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Helen Mirren: Rated As Hottest Women Above 60
 Helen Mirren is 68 years of age. She has been selected by Askmen.com as the Sexiest Lady Over 60. She was born on 26th July 1945. Dame Helen Lydia Mirren, DBE
(n�e Mironoff ), is an English actor. Mirren has won an Academy Award for Best
Actress, four BAFTAs, three Golden Globes, four Emmy Awards, and two Cannes Film
Festival Best Actress Awards. In 2003, she received a damehood for services to
the performing arts at a ceremony at Buckingham Palace.
Mirren began her acting career with the Royal Shakespeare Company in the latter
half of the 1960s. From her very first film appearance (playing the young muse
to a middle-aged artist in 1969�s Age of Consent), Mirren displayed the overtly
sensual screen persona that would become her trademark. Other early movies
included O Lucky Man! (1973), Excalibur (1981) and The Long Good Friday (1982).
During her career, she has portrayed three British queens in different films and
television series: Elizabeth I in the television series Elizabeth I (2005), for
which she received Emmy and Golden Globe Awards for Best Actress, Elizabeth II
in The Queen (2006), which won her the Academy and BAFTA Award for Best Actress,
and Queen Charlotte in The Madness of King George (1994), for which she earned
an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress. She is the only actress
ever to have portrayed both Queens Elizabeth on the screen.
Mirren played the no-nonsense police detective Jane Tennison on the praised ITV
series Prime Suspect for a total of seven seasons from 1991 to 2006, and won
numerous awards for the role, including BAFTA and Emmy awards. Making her West
End stage debut in the 1970s, Mirren returned to the London stage most recently
in 2013, playing Queen Elizabeth II for the second time in a play titled The
Audience. Mirren was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in January
2013. In April 2013, she was awarded best actress at the Laurence Olivier Awards
for her portrayal of Queen Elizabeth II in The Audience.
Mirren was born Helen Lydia Mironoff in Queen Charlotte's Hospital, Hammersmith,
London. Her father, Vasiliy Petrovich Mironov (1913�1980), was of Russian
origin, originally from Kuryanovo, Smolensk Oblast, and her mother, Kitty (n�e
Kathleen Alexandrina Eva Matilda Rogers; 1909�1996), was English. Mirren's
paternal grandfather, Colonel Pyotr Vasilievich Mironov, was in the Imperial
Russian Army and fought in the 1904 Russo-Japanese War. He later became a
diplomat, and was negotiating an arms deal in Britain when he and his family
were stranded during the Russian Revolution. The former diplomat became a London
cab driver to support his family and eventually settled down in England.
His son, Helen Mirren's father, changed the family name to Mirren in the 1950s
and became known as Basil Mirren. He played the viola with the London
Philharmonic before World War II, and later drove a taxi cab and was a
driving-test examiner, before becoming a civil servant with the Ministry of
Transport. Mirren's mother was a working-class Londoner from West Ham, East
London, and was the 13th of 14 children born to a butcher whose own father had
been the butcher to Queen Victoria. Mirren considers her upbringing to have been
"very anti-monarchist". Mirren was the second of three children; she was born
two years after her older sister Katherine ("Kate"; born 1942), and has a
younger brother, who was named Peter Basil after his grandfather and
great-great-grandfather. Mirren was brought up in Leigh-on-Sea, Essex.
Mirren attended St Bernard's High School for Girls in Southend-on-Sea, where she
acted in school productions, and subsequently a teaching college, the New
College of Speech and Drama in London, "housed within Anna Pavlova's old home,
Ivy House" on the North End Road � which leads from Golders Green to Hampstead,
N. London. Aged eighteen, she auditioned for the National Youth Theatre and was
accepted. By the time she was 20, she was playing Cleopatra in the NYT
production of Antony and Cleopatra at the Old Vic, which led to her signing with
the agent Al Parker.
As a result of her work for the NYT, 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), Phebe 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.
 In 1970, the director/producer John Goldschmidt made a documentary film, Doing
Her Own Thing, about Mirren during her time with the Royal Shakespeare Company.
The film was made for ATV and 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.
It was reported by Sally Beauman, in her 1982 history of the RSC, that Mirren�while
appearing in Nunn's Macbeth (1974), and in a highly publicised letter to The
Guardian newspaper�had sharply criticized 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..." According to Beauman, there were no discernible repercussions
for this rebuke of the RSC.
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. "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."
(John Thaxter, Richmond & Twickenham Times, 4 March 1994).
Mirren was twice nominated for Broadway's Tony Award as Best Actress (Play): in
1995 for her Broadway debut in A Month in the Country, now directed by Scott
Ellis ("Miss Mirren's performance is bigger and more animated than the one she
gave last year in an entirely different London production", Vincent Canby in the
NY Times, 26 April 1995). Then again in 2002 for August Strindberg's 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 (as
recorded in her In the Frame autobiography, September 2007).
Mirren had an unhappy experience at the National Theatre in 1998 when she played
Cleopatra to Alan Rickman's Antony. 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."
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." (In the Frame, September 2007). She
played the tragic title role in Jean Racine's Ph�dre at the National in 2009, in
a production directed by Nicholas Hytner. The production was also staged at the
amphitheater of Epidaurus on 11 and 12 July 2009.
Mirren has also appeared in a large number of films throughout her career. Some
of her earlier film appearances include roles in Midsummer Night's Dream, Age of
Consent, O Lucky Man!, Caligula, Excalibur, 2010, The Long Good Friday, White
Nights, When the Whales Came and The Mosquito Coast. She appeared in Some
Mother's Son, Painted Lady, The Prince of Egypt and The Madness of King George.
One of her other film roles was in Peter Greenaway's The Cook, The Thief, His
Wife and Her Lover, as the eponymous thief's wife, opposite Michael Gambon. In
Teaching Mrs. Tingle she plays sadistic History teacher, Mrs Eve Tingle. In 2007
she claimed director Michael Winner had treated her "like a piece of meat" at a
casting call in 1964. 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 actress and I�m a huge fan, but her
memory of that moment is a little flawed.�
 Mirren continued her successful film career when she starred more recently in
Gosford Park with Maggie Smith and Calendar Girls where she starred with Julie
Walters. Other more recent appearances include The Clearing, Pride, Raising
Helen, and Shadowboxer. Mirren also provided the voice for the supercomputer
"Deep Thought" in the film adaptation of Douglas Adams' The Hitchhiker's Guide
to the Galaxy. During her career, she 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 Queen Charlotte, the
wife of George III, in The Madness of King George (1994). She is the only
actress ever to have portrayed both Queens Elizabeth on the screen.
Mirren's title role of The Queen earned her numerous acting awards including a
BAFTA, a Golden Globe, and an Academy Award, among many others. 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 as Queen. Mirren later appeared in supporting roles in
the films National Treasure 2: Book of Secrets, Inkheart, State of Play, and The
Last Station, for which she was nominated for an Oscar.
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 (Hebrew: Ha-khov). She played
Alfred Hitchcock's wife Alma in the 2012 biopic Hitchcock, about the making of
Psycho.
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 BAFTA Awards for Best Actress between 1992 and 1994. Some of
Mirren's other television performances include Cousin Bette (1971); As You Like
It (1979); Blue Remembered Hills (1979); The Twilight Zone episode "Dead Woman's
Shoes" (1985); The Passion of Ayn Rand (1999), where her performance won her
both the Emmy and the Golden Globe; Door to Door (2002); and The Roman Spring of
Mrs. Stone (2003).
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. She also played Elizabeth I in 2005, in the television serial
Elizabeth I, for Channel 4 and HBO, for which she received an Emmy Award. 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.
The Mars Volta on their 2008 album The Bedlam in Goliath have a song called "Ilyena"
that is named after Mirren. Mars Volta lyricist/singer Cedric Bixler-Zavala has
stated an affinity for Mirren.
Awards and nominations received by Helen Mirren.
 For her role in the film Cal, Mirren was voted Best Actress at both the 1984
Cannes Film Festival and the 1985 Evening Standard British Film Awards. In 1994
and 2001, she was nominated for the Best Supporting Actress Academy Award for
her roles in The Madness of King George and Gosford Park, respectively. In 1995,
she had also been awarded for Best Actress once again in Cannes for playing
Queen Charlotte in The Madness of King George.
In 2002, she received the SAG Award for Best Supporting Actress in a Motion
Picture for Gosford Park. Mirren is the first female actress to have been
nominated for three acting performances at the Golden Globe Awards in the same
year. She won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role in the
movie drama category for her performance in Stephen Frears' The Queen in 2006
(along with two nominations in the Best Actress in a Mini-series or TV Movie
category for Elizabeth I and Prime Suspect: Final Act). She also won two SAG
awards the same year for the same roles. Mirren is the third actor to win two
Golden Globes in the same year, and the first ever to win awards for lead roles
in TV and film in the same year. She is one of only three actresses (the first
was Liza Minnelli in 1973 and then decades later Helen Hunt) to win a Golden
Globe, an Oscar and an Emmy for performances given in the same year.
Along with the Golden Globe, Mirren's acclaimed performance in The Queen won her
the 2007 Academy Award for Best Actress. She also received Best Actress awards
from the Venice Film Festival, Broadcast Film Critics, National Board of Review,
Satellite Awards, Screen Actors Guild and a BAFTA, as well as critics awards
from all over the world. Entertainment Weekly recently ranked her Number 2 for
Entertainer of the Year for 2006 and also won the award for best actress in film
at the new Greatest Britons Awards for her role in The Queen. In 2007, Mirren
became an Honorary Patron of the University Philosophical Society at Trinity
College Dublin. She won the Best Actress award at the 2009 Rome International
Film Festival for her performance as Tolstoy's wife in The Last Statio.
Academy Award nominations
Best Actress
2006 � The Queen
2009 � The Last Station
Best Supporting Actress
1994 � The Madness of King George
2001 � Gosford Park
Mirren won a Golden Globe for Best Actress in a Leading Role in a Mini-series or
TV Movie in 1997 for her role in Losing Chase. She received two nominations in
the Actress in a Mini-series or TV Movie category for Elizabeth I, and Prime
Suspect: The Final Act, where she only won the Golden Globe for her title role
performance in Elizabeth I. In that same year she won an SAG award for that same
role. Mirren also won an Emmy for her role in Elizabeth I in category Lead
Actress in a Mini-Series or a Movie in 2006. She had previously won an Emmy
twice before, in that same category, in 1996 for her role in Prime Suspect:
Scent of Darkness and in 1999 for The Passion of Ayn Rand.
At the end of a triumphant year of awards for her acclaimed movie performance as
Queen Elizabeth II in The Queen, Dame Helen also collected a 2007 Emmy
Television award as Best Actress in a Mini-Series for her performance as
Detective Superintendent Jane Tennison in Prime Suspect: The Final Act. She now
has four Emmy awards. This seventh, and apparently concluding instalment, of the
Prime Suspect saga portrayed Tennison as an alcoholic destined for retirement.
It was screened in the US on the public service network PBS.
Emmy Awards
 Outstanding Lead Actress in a Miniseries or Movie
1993 � Prime Suspect 2
1994 � Prime Suspect 3
1996 � Prime Suspect 4: "Scent of Darkness" (Won)
1997 � Prime Suspect 5: Errors of Judgment
1999 � The Passion of Ayn Rand (Won)
2003 � The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone
2004 � Prime Suspect 6: The Last Witness
2006 � Elizabeth I (Won)
2007 � Prime Suspect: The Final Act (Won)
Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Miniseries or Movie
2003 � Door to Door
Dame Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire
On 5 December 2003, she was invested as a Dame Commander of the Most Excellent
Order of the British Empire (DBE). When she received the honour, Mirren
commented that Prince Charles was "very graceful" but forgot to give her half of
the award. Another person had to remind him to give Mirren the star. She also
said that she felt wary about accepting the award and had to be persuaded by
fellow comrades to accept the damehood. In 1996, she had declined appointment as
a Commander of the order (CBE)
Hollywood Walk of Fame
Mirren at a ceremony to receive a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in January
2013. On 3 January 2013, Helen Mirren received a star on the Hollywood Walk of
Fame, and joked about her star's proximity to that of The King's Speech actor
Colin Firth, stating: "I couldn't be prouder and more happy that I'm actually
going to finally lie next to Colin Firth, something I've been wanting to do for
a very long time."
Academy Awards: 2006 Best Actress The Queen Won
BAFTA Awards: 2006 Best Actress The Queen Won
Golden Globe Awards : 2006 Best Actress The Queen Won
Satellite Awards: 2006 Best Actress The Queen Won
Screen Actors Guild Awards: 2001 Outstanding Supporting Actress Gosford
Park Won
Outstanding Cast : Won
Outstanding Actress : 2006 The Queen Won
BAFTA Awards
1991 Best Actress Prime Suspect Won
1992 Best Actress Prime Suspect 2 Won
1993 Best Actress Prime Suspect 3 Won
Dated 11 November 2013
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