Helen Mirren

Profession: Actress
Place/Date of Birth: Chiswick, London, 26 July 1945

Hugh Laurie was nominated in the TV drama series category for his role in House.

British 23-year-old Emily Blunt was nominated as best supporting actress for her role as fashion magazine assistant in The Devil Wears Prada.

Peter Morgan was shortlisted for best screenplay for The Queen and Patrick Marber for Notes On A Scandal.

Helen is Queen of British Indy films - Nov 30 2006
Dame Helen Mirren was The Queen of the British Independent Film Awards last night - despite the movie which features her acclaimed performance of the monarch failing to grab the main awards.

The 61-year-old was given a special award for Film Achievement at the ninth annual awards recognising independent British filmmaking, which kick start the international awards season.

Other winners included This Is England, a film about fascist skinheads, which beat The Queen to the big prize of Best British Independent Film, and Red Road, the big screen debut by Andrea Arnold which vowed Cannes this year, which picked up two awards.

Controversial director Ken Loach won the Special Jury Prize while veteran actor Jim Broadbent, most recently on screen as Myra Hindley supporter Lord Longford, was given an award for Outstanding Contribution To British Film.

The Last King of Scotland, a story about brutal Ugandan dictator Idi Amin starring Forest Whitaker in the main role, won two awards, while screen veteran Leslie Phillips, 82, won Best Supporting Actor for Oscar-tipped Venus.

Award-winning film, The Queen, which tells the story of the monarchy in the aftermath of the death of the Princess of Wales, won Best Screenplay for Peter Morgan.

But it lost out in five categories including Best Actress for Helen Mirren and Best Director.

The Road To Guantanamo, Michael Winterbottom’s film about the so-called Tipton Three, a trio of British Muslims held in Guantanamo Bay for two years before being released without charge, won Best British Documentary.

Another showbiz award to Dame Helen - Nov 20 2006
Dame Helen Mirren has received another showbiz award - the Variety Club’s Outstanding Film Performance of the Year.

The 61-year-old actor saw huge success this autumn playing the lead in The Queen and won best actress at the Venice Film Festival.

Other stars honoured at the ceremony included Ricky Gervais, TV presenter Sharon Osborne and Little Britain star David Walliams.

Comedian Jimmy Tarbuck won the Outstanding Contribution to Showbusiness at the annual awards at Old Billingsgate in London.

Ronnie Nathan, from the Variety Club, said: "The Variety Club showbusiness Awards reward the outstanding talent of 2006.

"We cherish our relationship with the entertainment industry.

"This very special event is our opportunity to thank and celebrate some of its most prominent representatives and through them, all the celebrities who do so much work for sick, disabled and disadvantaged children throughout the UK."

The ceremony will be broadcast on Sky Three at 8pm on Sunday November 26.

Helen Mirren is sexy old woman - Nov 6 2006
Dame Helen Mirren has been named the world’s sexiest older woman.

The Prime Suspect star topped a poll which included screen siren Sophia Loren and British beauty Joanna Lumley.

The 61-year-old, who still wows fans on the red carpet, has admitted to dressing more glamorously since playing the Queen in her latest film role.

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Biography

Helen Mirren was born on July 26, 1945 in London as Ilyena Lydia Mironoff. Her father was a member of an aristocratic Russian military family who happened to be stationed in England at the time of the Russian Revolution. A former violinist with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, her father worked as taxi driver, freelance musician and driving instructor.

After a brief attempt to accommodate her parents’ wishes by attending teachers’ training college, Helen quit to join the prestigious Royal Shakespeare Company and went on to play many of the Bard’s heroines. Helen is now an acclaimed and much-loved and respected actress who is perhaps best known as Detective Chief Inspector Jane Tennison, in the award winning British television series Prime Suspect.

She co-starred with Bob Hoskins in the British gangster film "The Long Good Friday" (1980) and was a seductively evil Morgana in John Boorman’s "Excalibur" (1981). She recently teamed up with Hoskins once again in the acclaimed British movie "Last Orders".

Helen won a Best Supporting Actress Oscar and Best Actress nomination at Cannes for her role in the film "The Madness of King George".

She currently divides her time between America with hubby Director/Producer Taylor Hackford and her home in Wapping.
February 2008