I’ve spent the last couple of weeks behind the scenes working on the career pages – an extensive part of the site and my favorite to maintain. The goal is to give the best possible insight into Helen Mirren’s career, from her early days at the Royal Shakespeare Company to Prime Suspect to her recent film careers. So, all pages have been updated with useful tags, which allow you to browse projects by year, genre, venue or author. New pages have been created, for example her work in radio plays as well as television specials and documentaries. All pages have been intertwined with the archive pages, so you now have a comprehensive chronology of every year of Helen Mirren’s career. For a complete overview, have a look at the complete works. Enjoy.

Back in 2013, when I opened this website, the initial idea was to delve deep into Helen Mirren’s career and provide a comprehensive source to learn more about her time with the Royal Shakespeare Company, her odd film projects in the 1970s and 1980s and the iconic “Prime Suspect” – basically everything worth to know about Helen Mirren before she became “The Queen”. Hence the title of this website, The Helen Mirren Archives has lacked the proper archive I have envisioned for so long. Until today. You can now read information and find media on each year of Helen’s career, starting back in 1963 when she joined the National Youth Theatre. There’s a lot to discover, as each page is filled with pictures, quotes, shortcuts to multimedia and bits on the real-life characters she has portrayed. I hope that much more information will be added to the sites in the future to make it the definite Helen Mirren Archives. Enjoy!

I’ve spent the last couple of weeks working in the background on updating all of the career pages, covering Helen Mirren’s work in film, on television and the stage, and also adding pages for all her voice work productions. Contrary to my original plan, I didn’t add pages for every documentary appearance or tv special interview, because, well, they’re pretty self-explanatory and most of them are available in the video archive. So, have a look at the all-updated career pages, which are now complete!

Welcome to the new version of The Helen Mirren Archives. The site has received a long-overdue redesign, and I’ve worked extensively on making all pages look good on mobile devices. The new design comes just in time for an exciting second half of the year – besides the release of “Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw”, there will be the eagerly-anticipated “Catherine the Great” on HBO and Sky Atlantic in September as well as Bill Condon’s thriller “The Good Liar”, co-starring Ian McKellen, so there will be a lot of to look forward to. Also, there will be lots of new collected materials added to the site in the meantime – including new pictures and dozens new articles for the press library. The career pages will be updated will all current projects and “The Archives” will be launched, I’m pretty sure, I promise 🙂 I can’t believe the site is running for six years now and the most pivotal part, the one I imagined first when creating the site, is still not online. Long story short, enjoy the new site, browse around, and check back for some exciting updates. Enjoy your stay!

Today, a big new section has been launched – the press library. After 5 years and constantly forgetting that this crucial part is missing to the fansite, it’s finally here. Filled with 300 articles so far, you find magazine profiles, newspaper articles and interviews with Helen Mirren from as early as 1968, promoting her feature film debut in “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” and “Age of Consent” to the most current interview promoting “The Nutcracker and the Four Realms”. Articles can be browsed by year, publication and even cover, as you will find extensive cover galleries for earch decade. While the press library sports a fair number of items, I’m sure there are many more articles out there, waiting to be added. So if you’re a fan, sitting on a stack of magazine articles you would like to share, please drop me a line. Enjoy browsing and reading.

Welcome to the new version of The Helen Mirren Archives. This update marks a small milestone for the site. On this day, five years ago, we’ve opened our doors to serve as a comprehensive source on Dame Helen’s long and successful career on film, tv and in the theatre. Today, we have covered all of her projects with background information, pictures and videos. Oddly enough, the only section that is still waiting to be finished is the archives itself. This will be the next and final project to have this site as complete as it gets. To celebrate the anniversary, I’ve created a new layout which should represent Helen’s legacy quite well – classic and elegant. Have a look around, make sure to let me know if you spot any errors, and check back soon for more exciting updates. Enjoy your stay!

Welcome to the new version of The Helen Mirren Archives! The previous layout has become synonymous for the site due to it’s time being online and I really loved how the site has grown with this look. But with all the recent announcements of new projects and the upcoming releases of “The Leisure Seeker” and “Winchester”, I wanted to give the site a fresh new face. It has become quite a colorful new face as well 🙂 I hope you enjoy it. The photo gallery and video archive have received matching layouts as well and the career section has received a new feature, on which I’ve worked for a while now: the press section. On each film page, you will find a link to the press section in the sub-menu. Let’s take The Queen as an example: The new sub-site gives you a great overlook on the international press tours for the film, starting with the Venice Film Festival. There are radio interviews to listen to, talkshow appearances to watch and articles from all countries in the world. The wealth of material depends on how a film was promoted around the world – not every press tour was as extensive as Woman in Gold, for example, but there will be great discoveries, especially on her work in the 1980s and 1990s. So, head over to the career page, select a film and then simply click the press coverage to launch the new sites. I hope you enjoy browsing them as much as I do.

In the past few weeks, I have worked behind the scenes to bring a new, mobile friendly video archive to the Helen Mirren Archives. The old one has stopped working a while ago on mobile devices, so I’m happy to finally launch the new archive. All the clips from the old archive are uploaded, over 900 in total! And there are still a lot of additional clips waiting to be added. From Helen’s first appearance in 1967’s Herostratus to today’s releasing The Fate of the Furious, all of her projects are covered with trailers, featurettes – as well as talkshow appearances, awards ceremonies, news appearances and television specials. My thanks to MonicaN for providing the plugin. Enjoy!

I’m very happy to announce that The Helen Mirren Archives is now located at www.helen-mirren.net, with many thanks to my friend Claudia. Please update your bookmarks. The site also sports a new layout, with a beautiful new image by Peter Lindbergh. The career pages will be updated to the new layout next and there will be a new feature launched soon, so check back for more updates.

Sad news today, apart from the Academy Awards nominations. Alan Rickman has died in London after losing a cancer battle at the age of 69. The British actor, known for his role as Professor Snape in the Harry Potter films, died surrounded by friends and relatives. A statement from his family read: “The actor and director Alan Rickman has died from cancer at the age of 69. He was surrounded by family and friends.” Rickman played iconic roles in films including Die Hard, Robin Hood and Love Actually. The star was a long-standing member of the Royal Shakespeare Company and has won a number of awards including a Golden Globe, a BAFTA, an Emmy and a Screen Actors Guild Award. In 1998, Rickman and Helen Mirren performed Antony and Cleopatra at the National Theatre. Helen’s upcoming film “Eye in the Sky”, out on March 11, now has the sad distinction of being Alan Rickman’s last project. Entertainment Tonight has released a statement by Helen Mirren on Alan Rickman’s passing:

Alan was a towering person, physically, mentally and as an artist. He was utterly distinctive, with a voice that could suggest honey or a hidden stiletto blade, and the profile of a Roman Emperor. He was also a great friend, generous and social. He will be very missed by many. (Helen Mirren)