Helen Mirren
English actor; only person to achieve both US and UK Triple Crowns of Acting.
Dame Helen Mirren, born Ilyena Lydia Mironoff on 26 July 1945, is an English actor widely considered one of Britain’s finest. Her career has earned her an Academy Award, three Golden Globes, four BAFTAs, five Emmys, a Tony, two Cannes prizes, a Volpi Cup, and a Laurence Olivier Award. She is the only performer to have completed both the US and UK Triple Crowns of Acting. Additional honors include the BAFTA Fellowship, an Honorary Golden Bear, the Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award, and the Cecil B. DeMille Award. In 2003, Queen Elizabeth II made her a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire.
Mirren’s early life began at Queen Charlotte’s and Chelsea Hospital in London’s Hammersmith district. Her mother, Kathleen “Kitty” Alexandrina Eva Matilda Rogers, was a working-class woman from West Ham, one of fourteen children whose grandfather had been a butcher to Queen Victoria. Her father, Vasily Petrovich Mironoff, came from exiled Russian nobility with roots stretching back to the 15th century. He was brought to England at age two by his own father, Pyotr Vasilievich Mironov, a colonel in the Imperial Russian Army and a diplomat for Nicholas II who was stranded in Britain by the 1917 Revolution and later drove a cab. Vasily played viola with the London Philharmonic before World War II, served as an ambulance driver during the Blitz, and after the war worked as a driving examiner and civil servant. He anglicized his first name to Basil and changed the family surname to Mirren by deed poll in 1951. Mirren describes her upbringing as “very anti-monarchist.” She is the second of three children, with older sister Katherine and younger brother Peter, who died in 2002. Her paternal cousin was model and Bond girl Tania Mallet. The family lived in Leigh-on-Sea, Essex.
She attended Hamlet Court primary school in Westcliff-on-Sea, where she played the lead in *Hansel and Gretel*, and St Bernard’s High School for Girls in Southend-on-Sea, acting in school productions. She then studied at the New College of Speech and Drama in London, housed in Anna Pavlova’s former home. At eighteen, she auditioned for the National Youth Theatre and was accepted; at twenty, she played Cleopatra in their production of *Antony and Cleopatra* at the Old Vic, a role she says “launched my career” and led to signing with agent Albert Parker.
Her professional stage career began
- born
- 26 July 1945, Hammersmith, London, England
- field
- Actor
- nationality
- English
- known_for
- Portrayals of Queen Elizabeth II and Queen Elizabeth I; Prime Suspect; US and UK Triple Crowns of Acting
Lore & Background
Helen Mirren was born Ilyena Lydia Mironoff on 26 July 1945 at Queen Charlotte's and Chelsea Hospital in Hammersmith, London, to an English mother and Russian father. Her father, Vasily Petrovich Mironoff, was a member of an exiled family of Russian nobility; he anglicised his first name to Basil and changed the family name to Mirren by deed poll in 1951. Mirren was brought up in Leigh-on-Sea, Essex, and attended Hamlet Court primary school and St Bernard's High School for Girls, later studying at the New College of Speech and Drama in London. At age eighteen, she passed the audition for the National Youth Theatre, and at twenty played Cleopatra in their production of Antony and Cleopatra, a role she says launched her career.
Reader's Guide
Mirren's career began with the National Youth Theatre and the Royal Shakespeare Company, where she performed in numerous classic plays. She gained film recognition with roles in O Lucky Man!, Caligula, The Long Good Friday, Excalibur, and The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover. She won the Academy Award for Best Actress for portraying Elizabeth II in The Queen (2006), and also received Oscar nominations for The Madness of King George, Gosford Park, and The Last Station. On television, she played DCI Jane Tennison in Prime Suspect (1991–2006), earning three BAFTA TV Awards and two Primetime Emmys. She also won Emmys for portraying Ayn Rand and Queen Elizabeth I. Mirren was made a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) by Queen Elizabeth II in 2003. Her significance lies in her versatility across stage, film, and television, and her unique achievement of both the US and UK Triple Crowns of Acting.
Did You Know?
- Mirren is the only person to have achieved both the US and UK Triple Crowns of Acting.
- She was made a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) by Queen Elizabeth II in 2003.
- Her paternal cousin was Tania Mallet, a model and Bond girl.
- She played Cleopatra in the National Youth Theatre production of Antony and Cleopatra at age twenty, which she says launched her career.
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