Welcome to The Helen Mirren Archives, your premiere web resource on the British actress. Best known for her performances with the Royal Shakespeare Company, "Prime Suspect" and her Oscar-winning role in "The Queen", Helen Mirren is one of the world's most eminent actors today. This unofficial fansite provides you with all latest news, photos and videos on her past and present projects.  Enjoy your stay.
Celebrating
10 years
on the web
Jan
28
2014

Helen Mirren will be presented with a fellowship from the British Academy of Film and Television Arts, according to the Hollywood Reporter. The organization’s highest honor, the fellowship is given to Mirren in recognition of her “exceptional contribution” to film. She will receive the honor Feb. 16 during the British Academy film awards. “This is the greatest professional honor I can imagine, certainly one I never dreamt of as a schoolgirl in Westcliff-on-Sea, Essex. To join that list of legendary names is overwhelming,” the Hollywood Reporter quotes Mirren as saying. BAFTA fellows include Charlie Chaplin, Alfred Hitchcock, Steven Spielberg, Sean Connery, Elizabeth Taylor, Judi Dench, Vanessa Redgrave and Martin Scorsese.

Jan
24
2014

After our latest venture into Shakespeare territory, our next movie spotlight couldn’t be more different. In 1993, Helen did a suspenseful thriller for BBC Films, “The Hawk”, in which she plays an unstable housewife who suspects her husband to be a serial killer. To learn more about the project, visit the career page. Stills, screencaps and posters have been added to the gallery. The theatrical trailer as as well as three clips have been added to the video archive.

Jan
17
2014

There’s actually an honor out there Dame Helen Mirren hadn’t yet received — but she’s taking care of that now. The actress has been named the 2014 Hasty Pudding Woman of the Year, an annual recognition by Harvard’s Hasty Pudding Theatricals, the nation’s oldest theatrical organization. Established in 1951, the Woman of the Year Award has been given to many A-list entertainers, including Meryl Streep, Katharine Hepburn, Julia Roberts, Jodie Foster, Elizabeth Taylor, Anne Hathaway, Claire Danes, and, most recently, Marion Cotillard.

How very saucy of the Hasty Pudding organisation to offer me their award”” said Mirren in a release. “As someone who adores Pudding in all its manifestations… Suet, Christmas, Treacle, Bread and Butter, Yorkshire, Plum, Figgy, etc., etc., I am so looking forward to the famous Hasty Pudding. (Helen Mirren)

The Woman of the Year festivities — featuring a parade and a roast — will take place Jan. 30. The Man of the Year will be announced at a later date.

Jan
13
2014

Helen Mirren has attended the 71th Annual Golden Globe Awards yesterday as a nominee for “Phil Spector”, alongside Jessica Lange, Rebecca Ferguson and Helena Bonham Carter. The Best Actress in a Miniseries or TV Movie was awarded to Elisabeth Moss (very deserving for an outstanding miniseries). As clips of Helen’s earlier Golden Globe appearances have been posted in the last update, this most recent one shall not be missed in the archives. To view the segment, click the image on the left.

Jan
11
2014

The 71th Annual Golden Globe Awards take place tomorrow and Helen is nominated – once again – for her performance in “Phil Spector”. This is her 12th nomination, which is a crowning achievement, especially considering that the Hollywood Foreign Press has somehow forgotten to nominate her for any of the “Prime Suspect” episodes, except for the finale in 2007. Her first nomination and win came in 1997 for “Losing Chase”, followed by nods for “The Passion of Ayn Rand”, “Gosford Park”, “Door to Door”, “The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone”, “Calendar Girls”, “Prime Suspect 7”, “The Last Station” and “Hitchcock”, as well as two more wins (both in 2007) for “Elizabeth I.” and “The Queen”. To celebrate tomorrow’s Golden Globes, clips of all of Helen’s appearances through the years have been added to the video archive. And fingers crossed that an additional clip from 2014 will follow on Monday.

Jan
10
2014

Covering Helen’s third and final collaboration with the BBC Shakespeare Company, today we spotlight “Cymbeline” (1982), in which Helen played Imogene. To learn more about the project, have a look at the career page. Stills, a promotional poster and screencaptures have been added to the gallery, and three clips have been added to the video archive.

Jan
03
2014

We continue with the BBC Shakespeare Collection and Helen’s second appearance in the series – as Titania in 1981’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”. To learn more about the project, have a look at the career page. Stills, promos and screencaptures have been added to the gallery, and three clips have been added to the video archive. Her third – and final – collaboration with the BBC Shakespeare series will be covered next.

Dec
21
2013

This week we spotlight the 1978 television adaptation of “As You Like It”, one of three Shakespeare adaptations that Helen did for the BBC. To learn more about the project (and the difficulties of mounting the BBC Shakespeare series), have a look at the career page. Stills, promos and screencaptures have been added to the gallery, and three clips have been added to the video archive.

Dec
15
2013

After covering the rather less successful projects in the past week, let’s bring back a really good one. Today’s spotlight features one of Helen’s best performances of her recent career – John Madden’s “The Debt”. To learn more about the film, check the career page. Stills, promotionals and Blu-Ray screencaptures have been added to the gallery. And there are lots of promotional interviews, featurettes and clips from the film added to the video archive.

Dec
08
2013

Here’s the second entry for Stage Sunday – Helen’s performance in Tom Kempinski’s 1991 farce “Sex Please, We’re Italian”. I don’t mean to do a disaster weekend – but after reviewing “Caligula” on Friday, “Sex Please, We’re Italian” stands in line with projects gone bad. The New York Times called it “one of the most spectacularly unfunny evenings the London theater has seen in decades”. More information on the play and its background can be found on the career page, production stills, rehearsals pictures and the programme have been added to the gallery.