Dame Helen Mirren collects awards for her stellar performances like some people collect pennies. The English actor has won an Academy Award for Best Actress, four SAG Awards, four BAFTAs, three Golden Globes, four Emmy Awards, and two Cannes Film Festival Best Actress Awards.
Mirren was born Helen Lydia Mironoff in Chiswick, West London to parents of Russian and English origins. Her paternal grandfather was a diplomat turned cab driver and her father was a civil servant in the Ministry of Transport. Her mother was the 13th of 14 children born to a butcher whose father had been the butcher to Queen Victoria.
At age eighteen, she auditioned for the National Youth Theatre and was accepted. By the time she was 20, she was Cleopatra in the NYT production of Antony and Cleopatra at the Old Vic, which led to her signing with the agent Al Parker. During her lengthy career, Mirren has numerous stage performances to her credit and also has appeared in a large number of films. She is the only actress who managed to get both Queen Elizabeth I and Queen Elizabeth II roles.
