Mirren aged 24 in Age of Consent (1969)

Dame Helen Mirren (born Ilynea Lydia Mironoff July 26, 1945) is a British stage, television and movie actress. She is particularly well-known for her role as female detective Jane Tennison in the Prime Suspect series of television dramas.

Mirren was born in the UK to a Russian-noble father who emigrated there in response to the Russian Revolution. She first appeared on stage in 1965 as Cleopatra for the National Youth Theatre. This led to her joining the Royal Shakespeare Company, playing Cressida in Troilus and Cressida, and Lady Macbeth in the production by Trevor Nunn.

In 1972 she joined Peter Brook's International Centre for Theatre Research , and joined the group's tour across North Africa which created The Conference of the Birds

The "sexy" image she acquired in her youth has been little affected by encroaching age although it is complimented by the iron willed image she created in her Prime Suspect role..

She married director Taylor Hackford, her domestic partner since 1986, on 31 December 1997 in Scotland.

She was invested as a DBE on December 5 2003.

At the Edinburgh Television Festival in August 2004, director Stephen Frears revealed that he had cast Mirren as Queen Elizabeth II in a forthcoming project entitled The Queen, set during the week between the death and funeral of Diana, Princess of Wales in 1997.

Partial filmography

• Age of Consent (1969)
• O Lucky Man! (1973)
• Caligula (film) (1979)
• Excalibur (1981)
• 2010: Odyssey Two (1984)
• The Mosquito Coast (1986)
• The Cook, the Thief, His Wife and Her Lover (1989)
• Where Angels Fear to Tread (1991)
• Prime Suspect 1-3 (1991-1993)
• The Madness of King George (1994)
• Prime Suspect 4-5 (1995-1996)
• Gosford Park (2001)
• Calendar Girls (2003)
• The Clearing (2004)
• Prime Suspect 6 (2004)
• Shadowboxer (2005)
• The Queen (2005)

External links