D
ame Helen Mirren may have become the most famous ‘Queen’ in the world, but the brilliant actress was not born into the aristocracy in 1945. Her real name is Illiana Mironoff. Her Russian father played viola with the London Philharmonic, and then became a taxi driver. Her mother was the
daughter of a butcher. At the age of nine, Illiana became Helen Mirren, when her father decided to change the family name.
Helen longed to act, and began her career with the National Youth Theatre, tread the boards doing Rep in Manchester, and then won a place with the Royal Shakespeare Company. This was where she honed her craft, playing endless Shakespearian heroines for four years, and continued to be a West End theatre star for much of the next 40 years. It was for her theatre work that she was awarded a DBE in 2003, far more than for her film and television success. It was Prime Suspect, Lynda La Plant’s television detective series, that made Mirren into a household name. The critically acclaimed series went on for 14 years in all – by which time Mirren had become a star in films as well. Since 1980, Mirren averaged almost two films a year; and in 1985, while filming
White Nights, she fell in love with the director Taylor Hackford. Helen finally broke her vow never to marry after being with Hackford for a dozen years, and at the age of 50 became his wife. In this time, she has been highly honoured with four Oscar nominations, four
BAFTAS, four Emmy awards, and numerous gongs from the Golden Globes, Evening Standard, Screen Actors Guild, etc. Helen wowed audiences in The Madness of King George, Gosford Park and The Last Station – but it was The Queen, of course, that finally set the huge star on her door – and on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Mirren like Meryl Streep, continues to show that a woman can still star in films despite being 50 + VAT. She was charming last year in The 100-Foot Journey, a light- weight film concoction; and has done a trio of more serious films – Trumbo, Woman in Gold and Eye in the Sky - that will hit cinemas this year. In Trumbo, based on the real-life, ‘40s Hollywood script writer who was blacklisted for his leftist political views, she plays Hedda Hopper, one of old Tinsel Town’s most famous gossip columnists. In Eye in the Sky, an international thriller set in the world of remotely piloted drone warfare, she stars as a military intelligence officer opposite Aaron Paul; and in Woman in Gold she plays an old Jewish refugee taking on the Government to recover art work she believes rightly belongs to her family. However good these films may be, none are ever likely to match the effect she had on film audiences round the world with her outstanding performance in The Queen. It won her an Oscar in 2007 - and in 2013 an Olivier award for playing HM on the West End stage in The Audience. Upfront and personal, Mirren is immensely likeable. When she wants to relax she ‘gardens or dress makes.’ On the subject of children, she’s never had any calling to be a mother. ‘I enjoy my work. I love my husband and have been incredibly lucky.’ Thankfully for us, the great dame shows no sign of cutting down and no signs of looking older. She looks more glamorous and beautiful now then she did 20 years ago; struts her stuff magnificently on the red carpet; and has acquired a regal air that complements her natural impishness. The big guns at L’Oreal Paris clearly feel this way, too, and signed Mirren last year to be their new UK ambassador. Bravo!
All That Glitters: Helen with her Oscar for The Queen Radiantly Regal: Rocking it on the Red Carpet Love in Bloom: Happy with husband Taylor Hackford
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