's 61 movies |url=https://www.theguardian.com/film/2018/nov/02/all-helen-mirrens-61-movies-ranked |access-date=23 April 2020 |work=The Guardian |location=London |archive-date=1 April 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200401090102/https://www.theguardian.com/film/2018/nov/02/all-helen-mirrens-61-movies-ranked |url-status=live }} In 1998, Mirren played Cleopatra to Alan Rickman's Antony in Antony and Cleopatra at the National Theatre. The production received poor reviews; The Guardian called it "plodding spectacle rarely informed by powerful passion", while The Daily Telegraph said "the crucial sexual chemistry on which any great production ultimately depends is fatally absent".{{cite news |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/a-case-of-hype-and-fall-as-rickman-and-mirren-are-put-to-the-sword-1180144.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220509/https://www.independent.co.uk/news/a-case-of-hype-and-fall-as-rickman-and-mirren-are-put-to-the-sword-1180144.html |archive-date=9 May 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live |title=A case of hype and fall as Rickman and Mirren are put to the sword |last=Lister |first=David |date=23 October 1998 |newspaper=The Independent |location=London |access-date=20 October 2019}} In 2000 Nicholas Hytner, who had worked with Mirren on the film version of The Madness of King George, cast her as Lady Torrance in his revival of Tennessee Williams' Orpheus Descending at the Donmar Warehouse in London. Michael Billington, reviewing for The Guardian, described her performance as "an exemplary study of an immigrant woman who has acquired a patina of resilient toughness but who slowly acknowledges her sensuality."{{cite news |title=Southern discomfort |url=https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2000/jun/29/artsfeatures4 |date=28 June 2000 |page=46 |access-date=1 March 2022 |newspaper=The Guardian |location=London |archive-date=28 April 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220428222105/https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2000/jun/29/artsfeatures4 |url-status=live }}

File:Helen Mirren 2010.jpg in 2010]]

Mirren portrayed Ayn Rand in the television film, The Passion of Ayn Rand (1999), where her performance won her an Emmy; Door to Door (2002); and The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone (2003). At the National Theatre in November 2003 she again won praise playing Christine Mannon ("defiantly cool, camp and skittish", Evening Standard; "glows with mature sexual allure", Daily Telegraph) in a revival of Eugene O'Neill's Mourning Becomes Electra directed by Howard Davies. "This production was one of the best experiences of my professional life, The play was four and a half hours long, and I have never known that kind of response from an audience ... It was the serendipity of a beautifully cast play, with great design and direction, It will be hard to be in anything better." She played the title role in Jean Racine's Phèdre at the National in 2009, in a production directed by Nicholas Hytner. The production was also staged at the Epidaurus amphitheatre on 11 and 12 July 2009.

Mirren's other appearances include The Clearing (2004), Pride (2004), Raising Helen (2004), and Shadowboxer (2005). Mirren also provided the voice for the supercomputer "Deep Thought" in the film adaptation of Douglas Adams's The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (2005). Mirren's first film of the 2000s was Joel Hershman's Greenfingers (2000), a comedy based on the true story about the prisoners of HMP Leyhill, a minimum-security prison, who won gardening awards.{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1998/07/16/garden/free-to-grow-bluebells-in-england.html |title=Free to Grow Bluebells in England |last=Deitz |first=Paula |date=16 July 1998 |newspaper=The New York Times |page=13 |access-date=20 October 2019 |archive-date=20 October 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171020084519/http://www.nytimes.com/1998/07/16/garden/free-to-grow-bluebells-in-england.html |url-status=live }} Mirren portrayed a devoted plantswoman in the film, who coaches a team of prison gardeners, led by Clive Owen, to victory at a prestigious flower show.{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2001/07/22/movies/film-never-too-tough-to-be-softened-up-by-a-flower.html |title=Film; Never Too Tough to Be Softened Up by a Flower |last=Ramsey |first=Nancy |page=22 |date=22 July 2001 |newspaper=The New York Times |access-date=20 October 2019 |archive-date=20 September 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170920234015/http://www.nytimes.com/2001/07/22/movies/film-never-too-tough-to-be-softened-up-by-a-flower.html |url-status=live }} The project received lukewarm reviews, which suggested that it added "nothing new to this already saturated genre" of British feel-good films.{{cite web |url=https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/greenfingers/ |title=Greenfingers (2000) |website=Rotten Tomatoes |access-date=22 February 2016 |archive-date=22 April 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160422081631/http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/greenfingers/ |url-status=live }} The same year she acted in The Pledge, Sean Penn's third directorial effort, in which she played a child psychologist. A critical success,{{cite web |url=https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1104203-pledge |title=The Pledge (2001) |website=Rotten Tomatoes |access-date=22 February 2016 |archive-date=6 March 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160306015047/http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1104203-pledge |url-status=live }} the ensemble film tanked at the box office.{{cite web |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/low/entertainment/1332122.stm |title=US directors laud Cannes audiences |date=15 May 2001 |website=BBC News |access-date=3 January 2011 |archive-date=7 July 2004 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040707163823/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/low/entertainment/1332122.stm |url-status=live }} Also that year, she filmed the American-Icelandic satirical drama No Such Thing opposite Sarah Polley. Directed by Hal Hartley, Mirren portrayed a soulless television producer in the film, who strives for sensationalistic stories. It was largely panned by critics.{{cite web |url=https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/no_such_thing/ |title=No Such Thing (2001) |website=Rotten Tomatoes |access-date=22 February 2016 |archive-date=10 March 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160310124457/http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/no_such_thing/ |url-status=live }}

File:Nicholas Hilliard (called) - Portrait of Queen Elizabeth I - Google Art Project.jpg for portraying Elizabeth I in the HBO limited series of the same name in 2005]]

Mirren's biggest critical and commercial success became Robert Altman's all-star ensemble mystery film Gosford Park (2001). A homage to writer Agatha Christie's whodunit style, the story follows a party of wealthy Britons and an American, and their servants, who gather for a shooting weekend at an English country house, resulting in an unexpected murder. It received multiple awards and nominations, including a second Academy Award nomination and first Screen Actors Guild Award win for Mirren's portrayal of the sternly devoted head servant Mrs. Wilson.{{cite news |url=http://www.nydailynews.com/archives/news/gosford-park-big-winner-article-1.485902 |title='Gosford Park' Big Winner |first=Jack |last=Mathews |date=11 March 2002 |newspaper=New York Daily News |access-date=22 February 2016 |archive-date=3 March 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303035637/http://www.nydailynews.com/archives/news/gosford-park-big-winner-article-1.485902 |url-status=live }} Mirren's last film that year was Fred Schepisi's dramedy film Last Orders opposite Michael Caine and Bob Hoskins. In 2003, Mirren starred in Nigel Cole's comedy Calendar Girls, inspired by the true story of a group of Yorkshire women who produced a nude calendar to raise money for Leukaemia Research under the auspices of the Women's Institutes.{{cite news |url=https://www.cbsnews.com/news/helen-mirrens-calendar-girls/ |title=Helen Mirren's Calendar Girls |first=Rome |last=Neal |date=24 December 2003 |website=CBS News |access-date=17 October 2010 |archive-date=21 September 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100921231811/http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/12/23/earlyshow/leisure/main590034.shtml |url-status=live }} Mirren initially was reluctant to join the project, dismissing it as another middling British picture,{{cite web |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bH8ul00awHo | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170504225925/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bH8ul00awHo&feature=related| archive-date=2017-05-04|title=2009 – Movie Connections – Calendar Girls (2/4) |author=Movie Connections |website=YouTube |access-date=17 October 2010}} but rethought her decision upon learning of the casting of co-star Julie Walters. The film was generally well received by critics, and grossed $96 million worldwide.{{cite web |url=https://boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=calendargirls.htm |title=Calendar Girls (2003) |website=Box Office Mojo |access-date=17 October 2010 |archive-date=7 June 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110607001250/http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=calendargirls.htm |url-status=live }} In addition, the picture earned Satellite, Golden Globe, and European Film Award nominations for Mirren.{{cite web |url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0337909/awards |title=Awards for Calendar Girls |website=IMDb |access-date=14 February 2008 |archive-date=7 February 2006 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060207231710/http://imdb.com/title/tt0337909/awards |url-status=live }} Her other film that year was the Showtime television film The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone opposite Olivier Martinez, and Anne Bancroft, based on the 1950 novel of the same title by Tennessee Williams.

During her career, Mirren has portrayed three British queens in different films and television series: Elizabeth I in the television series Elizabeth I (2005), Elizabeth II in The Queen (2006), and Charlotte in The Madness of King George (1994). She is the only actor to have portrayed both Queens Elizabeth on the screen. For Elizabeth I, she received an Emmy Award and a Golden Globe Award. For The Queen, she won the Academy Award for Best Actress, the BAFTA, and a Golden Globe, among many other awards. During her acceptance speech at the Academy Award ceremony, she praised and thanked Elizabeth II and stated that she had maintained her dignity and weathered many storms during her reign. Mirren won another Emmy Award on 16 September 2007 for her role in Prime Suspect: The Final Act on PBS in the same category as in 2006. Mirren hosted Saturday Night Live on 9 April 2011.{{cite magazine |url=http://watching-tv.ew.com/2011/04/10/saturday-night-live-helen-mirren-foo-fighters/ |title='Saturday Night Live' recap: Helen Mirren transcended a laugh-lite 'SNL' |last=Tucker |first=Ken |date=10 April 2011 |magazine=Entertainment Weekly |access-date=30 December 2013 |archive-date=30 December 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131230232929/http://watching-tv.ew.com/2011/04/10/saturday-night-live-helen-mirren-foo-fighters/ |url-status=live }} Mirren later appeared in supporting roles in the films National Treasure: Book of Secrets, Inkheart, State of Play, and The Last Station, for which she was nominated for an Oscar.{{cite web |url=http://www.oscars.org/awards/academyawards/82/nominees.html |title=Nominees & Winners for the 82nd Academy Awards |date=24 August 2012 |website=Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences |access-date=30 December 2013 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100411210003/http://www.oscars.org/awards/academyawards/82/nominees.html |archive-date=11 April 2010}}

File:HelenMirrenHWOFJan2013.jpg in 2013]]

In 2007, Mirren said that the director Michael Winner had treated her "like a piece of meat" at a casting call in 1964.{{cite news |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/10033802/David-Cameron-keeps-his-distance-from-film-director-Michael-Winner.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220110/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/10033802/David-Cameron-keeps-his-distance-from-film-director-Michael-Winner.html |archive-date=10 January 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live |title=David Cameron keeps his distance from film director Michael Winner |last=Walker |first=Tim |date=3 May 2013 |newspaper=The Daily Telegraph |location=London |access-date=30 December 2013}}{{cbignore}} Asked about the incident, Winner told The Guardian, "I don't remember asking her to turn around but if I did I wasn't being serious. I was only doing what the [casting] agent asked me – and for this I get reviled! Helen's a lovely person, she's a great actor and I'm a huge fan, but her memory of that moment is a little flawed."{{cite web |url=http://www.thedailybeast.com/galleries/2012/10/16/susan-sarandon-gwyneth-paltrow-charlize-theron-more-casting-couch-horror-stories-photos.html |title=Susan Sarandon, Gwyneth Paltrow, Charlize Theron & More Casting Couch Horror Stories |date=16 November 2012 |website=The Daily Beast |access-date=20 October 2019 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121020104842/http://www.thedailybeast.com/galleries/2012/10/16/susan-sarandon-gwyneth-paltrow-charlize-theron-more-casting-couch-horror-stories-photos.html |archive-date=20 October 2012}} In 2010, Mirren appeared in five films. In Love Ranch, directed by her husband Taylor Hackford, she portrayed Sally Conforte, one half of a married couple who opened the first legal brothel in the US, the Mustang Ranch in Storey County, Nevada.{{cite magazine |url=https://nymag.com/daily/entertainment/2010/04/helen_mirrens_brothel_movie_to.html |title=Helen Mirren's Brothel Movie to Open |last=Brown |first=Lane |date=6 April 2010 |magazine=New York |access-date=20 October 2019 |archive-date=15 March 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110315101507/https://nymag.com/daily/entertainment/2010/04/helen_mirrens_brothel_movie_to.html |url-status=live }} Mirren starred in the principal role of Prospera, the duchess of Milan, in Julie Taymor's The Tempest. This was based on the play of the same name by Shakespeare; Taymor changed the original character's gender to cast Mirren as her lead.{{cite web |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/7658628.stm |title=Mirren 'to star in Tempest film' |date=8 October 2008 |website=BBC News |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090111152135/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/7658628.stm |archive-date=11 January 2009 |url-status=dead }} While the actor garnered strong reviews for her portrayal, the film itself was largely panned by critics.{{cite web |url=https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/tempest |title=The Tempest (2010) |website=Rotten Tomatoes |access-date=27 January 2010 |archive-date=19 August 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100819041418/http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/tempest |url-status=live }}

Mirren played a gutsy tea-shop owner who tries to save one of her young employees from marrying a teenage killer in Rowan Joffé's Brighton Rock, a crime film loosely based on Graham Greene's 1938 novel.{{cite magazine |url=http://www.au.timeout.com/sydney/film/features/9106/helen-mirren?DCMP=OTC-RSS- |title=Helen Mirren: Interview |first=Ben |last=Walters |date=2 June 2015 |magazine=Time Out |access-date=18 January 2016 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160128223000/http://www.au.timeout.com/sydney/film/features/9106/helen-mirren?DCMP=OTC-RSS- |archive-date=28 January 2016}} The film noir premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in September 2010,{{cite web |url=http://www.movieline.com/2010/09/at-tiff-brighton-rock-extends-the-graham-greene-adaptation-curse.php |title=At TIFF: Brighton Rock Extends the Graham Greene Adaptation Curse |first=Michelle |last=Orange |date=13 September 2010 |website=Movieline |access-date=27 August 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100916205701/http://www.movieline.com/2010/09/at-tiff-brighton-rock-extends-the-graham-greene-adaptation-curse.php |archive-date=16 September 2010 |url-status=dead}} where it received mixed reviews.{{cite news |url=https://movies.nytimes.com/2011/08/26/movies/brighton-rock-film-of-graham-greene-novel-review.html |title=A Meek Rose Amid the Mods and Rockers in an English Resort Town |first=Stephen |last=Holden |author-link=Stephen Holden |date=25 August 2011 |newspaper=The New York Times |access-date=27 August 2011 |url-access=subscription |archive-date=10 January 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120110232458/http://movies.nytimes.com/2011/08/26/movies/brighton-rock-film-of-graham-greene-novel-review.html |url-status=live }} Mirren's biggest critical and commercial success of the year was Robert Schwentke's ensemble action comedy Red, based on Warren Ellis's graphic novel, in which she portrayed Victoria, an ex-MI6 assassin.{{cite web |url=https://www.slashfilm.com/2009/11/04/casting-notes-alan-cumming-in-burlesque-mirren-does-espionage-dempsey-steals-laughs-weaver-and-shawkat-hit-cedar-rapids/ |title=Casting Notes: Alan Cumming in Burlesque; Mirren Does Espionage; Dempsey Steals Laughs; Weaver and Shawkat Hit Cedar Rapids |first=Russ |last=Fischer |date=4 November 2009 |website=/Film |access-date=19 January 2010 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100122185818/http://www.slashfilm.com/2009/11/04/casting-notes-alan-cumming-in-burlesque-mirren-does-espionage-dempsey-steals-laughs-weaver-and-shawkat-hit-cedar-rapids/ |archive-date=22 January 2010}} Mirren was initially hesitant to sign on due to film's graphic violence, but changed her mind upon learning of Bruce Willis's involvement.{{cite news |url=http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/b783e5fe-d7e5-11df-b044-00144feabdc0.html/ |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221210/http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/b783e5fe-d7e5-11df-b044-00144feabdc0.html/ |archive-date=10 December 2022 |title=Majestic Mirren |first=Emanuel |last=Levy |date=15 October 2010 |newspaper=Financial Times |location=London |access-date=18 January 2016 |url-access=subscription}} Released to positive reviews, it grossed $186.5 million worldwide.{{cite web |url=https://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=red2010.htm |title=RED (2010) |website=Box Office Mojo |access-date=25 March 2011 |archive-date=13 July 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110713062345/http://boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=red2010.htm |url-status=live }} Also in 2010, the actor lent her voice to Zack Snyder's animated fantasy film Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole, voicing antagonist Nyra, a leader of a group of owls. The film grossed $140.1 million on an $80 million budget.{{cite web |url=https://boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=guardiansofgahoole.htm |title=Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole (2010) |website=Box Office Mojo |access-date=15 May 2011 |archive-date=27 July 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110727163444/http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=guardiansofgahoole.htm |url-status=live }} Mirren's next film was the comedy film Arthur, a remake of the 1981 film of the same name, starring Russell Brand in the lead role. Arthur received generally negative reviews from critics, who declared it an "irritating, unnecessary remake".{{cite web |url=https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/arthur_2011/ |title=Arthur (2011) |website=Rotten Tomatoes |access-date=19 May 2013 |archive-date=13 May 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130513223026/http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/arthur_2011/ |url-status=live }}

In preparation for her role as a retired Israeli Mossad agent in the film The Debt, Mirren reportedly immersed herself in studies of Hebrew language, Jewish history, and Holocaust writing, including the life of Simon Wiesenthal, while in Israel in 2009 for the filming of some of the movie's scenes. The film is a remake of a 2007 Israeli film of the same name.{{cite web |url=http://www.contactmusic.com/news.nsf/story/mirren-learning-hebrew-for-movie-role_1096343 |title=Mirren Learning Hebrew For Movie Role |date=27 February 2009 |website=ContactMusic.com |access-date=20 October 2019 |archive-date=6 June 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200606110822/https://www.contactmusic.com/helen-mirren/news/mirren-learning-hebrew-for-movie-role_1096343 |url-status=live }} In 2012, Mirren played Alfred Hitchcock's wife Alma Reville in the 2012 biopic Hitchcock based on Stephen Rebello's non-fiction book Alfred Hitchcock and the Making of Psycho. The film centres on the pair's relationship during the making of Psycho, a controversial horror film that became one of the most acclaimed and influential works in the filmmaker's career. It became a moderate arthouse success and garnered a lukewarm critical response from critics, who felt that it suffered from "tonal inconsistency and a lack of truly insightful retrospection."{{cite web |url=https://www.metacritic.com/movie/hitchcock |title=Hitchcock (2012) |website=Metacritic |access-date=2 March 2015 |archive-date=25 February 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150225060018/http://www.metacritic.com/movie/hitchcock |url-status=live }} Mirren was universally praised, however, with Roger Ebert noting that the film depended most on her portrayal, which he found to be "warm and effective".{{cite news |url=http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=%2F20121120%2FREVIEWS%2F121129996 |last=Ebert |first=Roger |date=20 November 2012 |title=Hitchcock |newspaper=Chicago Sun-Times |access-date=21 November 2012 |archive-date=27 November 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121127172340/http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=%2F20121120%2FREVIEWS%2F121129996 |url-status=dead}} Her other film that year was The Door, a claustrophobic drama film directed by István Szabó, based on the Hungarian novel of the same name. Set at the height of communist rule in 1960s Hungary, the story of the adaptation centres on the abrasive influence that a mysterious housekeeper wields over her employer and successful novelist, played Martina Gedeck. Mirren found the role "difficult to play" and cited doing it as "one of the hardest things [she has] ever done".{{cite news |url=https://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/movies/mirren-steps-through-a-new-door-20120718-22ahn.html |title=Mirren steps through a new door |first=Philippa |last=Hawker |date=19 July 2012 |newspaper=The Sydney Morning Herald |access-date=18 January 2016 |archive-date=20 July 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120720230242/http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/movies/mirren-steps-through-a-new-door-20120718-22ahn.html |url-status=live }}

File:Queen Elizabeth II March 2015 cropped.jpg across film and stage in The Queen (2006) and The Audience (2013).]]

On 15 February 2013, at the West End's Gielgud Theatre she began a turn as Elizabeth II in the World Premiere of Peter Morgan's The Audience.{{cite web |url=http://www.hitthetheatre.co.uk/showEvent.php?cat=&&id=3613 |title=The Audience |website=Hit The Theatre.co.uk |access-date=30 December 2013 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130116232730/http://www.hitthetheatre.co.uk/showEvent.php?cat=&&id=3613 |archive-date=16 January 2013}} The show was directed by Stephen Daldry. Michael Billington of The Guardian wrote of her performance, "who once again gives a faultless performance that transcends mere impersonation to endow the monarch with a sense of inner life and a quasi-Shakespearean aura of solitude."{{cite web|url= https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2013/mar/05/the-audience-review-helen-mirren|title= The Audience - review|website= The Guardian|accessdate= November 20, 2024}} In April she was named best actress at the Olivier Awards for her role.{{cite news |url=http://www.3news.co.nz/Helen-Mirren-crowned-queen-of-the-stage/tabid/418/articleID/296008/Default.aspx |title=Helen Mirren crowned queen of the stage |date=30 April 2013 |website=3 News |access-date=20 October 2019 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131230233730/http://www.3news.co.nz/Helen-Mirren-crowned-queen-of-the-stage/tabid/418/articleID/296008/Default.aspx |archive-date=30 December 2013}} On 7 June 2015‚ Mirren won the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play‚ for her portrayal of Queen Elizabeth II in The Audience (a performance which also won her the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actress). Her Tony Award win made her one of the few actors to achieve the US "Triple Crown of Acting", joining the ranks of acclaimed performers including Ingrid Bergman‚ Dame Maggie Smith, and Al Pacino.{{cite news |url=https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/5-reasons-we-want-to-celebrate-helen-mirrens-70th-birthday-with-her_55b0f7d4e4b08f57d5d3c417 |work=Huffington Post |title=7 reasons to love Helen Mirren on her 70th birthday |access-date=18 December 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151023072002/http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/5-reasons-we-want-to-celebrate-helen-mirrens-70th-birthday-with-her_55b0f7d4e4b08f57d5d3c417 |archive-date=23 October 2015 |url-status=live }}

The following year, Mirren replaced Bette Midler in David Mamet's biographical television film Phil Spector about the American musician.{{cite web |url=http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/03/22/phil-spector-s-jersey-girl-lawyer-meet-the-real-linda-kenney-baden.html |title=Phil Spector's Jersey Girl Lawyer: Meet the Real Linda Kenney Baden |first=Lloyd |last=Grove |date=22 March 2013 |website=The Daily Beast |access-date=5 June 2013 |archive-date=28 February 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160228181020/http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/03/22/phil-spector-s-jersey-girl-lawyer-meet-the-real-linda-kenney-baden.html |url-status=live }} The HBO film focuses on the relationship between Spector and his defence attorney Linda Kenney Baden, played by Mirren, during the first of his two murder trials for the death in 2003 of Lana Clarkson in his California mansion. Spector received largely mixed to positive reviews from critics, particularly for Mirren and co-star Al Pacino's performances, and was nominated for eleven Primetime Emmy Awards, also winning Mirren a Screen Actors Guild Award at the 20th awards ceremony. The film drew criticism both from Clarkson's family and friends, who charged that the suicide defence was given more merit than it deserved, and from Spector's wife, who argued that Spector was portrayed as a "foul-mouthed megalomaniac" and a "minotaur".{{cite web |url=https://www.salon.com/2013/03/15/friends_of_lana_clarkson_protest_hbo_film_phil_spector/ |title=Friends of Lana Clarkson protest HBO film "Phil Spector" |last=Gupta |first=Prachi |date=15 March 2013 |website=Salon |access-date=25 March 2013 |archive-date=24 March 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130324151045/http://www.salon.com/2013/03/15/friends_of_lana_clarkson_protest_hbo_film_phil_spector/ |url-status=live }} Also in 2013, Mirren voiced the character of Dean Abigail Hardscrabble in Pixar's animated comedy film Monsters University, which grossed $743 million against its estimated budget of $200 million,{{cite web |url=https://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=monstersinc2.htm |title=Monsters University (2013) |website=Box Office Mojo |access-date=20 December 2013 |archive-date=3 May 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140503015430/http://boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=monstersinc2.htm |url-status=live }} and reprised her role in the sequel film Red 2.{{cite web |url=http://splashpage.mtv.com/2011/03/29/helen-mirren-red-movie-sequel/ |title=Helen Mirren Says She's Ready For 'Red' Sequel: 'Just Get Me The Script' |last=Warner |first=Kara |date=29 March 2011 |website=MTV News |access-date=11 May 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120515150701/http://splashpage.mtv.com/2011/03/29/helen-mirren-red-movie-sequel/ |archive-date=15 May 2012 |url-status=dead }} The action comedy received a mixed reviews from film critics, who called it a "lackadaisical sequel",{{cite web |url=https://www.thewrap.com/movies/column-post/red-2-review-bruce-willis-sequel-dies-hard-lands-dull-thud-102681 |title='Red 2' Review: Bruce Willis Sequel Dies Hard, Lands With Dull Thud |last=Gilchrist |first=Todd |date=15 July 2013 |website=The Wrap |access-date=18 July 2013 |archive-date=18 July 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130718125410/http://www.thewrap.com/movies/column-post/red-2-review-bruce-willis-sequel-dies-hard-lands-dull-thud-102681 |url-status=live }} but became another commercial success, making over $140 million worldwide.{{cite web |title=Red 2 (2013) |url=https://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=red2.htm |website=Box Office Mojo |access-date=19 July 2013 |archive-date=22 July 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150722145637/http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=red2.htm |url-status=live }}

Mirren's only film of 2014 was the comedy-drama The Hundred-Foot Journey opposite the Indian actor Om Puri. Directed by Lasse Hallström and produced by Steven Spielberg and Oprah Winfrey, the film is based on Richard C. Morais's 2010 novel with the same name and tells the story of a feud between two adjacent restaurants in a French town. Mirren garnered largely positive reviews for her performance of a snobby restaurateur, a role which she accepted as she was keen to play a French character, reflecting her "pathetic attempt at being a French actress."{{cite web |url=https://collider.com/helen-mirren-hundred-foot-journey-trumbo-interview/ |title=Helen Mirren Talks 'The Hundred-Foot Journey', Working with Om Puri, What She Looks For in Choosing Projects, 'Trumbo', and More |last1=Roberts |first1=Sheila |date=31 July 2014 |website=Collider |access-date=18 January 2016 |archive-date=14 March 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160314080711/http://collider.com/helen-mirren-hundred-foot-journey-trumbo-interview/ |url-status=live }} The film earned her another Golden Globe nomination and became a modest commercial success, grossing $88.9 million worldwide.{{cite web |url=https://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?page=main&id=100foot.htm |title=The Hundred-Foot Journey (2014) |website=Box Office Mojo |access-date=1 December 2014 |archive-date=28 November 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141128103326/http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?page=main&id=100foot.htm |url-status=live }}

In 2015, Mirren reunited with her former assistant Simon Curtis on Woman in Gold, co-starring Ryan Reynolds. The film was based on the true story of Jewish refugee Maria Altmann who, together with her young lawyer Randy Schoenberg, fought the Austrian government to be reunited with Gustav Klimt's painting of her aunt, the famous Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I.{{cite web |url=https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/gustav-klimt-birthday-woman-in-gold_55a52d3de4b0a47ac15d61af |title=Gustav Klimt Painted Much More Than 'The Woman In Gold' |last1=Valentine |first1=Colin |date=14 July 2015 |website=HuffPost Arts & Culture |access-date=7 August 2015 |archive-date=17 July 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150717050133/http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/gustav-klimt-birthday-woman-in-gold_55a52d3de4b0a47ac15d61af |url-status=live }} The film received mixed reviews from critics, although Mirren and Reynold's performances were widely praised.{{cite web |title=Woman in Gold (2015) |url=https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/woman_in_gold/ |website=Rotten Tomatoes |access-date=7 August 2015 |archive-date=26 November 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171126200214/https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/woman_in_gold |url-status=live }} A commercial success, Woman in Gold became one of the highest-grossing specialty films of the year.{{cite web |url=https://www.indiewire.com/article/the-20-highest-grossing-indies-of-2015-a-running-list-1 |title=The 20 Highest Grossing Indies of 2015 (A Running List) |first=Kate |last=Erbland |date=29 December 2015 |website=Indiewire |access-date=18 January 2016 |archive-date=15 January 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160115061703/http://www.indiewire.com/article/the-20-highest-grossing-indies-of-2015-a-running-list-1? |url-status=live }} The same year, Mirren appeared in Gavin Hood's thriller Eye in the Sky (2015), in which she played as a military intelligence officer who leads a secret drone mission to capture a terrorist group living in Nairobi, Kenya.{{cite web |url=https://www.thewrap.com/aaron-paul-helen-mirren-join-colin-firth-in-thriller-eye-in-the-sky/ |title=Aaron Paul, Helen Mirren Join Colin Firth in Thriller 'Eye in the Sky' |last1=Sneider |first1=Jeff |date=16 May 2014 |website=The Wrap |access-date=7 August 2015 |archive-date=29 July 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150729062523/http://www.thewrap.com/aaron-paul-helen-mirren-join-colin-firth-in-thriller-eye-in-the-sky/ |url-status=live }} Mirren's last film that year was Jay Roach's biographical drama Trumbo, co-starring Bryan Cranston and Diane Lane. The actor played Hedda Hopper, the famous actress and gossip columnist, in the film, which received generally positive reviews from critics and garnered her a 14th Golden Globe nomination.{{cite web |url=https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/trumbo/ |title=Trumbo (2015) |website=Rotten Tomatoes |access-date=4 January 2016 |archive-date=28 November 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151128003104/http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/trumbo |url-status=live }}

File:Helen Mirren-2316.jpg in 2020]]

Mirren's only film of 2016 was Collateral Beauty, directed by David Frankel. Co-Starring Will Smith, Keira Knightley, and Kate Winslet, the ensemble drama follows a man who copes with his daughter's death by writing letters to time, death, and love. The film earned largely negative reviews from critics, who called it "well-meaning but fundamentally flawed."{{cite web |url=https://deadline.com/2016/12/will-smith-collateral-beauty-lowest-box-office-opening-rotten-tomatoes-1201873153/ |title=How Critics' "Schoolyard Assault" On 'Collateral Beauty' Turned Ugly For Will Smith Pic |first=Anthony |last=D'Alessandro |date=18 December 2016 |website=Deadline Hollywood |access-date=31 December 2016 |archive-date=1 January 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170101005013/http://deadline.com/2016/12/will-smith-collateral-beauty-lowest-box-office-opening-rotten-tomatoes-1201873153/ |url-status=live }}{{cite magazine |url=https://ew.com/article/2016/12/13/collateral-beauty-reviews-roundup/ |title=Collateral Beauty reviews: Will Smith movie slammed by critics |first=Danielle |last=Jackson |date=13 December 2016 |magazine=Entertainment Weekly |access-date=31 December 2016 |archive-date=1 January 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170101165300/http://ew.com/article/2016/12/13/collateral-beauty-reviews-roundup/ |url-status=live }} In 2017, Mirren narrated Cries from Syria, a documentary film about the Syrian Civil War, directed by Evgeny Afineevsky.{{cite magazine |url=https://variety.com/2017/film/markets-festivals/hbo-cries-from-syria-1201957096/ |title=HBO Nabs 'Cries From Syria' Documentary Ahead of Sundance |first=Brent |last=Lang |date=10 January 2017 |magazine=Variety |access-date=25 February 2017 |archive-date=25 February 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170225132555/http://variety.com/2017/film/markets-festivals/hbo-cries-from-syria-1201957096/ |url-status=live }} Also that year, she made an uncredited cameo appearance in F. Gary Gray's The Fate of the Furious, the eighth instalment in the Fast & Furious franchise, playing Magdalene, the mother of Owen and Deckard Shaw.{{cite web |url=https://www.cinemablend.com/news/1635570/how-helen-mirren-ended-up-in-the-fate-of-the-furious-according-to-vin-diesel |title=How Helen Mirren Ended Up In The Fate Of The Furious, According To Vin Diesel |first=Gregory |last=Wakeman |date=14 March 2017 |website=CinemaBlend |access-date=25 October 2017 |archive-date=23 June 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180623112824/https://www.cinemablend.com/news/1635570/how-helen-mirren-ended-up-in-the-fate-of-the-furious-according-to-vin-diesel |url-status=live }} Mirren had a larger role in director Paolo Virzì's English-language debut The Leisure Seeker, based on the 2009 novel of the same name. On set, she was reunited with Donald Sutherland with whom she had not worked again since Bethune: The Making of a Hero (1990),{{cite magazine |url=https://variety.com/2016/film/festivals/cannes-helen-mirren-and-donald-sutherland-to-topline-paolo-virzis-the-leisure-seeker-exclusive-1201772430/ |title=Cannes: Helen Mirren and Donald Sutherland to Topline Paolo Virzì's 'The Leisure Seeker' |first1=Nick |last1=Vivarelli |first2=Elsa |last2=Keslassy |date=12 May 2016 |magazine=Variety |access-date=20 October 2019 |archive-date=7 July 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190707225752/https://variety.com/2016/film/festivals/cannes-helen-mirren-and-donald-sutherland-to-topline-paolo-virzis-the-leisure-seeker-exclusive-1201772430/ |url-status=live }} portraying a terminally ill couple who escape from their retirement home and take one last cross-country adventure in a vintage van.{{cite web |url=https://deadline.com/2016/05/helen-mirren-donald-sutherland-team-up-for-the-leisure-seeker-cannes-1201754273/ |title=Helen Mirren & Donald Sutherland Team For 'The Leisure Seeker' – Cannes |first=Ali |last=Jaafar |date=12 May 2016 |website=Deadline Hollywood |access-date=20 October 2019 |archive-date=2 November 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191102162420/https://deadline.com/2016/05/helen-mirren-donald-sutherland-team-up-for-the-leisure-seeker-cannes-1201754273/ |url-status=live }} At the 75th awards ceremony, Mirren received her 15th Golden Globe nomination.{{cite web |url=https://variety.com/2017/film/news/golden-globe-nominations-2018-nominees-full-list-1202634435/ |title=Golden Globe Nominations: Complete List |first=Rebecca |last=Rubin |date=11 December 2017 |magazine=Variety |access-date=11 December 2017 |archive-date=14 December 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171214021531/http://variety.com/2017/film/news/golden-globe-nominations-2018-nominees-full-list-1202634435/ |url-status=live }}

In 2018, Mirren portrayed heiress Sarah Winchester in the supernatural horror film Winchester, directed by The Spierig Brothers.{{cite web |url=https://deadline.com/2016/05/helen-mirren-takes-aim-at-playing-firearm-heiress-in-hot-cannes-package-winchester-1201755962/ |title=Helen Mirren Takes Aim At Playing Firearm Heiress In Hot Cannes Package 'Winchester' |first=Mike Jr. |last=Fleming |date=14 May 2016 |website=Deadline Hollywood |access-date=16 March 2017 |archive-date=12 June 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180612184437/https://deadline.com/2016/05/helen-mirren-takes-aim-at-playing-firearm-heiress-in-hot-cannes-package-winchester-1201755962/ |url-status=live }} In the same year, she starred as Mother Ginger in Disney's adaptation of The Nutcracker, titled The Nutcracker and the Four Realms, directed by Lasse Hallström and Joe Johnston.{{cite magazine |url=https://variety.com/2016/film/news/helen-mirren-nutcracker-disney-1201844942/ |title=Helen Mirren Joins Disney's 'The Nutcracker' |last=Kroll |first=Justin |date=25 August 2016 |magazine=Variety |access-date=1 April 2017 |archive-date=1 April 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170401232621/http://variety.com/2016/film/news/helen-mirren-nutcracker-disney-1201844942/ |url-status=live }} In 2019, she appeared in the ensemble film Berlin, I Love You, the French crime thriller film Anna, directed and written by Luc Besson, and co-starred in the Fast and the Furious spin-off Hobbs & Shaw.{{cite magazine |url=https://variety.com/2017/film/news/luc-besson-anna-helen-mirren-luke-evans-1202584144/ |title=Luc Besson Sets Next Film 'Anna' With Helen Mirren, Luke Evans |first1=Elsa |last1=Keslassy |last2=Kroll |first2=Justin |date=9 October 2017 |magazine=Variety |access-date=7 November 2017 |archive-date=9 December 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171209211235/http://variety.com/2017/film/news/luc-besson-anna-helen-mirren-luke-evans-1202584144/ |url-status=live }}

In March 2021, Mirren was cast as the villain Hespera in the superhero film Shazam! Fury of the Gods.{{cite web |last=Kroll |first=Justin |date=23 March 2021 |title='Shazam: Fury Of The Gods': Helen Mirren To Play Villain Hespera In Sequel |url=https://deadline.com/2021/03/shazam-fury-of-the-gods-helen-mirren-villain-hespera-zachary-levi-1234720297/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210323221810/https://deadline.com/2021/03/shazam-fury-of-the-gods-helen-mirren-villain-hespera-zachary-levi-1234720297/ |archive-date=23 March 2021 |access-date=23 March 2021 |website=Deadline Hollywood}} She also appeared in the 2022 music video for Kendrick Lamar's "Count Me Out" as a therapist.{{citation |title=Kendrick Lamar – Count Me Out | date=16 December 2022 |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5GhhVHpPR_M |access-date=22 December 2022 |archive-date=22 December 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221222000623/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5GhhVHpPR_M |url-status=live }} Since 2022, she portrays Cara Dutton in the Yellowstone spinoff 1923, which also features Harrison Ford and Timothy Dalton. Mirren portrayed Golda Meir, prime minister of Israel from 1969 to 1974, in a 2023 biopic entitled Golda. Reviewing the film in Variety, Owen Gleiberman wrote that "Mirren makes her terse, decisive, and ferociously alive."{{cite web |last=Gleiberman |first=Owen |title=Golda' Review: Helen Mirren Channels Golda Meir in a Tense Dramatization of the Yom Kippur War |url=https://variety.com/2023/film/reviews/golda-review-helen-mirren-golda-meir-1973-yom-kippur-war-1235529163/ |website=Variety |date=20 February 2023 |access-date=18 June 2023 |archive-date=18 June 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230618202705/https://variety.com/2023/film/reviews/golda-review-helen-mirren-golda-meir-1973-yom-kippur-war-1235529163/ |url-status=live }} She played the narrator in Greta Gerwig's satirical comedy Barbie (2023).{{cite magazine|url= https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2022/12/helen-mirren-barbie-movie-trailer|title= Helen Mirren Confirms That Was Her in the Barbie Trailer—And There's More|magazine= Vanity Fair|accessdate= November 20, 2024}}

File:Helen Mirren figure at Madame Tussauds London.jpg, London]]

Mirren lived with Northern Irish actor Liam Neeson during the early 1980s; they met while working on Excalibur (1981). When interviewed by James Lipton for Inside the Actors Studio, Neeson said Mirren was instrumental in his getting an agent.

In 1985 on the set of White Nights, Mirren met American director Taylor Hackford. The pair began dating in 1986. The couple married on 31 December 1997, Hackford's 53rd birthday, at the Ardersier Parish Church near Inverness in the Scottish Highlands.{{cite news |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/05/30/dame-helen-mirren-fights-sewage-plant-plan-in-quiet-fishing-vill/ |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220110/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/05/30/dame-helen-mirren-fights-sewage-plant-plan-in-quiet-fishing-vill/ |archive-date=10 January 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live |title=Dame Helen Mirren fights sewage plant plan in quiet fishing village where she got married |date=30 May 2016 |newspaper=The Daily Telegraph |location=London |access-date=20 January 2018}}{{cbignore}} It is her first marriage and his third. He has two children from his previous marriages. She has no children herself, and has stated that she has "no maternal instinct whatsoever". She added, "I'm so happy I don't have children. But I do love children and I've got family, and Taylor has children that I'm involved with - and with great pleasure - but it's just not for me."{{cite web |url=http://www.contactmusic.com/news.nsf/article/mirren%20i%20have%20no%20maternal%20instinct_1023284 |title=Mirren: 'I Have No Maternal Instinct' |date=26 February 2007 |website=Contactmusic.com |access-date=20 October 2019 |archive-date=9 July 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090709020458/http://www.contactmusic.com/news.nsf/article/mirren%20i%20have%20no%20maternal%20instinct_1023284 |url-status=live }} Mirren's autobiography, In the Frame: My Life in Words and Pictures, was published in the UK by Weidenfeld & Nicolson in September 2007. Reviewing for The Stage, John Thaxter wrote: "Sumptuously illustrated, at first sight it looks like another of those photo albums of the stars. But between the pictures there are almost 200 pages of densely printed text, an unusually frank story of her private and professional life, mainly in the theatre, the words clearly Mirren's own, delivered with forthright candour."{{cite news |title=In the Frame: My Life in Words and Pictures |last=Thaxter |first=John |date=1 November 2007 |newspaper=The Stage}}

In 2006, Mirren stated that she was never a member of any political party, but had wanted to see the defeat of the Conservative Party at the 1997 UK general election, calling them "appalling".{{cite web |title=Helen Mirren: Her crowning achievement |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/helen-mirren-her-crowning-achievement-412283.html |work=The Independent |first=Gerard|last=Gilbert|access-date=2 August 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220708131908/https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/helen-mirren-her-crowning-achievement-412283.html |archive-date=8 July 2022 |date=18 August 2006 |quote="I've never been a member of Labour, or any political party for that matter, but in 1997 I wanted to gCet rid of the Conservatives; wanted to get rid of that appalling lot." |url-status=live}} Mirren became a U.S. citizen in 2017 and voted in her first U.S. election in 2020.{{cite news |url=https://www.tahoedailytribune.com/news/oscar-winner-tahoe-resident-helen-mirren-casts-1st-american-vote |title=Oscar winner, Tahoe resident Helen Mirren casts 1st American vote |date=15 October 2020 |newspaper=Tahoe Daily Tribune |access-date=17 October 2020 |archive-date=16 October 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201016180946/https://www.tahoedailytribune.com/news/oscar-winner-tahoe-resident-helen-mirren-casts-1st-american-vote |url-status=live }}{{cite web |url=https://www.recordcourier.com/news/the-queen-casts-her-ballot-in-minden/ |newspaper=The Record-Courier |location=Gardnerville, Nevada |title='The Queen' casts her ballot in Minden |date=17 October 2020 |last=Hildebrand |first=Kurt |access-date=18 October 2020 |archive-date=16 January 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210116061403/https://www.recordcourier.com/news/the-queen-casts-her-ballot-in-minden/ |url-status=dead }} She supported Patricia Ackerman in her unsuccessful 2020 campaign against Mark Amodei in {{ushr|NV|2}}.{{cite web |last1=Jackson |first1=Hugh |title=Helen Mirren for governor |url=https://www.nevadacurrent.com/2020/10/20/helen-mirren-for-governor/ |publisher=Nevada Current |access-date=2 August 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201022204617/https://www.nevadacurrent.com/2020/10/20/helen-mirren-for-governor/ |archive-date=22 October 2020 |date=22 October 2020 |url-status=live}}

In an interview with Israel's Channel 12 in August 2023, Mirren expressed strong support for the country's existence, stating, "I believe in Israel because of the Holocaust." She said she opposed the direction the country was being taken by the Israeli government and its proposed judicial reform, but also opposed a cultural boycott and remained firmly supportive of the state. Reflecting on her first visit to Israel after the Six-Day War in 1967, she recalled, "I witnessed things that were wrong. I saw Arabs being thrown out of their houses in Jerusalem. But it was just the extraordinary magical energy of a country just beginning to put its roots in the ground. It was an amazing time to be here."{{Cite web |date=28 August 2023 |title=Helen Mirren: Israel must exist 'for eternity' because of the Holocaust |website=The Times of Israel |url=https://www.timesofisrael.com/helen-mirren-israel-must-exist-for-eternity-because-of-the-holocaust/ |access-date=1 March 2024 |archive-date=1 March 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240301191758/https://www.timesofisrael.com/helen-mirren-israel-must-exist-for-eternity-because-of-the-holocaust/ |url-status=live }}

In April 2021, Mirren took part in the music video "La Vacinada" (meaning the vaccinated woman in broken Spanish language) of Italian comedian and singer Checco Zalone.{{cite news| url=https://www.thetimes.com/uk/healthcare/article/checco-zalone-pokes-fun-at-helen-mirrens-age-in-viral-video-9xgd0q99d| title=Checco Zalone pokes fun at Helen Mirren's age in viral video| newspaper=The Times| location=London| date=1 May 2021| access-date=2 May 2021| url-access=subscription| archive-date=2 May 2021| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210502051609/https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/checco-zalone-pokes-fun-at-helen-mirrens-age-in-viral-video-9xgd0q99d| url-status=live}} In the song and video, Zalone jokes about the fact that, in times of COVID-19 pandemic, it is safer to have an affair with someone who has already been vaccinated against the virus, and as the elderly get vaccinated first, an older partner (played by Mirren in the video) is now the best choice.{{cite web |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/04/30/helen-mirren-joins-italys-best-known-comic-light-hearted-sketch/ |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220110/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/04/30/helen-mirren-joins-italys-best-known-comic-light-hearted-sketch/ |archive-date=10 January 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live |title='The Telegraph' recap: Helen Mirren joins Italy's best known comic in light-hearted sketch to promote Covid-19 vaccine |last=Squires |first=Nick |date=30 April 2021 |newspaper=The Daily Telegraph | location=London |access-date=30 April 2021}}{{cbignore}}

In 1990, Mirren said in an interview that she was an atheist.{{cite news |title=The Sunday Review Pages: Helen Mirren interview |last=Garfield |first=Simon |date=25 November 1990 |newspaper=The Independent |location=London |page=27 |quote=Sometimes I feel like a farmer during a war, someone who doesn't know very much about it and carries on digging, hoping for rain. But just the last few days I've had this terrible feeling of... doom. It's a, er, biblical, kind of Old Testament feeling. I'm an atheist, but I was suddenly thinking of those stories of the flood and punishment. Because we've become unbelievably greedy and destructive.}} In the August 2011 issue of Esquire, she said, "I am quite spiritual. I believed in fairies when I was a child. I still do sort of believe in the fairies. And the leprechauns. But I don't believe in God."{{cite magazine |url=http://www.esquire.com/features/what-ive-learned/helen-mirren-quotes-0811 |title=Helen Mirren: What I've Learned |last=Fussman |first=Cal |date=7 July 2011 |magazine=Esquire |access-date=8 January 2013 |archive-date=17 January 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130117095312/http://www.esquire.com/features/what-ive-learned/helen-mirren-quotes-0811 |url-status=live }}

In a 2008 interview with GQ, Mirren said she was date raped as a student, and had often taken cocaine at parties in her twenties and until the 1980s.{{cite news |url=http://www.cnn.com/2008/SHOWBIZ/09/01/helen.mirren.rape/index.html |title=Dame Helen Mirren in date-rape revelation |date=1 September 2008 |work=CNN |access-date=1 September 2008 |archive-date=2 September 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080902005550/http://www.cnn.com/2008/SHOWBIZ/09/01/helen.mirren.rape/index.html |url-status=live }}{{cite news |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/mirren-talks-of-her-daterapes-then-provokes-furore-with-views-on-sex-attackers-914596.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220509/https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/mirren-talks-of-her-daterapes-then-provokes-furore-with-views-on-sex-attackers-914596.html |archive-date=9 May 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live |title=Mirren talks of her date-rapes, then provokes furore with views on sex attackers |first=Jerome |last=Taylor |date=1 September 2008 |newspaper=The Independent |location=London |access-date=1 September 2008}} She stopped using it after reading that Klaus Barbie made a living from cocaine dealing.{{cite web |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/7591142.stm |title=Dame Helen in cocaine admission |date=1 September 2008 |website=BBC News |access-date=20 October 2019 |archive-date=12 September 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190912145136/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/7591142.stm |url-status=live }}{{cite news |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/celebritynews/2656943/The-Queen-actress-Dame-Helen-Mirren-reveals-former-love-of-cocaine.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080901101327/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/celebritynews/2656943/The-Queen-actress-Dame-Helen-Mirren-reveals-former-love-of-cocaine.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=1 September 2008 |title='The Queen' actress Dame Helen Mirren reveals former love of cocaine |last=Simpson |first=Aislinn |date=31 August 2008 |newspaper=The Daily Telegraph |location=London |access-date=20 October 2019}}

She told the Radio Times, "I'm a naturist at heart. I love being on beaches where everyone is naked. Ugly people, beautiful people, old people, whatever. It's so unisexual and so liberating."{{cite news |url=http://www.radiotimes.com/news/2014-09-19/celebrity-nudists-the-stars-who-like-to-let-it-all-hang-out |title=Celebrity nudists: the stars who like to let it all hang out |date=19 September 2014 |magazine=Radio Times |location=London |access-date=26 August 2015 |archive-date=11 August 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150811031725/http://www.radiotimes.com/news/2014-09-19/celebrity-nudists-the-stars-who-like-to-let-it-all-hang-out |url-status=live }} In 2004, she was named Naturist of the Year by British Naturism. She said: "Many thanks to British Naturism for this great honour. I do believe in naturism and am my happiest on a nude beach with people of all ages and races!"{{cite press release |url=http://www.bn.org.uk/articles.php/_/news/pressreleases/dame-helen-mirren-named-naturist-of-the-ye-r93 |title=Dame Helen Mirren named 'Naturist of the Year' |date=8 January 2012 |publisher=British Naturism |access-date=26 August 2015 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151004094251/http://www.bn.org.uk/articles.php/_/news/pressreleases/dame-helen-mirren-named-naturist-of-the-ye-r93 |archive-date=4 October 2015 }}

On 11 May 2010, Mirren attended the unveiling of her waxwork at Madame Tussauds in London. In 2012, she was among the British cultural icons selected by artist Sir Peter Blake to appear in a new version of his most famous artwork—The Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band album cover—to celebrate the British cultural figures of his life that he most admired.{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2012/apr/02/peter-blake-sgt-pepper-cover-revisited |title=New faces on Sgt Pepper album cover for artist Peter Blake's 80th birthday |first=Caroline |last=Davies |date=2 April 2012 |newspaper=The Guardian |location=London |access-date=20 October 2019 |archive-date=5 November 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161105095109/https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2012/apr/02/peter-blake-sgt-pepper-cover-revisited |url-status=live }}{{cite news |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-17583026 |title=Sir Peter Blake's new Beatles' Sgt Pepper's album cover |date=2 April 2012 |website=BBC News |access-date=20 October 2019 |archive-date=3 January 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170103234105/http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-17583026 |url-status=live }} In 2010, she was named Sexiest Woman Alive by Esquire, and in a 2011 photo shoot for the magazine, she stripped down and covered up with the Union Jack.{{cite news |title=Helen Mirren shows off her patriotism in Esquire photo shoot |date=15 July 2011 |url=https://uk.style.yahoo.com/helen-mirren-shows-off-her-patriotism-in-esquire-photo-shoot.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvLnVrLw&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAL-vIbYr3zdTdvehdRUc0lnYjJRXjrH4_m5WPohtumjKkQF5ZjHQLJtDu-wBH128akA-SIGhwuqIxJGGVah71ko93k0SrMjCBGWYNe6o4pAX1bMxdQKNuPUDWP0gRMadkT21jNy7mPWtoRB9gY_JEBadANEeCY_pMxeHk9kSdO2G |access-date=1 March 2022 |website=Yahoo! |archive-date=25 June 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220625054050/https://uk.style.yahoo.com/helen-mirren-shows-off-her-patriotism-in-esquire-photo-shoot.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvLnVrLw&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAL-vIbYr3zdTdvehdRUc0lnYjJRXjrH4_m5WPohtumjKkQF5ZjHQLJtDu-wBH128akA-SIGhwuqIxJGGVah71ko93k0SrMjCBGWYNe6o4pAX1bMxdQKNuPUDWP0gRMadkT21jNy7mPWtoRB9gY_JEBadANEeCY_pMxeHk9kSdO2G |url-status=live }}

In 2013, Mirren was announced as one of several new models for Marks & Spencer's "Womanism" campaign. Subtitled "Britain's leading ladies", the campaign featured Mirren alongside British women from various fields, including pop singer Ellie Goulding, double Olympic gold medal-winning boxer Nicola Adams, and writer Monica Ali.{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/fashion/fashion-blog/2013/aug/19/marks-spencer-new-ad-annie-leibowitz |title=Marks & Spencer's new ad: what does it mean? |first=Lauren |last=Cochrane |date=19 August 2013 |newspaper=The Guardian |location=London |access-date=20 October 2019 |archive-date=7 November 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161107015822/https://www.theguardian.com/fashion/fashion-blog/2013/aug/19/marks-spencer-new-ad-annie-leibowitz |url-status=live }} In March 2013, The Guardian listed Mirren as one of the 50 Best-Dressed Over 50.{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/fashion/gallery/2013/mar/29/50-best-dressed-over-50s |title=The 50 best-dressed over 50s |first=Jess |last=Cartner-Morley |date=29 March 2013 |newspaper=The Guardian |location=London |access-date=20 October 2019 |archive-date=10 January 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190110175602/https://www.theguardian.com/fashion/gallery/2013/mar/29/50-best-dressed-over-50s |url-status=live }} In March 2024, to commemorate the 65th anniversary of International Women's Day, Mirren was one of a number of female celebrities who had their likeness turned into Barbie dolls.{{cite news|url=https://virginradio.co.uk/entertainment/137652/helen-mirren-kylie-minogue-turned-into-barbie-dolls-international-womens-day|title=Helen Mirren and Kylie Minogue have Barbie dolls made for 65th anniversary and International Women's Day|date=6 March 2024|work=Virgin Radio UK|accessdate=18 March 2024|archive-date=18 March 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240318235747/https://virginradio.co.uk/entertainment/137652/helen-mirren-kylie-minogue-turned-into-barbie-dolls-international-womens-day|url-status=live}}

{{main|Helen Mirren on screen and stage|List of awards and nominations received by Helen Mirren}}

Among her major competitive awards, Mirren has won one Academy Award, four BAFTA Awards, three Golden Globe Awards, five Emmy Awards, and one Tony Award. She is the recipient of numerous accolades and is the only performer to have achieved both the American and the British Triple Crowns of Acting. Her numerous honorary awards include the BAFTA Fellowship from the British Academy of Film and Television Arts and Gala Tribute presented by the Film Society of Lincoln Center{{cite web |url=http://www.bafta.org/film/awards/helen-mirren-fellowship-2014,4076,BA.html |title=Dame Helen Mirren – BAFTA Fellow in 2014 |date=26 January 2014 |website=BAFTA |access-date=26 January 2014 |archive-date=25 October 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141025132059/http://www.bafta.org/film/awards/helen-mirren-fellowship-2014,4076,BA.html |url-status=live }}{{citation |url=https://www.filmlinc.org/daily/45th-chaplin-award-gala-will-honor-helen-mirren/ |title=45th Chaplin Award Gala Will Honor Helen Mirren |website=Film Society of Lincoln Center |date=14 October 2017 |access-date=5 November 2017 |archive-date=7 November 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171107030632/https://www.filmlinc.org/daily/45th-chaplin-award-gala-will-honor-helen-mirren/ |url-status=live }} as well as a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2013,{{cite web |url=http://news.sky.com/story/1033143/helen-mirren-gets-hollywood-walk-of-fame-star |title=Helen Mirren Gets Hollywood Walk of Fame Star |date=4 January 2013 |website=Sky News |access-date=20 October 2019 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130116224406/http://news.sky.com/story/1033143/helen-mirren-gets-hollywood-walk-of-fame-star |archive-date=16 January 2013}} the Honorary Golden Bear in 2020,{{cite web|url= https://deadline.com/2019/12/helen-mirren-berlin-film-festival-golden-bear-1202800247/|title= Berlin Film Festival To Fete Helen Mirren With Honorary Golden Bear & Homage|website= Deadline Hollywood|accessdate= November 21, 2024}} and Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award in 2022.{{cite web |last1=Grater |first1=Tom |title=Helen Mirren To Receive SAG Life Achievement Award |url=https://deadline.com/2021/11/helen-mirren-sag-life-achievement-award-1234876685/ |website=Deadline |date=18 November 2021 |access-date=November 20, 2021 |archive-date=20 November 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211120035425/https://deadline.com/2021/11/helen-mirren-sag-life-achievement-award-1234876685/ |url-status=live }}

In the Queen's 2003 Birthday Honours, Mirren was appointed a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) for services to drama, with investiture taking place at Buckingham Palace in December. For playing Jane Tennison in ITV's Prime Suspect, in 2006, the British public ranked her number 29 in ITV's poll of TV's 50 Greatest Stars.{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/5142726.stm|title=ITV to salute '50 greatest stars'|date=3 July 2006|publisher=BBC News|access-date=14 March 2025}} In January 2009, Mirren was named on The Times' list of the top 10 British actresses of all time. The list included Julie Andrews, Helena Bonham Carter, Judi Dench and Audrey Hepburn.{{Cite news |url=http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/film/article5502980.ece |title=The best British film actresses of all time |date=12 January 2009 |newspaper=The Times |location=London |first=James |last=Christopher |access-date=27 May 2020 |url-access=subscription |archive-date=27 November 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211127204102/https://www.the-tls.co.uk/ |url-status=dead }} In 2021, Mirren was named by Carnegie Corporation of New York as an honoree of the Great Immigrants Award.{{Cite web |title=Helen Mirren |url=https://www.carnegie.org/awards/honoree/helen-mirren/ |access-date=June 11, 2024 |website=Carnegie Corporation of New York}}{{Cite web |date=June 30, 2021 |title=Carnegie Corporation of New York Honors 34 Great Immigrants for Their Contributions to Our Democracy |url=https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210630005084/en/Carnegie-Corporation-of-New-York-Honors-34-Great-Immigrants-for-Their-Contributions-to-Our-Democracy |access-date=June 18, 2021 |website=Business Wire}}

• {{cite book| last=Mirren| first=Helen| title=In the Frame: My Life in Words and Pictures| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BoEtOA98XQAC| publisher=Simon & Schuster| year=2011| isbn=978-1-4165-7341-8}}

• List of British actors
• List of Academy Award winners and nominees from Great Britain
• List of actors with Academy Award nominations
• List of actors with two or more Academy Award nominations in acting categories
• List of Primetime Emmy Award winners
• List of Golden Globe winners

{{Reflist|refs=

{{cite web |url=https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2015/11/helen-mirren-nude-scene |title=Helen Mirren Reveals The One Nude Scene She Didn't Mind Filming |last=Miller |first=Julie |date=19 November 2015 |magazine=Vanity Fair |access-date=8 May 2016 |archive-date=18 July 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170718230255/http://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2015/11/helen-mirren-nude-scene |url-status=live }}

{{cite web |url=http://www.people.com/article/helen-mirren-talks-nude-scenes |title=Helen Mirren Reveals Her Favorite Nude Scenes Were for Caligula: 'Everyone Was Naked' |last=McNiece |first=Mia |date=19 November 2015 |magazine=People |access-date=8 May 2016 |archive-date=20 May 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160520102848/http://www.people.com/article/helen-mirren-talks-nude-scenes |url-status=live }}

}}

• {{cite book| last=Ward| first=Philip| year=2019| title=Becoming Helen Mirren| publisher=Troubador Press| isbn=978-1-8385-9714-6| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Zh-3DwAAQBAJ&q=becoming+helen+mirren| access-date=March 1, 2022}} A survey of the actor's early career.

{{sister project links|b=no|commons=Category:Helen Mirren|d=Q349391|n=no|q=Helen Mirren|s=no|v=no|wikt=no}}

• {{Official website|http://www.helenmirren.com/}}
• {{IMDb name|545}}
• {{IBDB name|53256}}
• {{screenonline name| 465461 }}
• {{Playbill person|helen-mirren-vault-0000099983}}
• {{Charlie Rose view|260}}
• {{NYTtopic|people/m/helen_mirren}}

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|title = Awards for Helen Mirren

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{{Academy Award Best Actress}}

{{AARP Movies for Grownups Award for Best Actress}}

{{AARP Movies for Grownups Award for Best Grownup Love Story}}

{{BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role}}

{{BAFTA Academy Fellowship Award}}

{{British Academy Television Award for Best Actress}}

{{Boston Society of Film Critics Award for Best Actress}}

{{BAFTA Los Angeles Britannia Awards}}

{{Cannes Film Festival Best Actress Award}}

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{{Dallas–Fort Worth Film Critics Association Award for Best Actress}}

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{{Children's and Family Emmy Award Outstanding Children's Personality}}

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{{European Film Award for Best Actress}}

{{European Film Academy Achievement in World Cinema Award}}

{{Evening Standard British Film Award for Best Actress}}

{{Evening Standard Theatre Award for Best Actress}}

{{Lincoln Center Gala Tribute}}

{{Florida Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actress}}

{{Golden Globe Award Best Actress Motion Picture Drama}}

{{Golden Globe Best Actress TV Miniseries Film}}

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{{Hasty Pudding Woman of the Year}}

{{Honorary Golden Bear}}

{{OlivierAward PlayActress}}

{{London Film Critics Circle Award for British Actress of the Year}}

{{London Film Critics Circle Award for British Supporting Actress of the Year}}

{{Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award for Best Actress}}

{{National Board of Review Award for Best Actress}}

{{National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Actress}}

{{National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Supporting Actress}}

{{New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actress}}

{{New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Supporting Actress}}

{{Online Film Critics Society Award for Best Actress}}

{{RTS Programme Award for Best Performance by a Female Actor}}

{{San Diego Film Critics Society Award for Best Actress}}

{{San Francisco Bay Area Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actress}}

{{Satellite Award Best Actress Motion Picture}}

{{Satellite Award Best Actress Television Series Drama}}

{{Satellite Award Best Actress Television Miniseries or Film}}

{{Satellite Award Best Supporting Actress Series Miniseries or Television Film}}

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{{Screen Actors Guild Lifetime Achievement Award}}

{{Stanislavsky Award}}

{{St. Louis Gateway Film Critics Association Award for Best Actress}}

{{TonyAward PlayLeadActress}}

{{TFCA Award for Best Actress}}

{{Vancouver Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actress}}

{{Volpi Cup for Best Actress}}

{{Washington D.C. Area Film Critics Association Award for Best Actress}}

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{{Triple Crown of Acting winners}}

{{British Triple Crown of Acting winners}}

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Category:1945 births

Category:Living people

Category:20th-century English actresses

Category:21st-century English actresses

Category:Actors from the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham

Category:Actresses awarded damehoods

Category:Actresses from Essex

Category:Actresses from London

Category:Alumni of Middlesex University

Category:Audiobook narrators

Category:BAFTA fellows

Category:Best Actress Academy Award winners

Category:Best Actress BAFTA Award winners

Category:Best Actress BAFTA Award (television) winners

Category:Best Drama Actress Golden Globe (film) winners

Category:Best Miniseries or Television Movie Actress Golden Globe winners

Category:British naturists

Category:British Zionists

Category:Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Actress winners

Category:Dames Commander of the Order of the British Empire

Category:English atheists

Category:English film actresses

Category:English people of Russian descent

Category:English radio actresses

Category:English Shakespearean actresses

Category:English expatriate actresses in the United States

Category:English stage actresses

Category:English television actresses

Category:English voice actresses

Category:European Film Award for Best Actress winners

Category:Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences

Category:Golden Orange Honorary Award winners

Category:Honorary Golden Bear recipients

Category:Laurence Olivier Award winners

Category:National Youth Theatre members

Category:Naturalized citizens of the United States

Category:Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture Screen Actors Guild Award winners

Category:Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role Screen Actors Guild Award winners

Category:Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Miniseries or Television Movie Screen Actors Guild Award winners

Category:Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role Screen Actors Guild Award winners

Category:Outstanding Performance by a Lead Actress in a Miniseries or Movie Primetime Emmy Award winners

Category:People from Hammersmith

Category:People from Westcliff-on-Sea

Category:Royal Shakespeare Company members

Category:Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award

Category:Tony Award winners

Category:Volpi Cup for Best Actress winners