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From Television To Broadway: A Look At Helen Mirren's Career In Hollywood

Helen Mirren is well-known for playing historical characters in theaters, television, and film. Immortalized by her iconic roles in iconic films, she is also received numerous accolades as an American and of British descent. Helen Mirren is a household name worldwide for countless reasons. Mirren used to play in theaters at a very young age before her glamorous fame shone through silver screens.

Her success on stage made Mirren pursue her career in filmmaking. And yes, she did. Right after she stepped into the limelight, Helen Mirren had breakthrough roles like no other actor. One of her most notable films were The Long Good Friday, The Madness of King George, Gosford Park, The Last Station, and many more. Most of her films acquired numerous awards that made her career more substantial. Due to her outstanding performance in various roles, specifically for her sympathetic and fine-drawn portrayal of Elizabeth II in her 2006 film The Queen, and for her performance on Broadway reprising the role of Queen Elizabeth II in a production play titled The Audience in 2013, she was made a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 2003. How astonishing was that in the history of the industry?

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Ilynea Lydia Mironoff, widely known as Helen Mirren, was born at the Queen Charlotte’s and Chelsea Hospital in the Hammersmith district in London on July 26, 1945. Mirren’s father, Vasily Petrovich Mironoff, was Russian in descent and a member of an exiled family of the Russian nobility and brought to England at the young age of two by his father. Helen’s mother, Kathleen Alexandrina Eva Matilda Rogers, and Scottish descent and a grandchild of a butcher for Queen Victoria. Mirren got her primary education at Westcliff-on-Sea, and Bernard’s High School for her secondary education, where she participated in school plays. She entered college and studied in the New College of Speech and Drama.

At the very young age of eighteen, Helen Mirren auditioned for the National Youth Theater, and she successfully got out. A couple of years later, she pursued what she had worked for and went on to play Cleopatra in the production play Antony and Cleopatra at the Old Vic Theater in London. Soon after, she had been to numerous plays in the early 1970s. In 1975, she performed at the Royal Court Theater, where she ended up in a role of a rock star named Maggie in a musical play by David Hare titled Teeth ‘n Smiles. The same year, she played a role in The Seagull as Nina, in 1975 at the RSC in Stratford, the following year at the Aldwych where she played Queen Margaret in the play Henry VI, and in 1979 in Peter Gill’s production, Measure For Measure as Isabella at the Riverside Studios. After her successful stage career, she went on to do something more and use her talent in acting in the film industry.

Helen Mirren’s Broadway debut and further theater career breakthrough came in the early 1990s. In 1994, she was cast as Natalya Petrovna in a five-act play by Ivan Turgenev titled A Month in the Country. In 1998, she again played the role of Cleopatra in 1965 under the same title—Mirren as the Ptolemaic Kingdom Queen of Egypt and the late Alan Rickman as Antony at the National Theater in London.

Due to Mirren’s outstanding performance in stage plays, she has been nominated twice for Broadway’s Tony Award for Best Actress in her Broadway debut, A Month in the Country, and August Strindberg’s two-play act, The Dance of Death. The play coincides with the 9/11 terrorist attack in New York. Eventually, on June 2015, Mirren got what she truly deserved. Helen Mirren finally won an award for Best Actress for her portrayal of Queen Elizabeth II in The Audience, which also earned her an award for Best Actress in the Laurence Olivier Award. Helen Mirren became one of the acclaimed performers when she got her Tony Award as Best Actress, joining the ranks of a few outstanding performers like Al Pacino.

Mirren’s successful stage career fueled her to take a massive step toward her film career. Mirren’s had many films she had done throughout her entire career in the industry. One of her most remarkable movies were The Long Good Friday, Trumbo, Excalibur, Woman in Gold, Eye in the Sky, The Hundred-Foot Journey, and The Queen. She also starred in the British television series Prime Suspect as Detective Jane Tennison. She again won three consecutive British Academy Awards for Best Actress awards between 1992 and 1994. As prominent actresses be labeled as British acting royalty of all types, from Laurence Olivier to Maggie Smith, there’s only one Helen Mirren.

Aside from Helen Mirren’s greatness in her acting career, she has received no more extraordinary award than to be honored and bestowed the great privilege of being a Dame of England. On the birthday of the late Queen of England in 2003, the Queen celebrated her for her services to the performing arts, especially in her remarkable films related to royalty. Mirren accepted the award for her parents, which would make them proud despite the fact that they were no longer here. Mirren stated that becoming a dame was a whole different thing for her, and it was to do with her family, especially her late parents. She was officially appointed a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire at Buckingham Palace in December 2003. Helen Mirren became one of the top ten British actresses of all time, including other famous icons, Julie Andrews, Helena Bonham Carter, Judi Dench, and Audrey Hepburn.

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Sources: IMDb, Britannica, TMDB, Rotten Tomatoes, Country Living, AZCentral



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