More Helen Mirren Bios & Profiles
The most recent Helen Mirren biography is published on the main page.
Biography #2 (for Calendar Girls)
Helen Mirren is one of Britain's most versatile and acclaimed actresses, who has worked with some of the world's best directors both on the screen and the stage. Her best known films include John Mackenzie's The Long Good Friday, Tinto Brass's Caligula, John Boorman's Excalibur, Pat O'Connor's CAL, for which she won the Best Actress Award at the Cannes Film Festival in 1984, Peter Greenaway's The Cook, the Thief, His Wife and Her Lover, Terry George's Some Mother's Son, Nicholas Hytner's The Madness of King George, for which she won an Academy Award Best Supporting Actress nomination and a second Best Actress Award at the Cannes Film Festival, Robert Altman's Gosford Park, for which she received her second Academy Award Best Supporting Actress nomination, and Fred Schepisi's Last Orders. She will soon be seen alongside Robert Redford and Willem Dafoe in The Clearing from director Pieter Jan Brugge.On television, she is best known for her performance as Jane Tennison in the gritty detective series Prime Suspect, for which she has won BAFTA Best Television Actress awards several years running as well as a Best Actress Emmy. She won a second Emmy for The Passion of Ayn Rand in 1999 and a Golden Globe for Losing Chase in 1997. She began her career on stage, winning plaudits for her performances in Troilus and Cressida and Hamlet at the Royal Shakespeare Company. More recently she was nominated for a Best Actress Tony in 2002 for Dance of Death.
JULIE WALTERS (Annie) burst onto the film scene with her debut performance in Lewis Gilbert's Educating Rita for which she received a Best Actress Oscar nomination and a Bafta Best Actress award. Since then, she has starred in David Green's Buster, Terry Jones' Personal Services, Stephen Frears' Prick Up Your Ears, Roger Michell's Titanic Town, Stephen Daldry's Billy Elliot and the international blockbuster Harry Potter series.
On television, she is perhaps best known for her collaborations with Victoria Wood, including Dinner Ladies, Pat and Margaret and Victoria Wood as Seen on TV. She has also starred in Murder, Oliver Twist, Girls' Night, Clothes in the Wardrobe, GBH and several dramas by Alan Bennett including Talking Heads and Say Something Happened.
Bio courtesy Buena Vista for "Calendar Girls" (02-Jan-2004)