Oscar Profile #152: Helen Mirren

Born Helen Lydia Mironof on July 26, 1945, Dame Helen Mirren’s father Vasiliy Petrovich Mironov (1913–1980) was of Russian origin and her mother Kitty (1909-1996) was English. Her paternal grandfather was a Tsarist Russian diplomat who was stranded in London during the Russian revolution with his family and later became a cab driver. Her father, who played viola with the London Philharmonic and changed his name to Basil Mirren in the 1950s later became a cab driver tester and a diplomat. Her maternal great-grandfather was butcher to Queen Victoria. Despite those connections, Mirren considers her upbringing to have been decidedly anti-monarchist.

Mirren became an actress after High School and appeared on stage in many London productions and eventually starred on Broadway as well. She began her celebrated film career in 1966. Her first major role was opposite James Mason in Michael Powell’s 1969 film, Age of Consent. Lindsay Anderson’s 1973 film, O Lucky Man! opposite Malcolm McDowall was her first international success. Tinto Brass’ notorious 1979 film of Caligula again opposite McDowell, brought her considerable recognition as well.

Director John Boorman cast her opposite Nicol Willimason in 1981’s Excaliber because the two actors hated one other and he thought their mutual dislike would be good for the film. It was. She received the first of eleven BAFTA nominations to date for her portrayal of the tragic heroine in Pat O’Connor’s 1984 Irish troubles film, Cal.

Mirren met future husband Taylor Hackford when he directed her in 1985’s White Nights. Although they had lived together in Los Angeles since 1986, they did not marry until 1997. In the interim she made five of the seven highly successful Prime Suspect TV movies/mini-series and received her first Oscar nomination for playing Queen Charlotte opposite Nigel Hawthorne in Nicholas Hytner’s 1994 film, The Madness of King George. During this period she also received wide acclaim for her work in as the wife in the title of 1989’s The Cook, the Thief, His Wife and Her Lover and as an Irish mother struggling to save her hunger striking son in 1996’s Some Mother’s Son.

Her film career in somewhat of a slump, Mirren joined the ensemble of Robert Altman’s 2001 film Gosford Park and emerged with her best big screen notices to date and her second Oscar nomination. She was now bigger than ever and did some of her best work within the next few years, winning more acclaim and more awards for the TV remake of Tennessee Williams’ The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone and Prime Suspect 6: The Last Witness both in 2003; the TV mini-series Elizabeth I in 2005 and both The Queen (as Elizabeth II) and Prime Suspect 7: The Final Act in 2006. She won an Emmy for Elizabeth I the September before she won her Oscar for The Queen and another Emmy for Prime Suspect 7 the September after.

Made a Dame in 2003, Mirren continues to be in top demand receiving yet another Oscar nomination for 2009’s The Last Station; Golden Globe and BAFTA nominations for 2012’s Hitchcock and an Emmy nomination for 2013’s Phil Spector. She is the busiest 68 year-old actress on the planet.

ESSENTIAL FILMS

PRIME SUSPECT (1991-1993, 1995-1996, 2003, 2006), directed by John Madden, Tom Hooper, others

Mirren’s no-nonsense Detective Chief Inspector, later Superintendent, Jane Tennison was one of the small screen’s most fascinating characters through seven hard-hitting TV movies/mini-series that called upon her character to lead police investigations into the most heinous of murders while fighting prejudice and corruption within the ranks. She also had to battle numerous personal demons brought on by disaffected lovers, old family wounds, cigarette and alcohol addiction, an ill-timed abortion and a cancer scare. Through it all she remained resolute and strong, earning multiple BAFTA, Golden Globe and Emmy nominations and wins for her efforts. The series remains popular in re-runs and on video.

GOSFORD PARK (2001), directed by Robert Altman

Altman’s late career smash hit was a heady amalgam of two of the screen’s best loved genres, the genteel British murder mystery and the upstairs/downstairs interactions that proved irresistible from Cavalcade to Downton Abbey.

The film’s illustrious cast included Maggie Smith; Michael Gambon; Kristin Scott Thomas; Charles Dance; Jeremy Northam (as Ivor Novello); Bob Balaban; James Wilby; Laurence Fox; Ryan Philippe; Stephen Fry; Kelly Macdonald; Clive Owen; Mirren; Eileen Atkins; Emily Watson; Alan Bates; Derek Jacobi and Richard E. Grant. Smith as an acerbic dowager and Mirren as the housekeeper emerged with the best notices and the film’s two Supporting Actress nominations.

THE QUEEN (2006), directed by Stephen Frears

The only actress to play both Elizabeth I and II, Mirren also played a third British monarch, Queen Charlotte as well as three other queens in her long TV and film career. Frears’ film about the private monarch’s reaction to the death of her estranged daughter-in-law, Princess Diana, was a guaranteed hit due to the subject matter. Mirren’s intelligent, no-nonsense yet vulnerable interpretation of the reigning queen was sublime. From the film’s initial showing at the 2006 Venice Film Festival to Mirren’s sweep of the year-end critics’ awards made her the odds-on favorite to win that year’s Oscar as well as one of the most popular winners of all time. It sent her already illustrious career into the stratosphere from which it has yet to come down.

THE LAST STATION (2009), directed by Michael Hoffman

Mirren received her fourth Oscar nomination for her portrayal of Sofya Tolstoy, literary partner and helper to celebrated Russian author Leo Tolstoy as well as the mother of his thirteen children. The film chronicles the last days of Leo Tolstoy’s tumultuous life and the fights he and Sofya had over his wish to give away all his belongings, leaving nothing to his wife and children upon his imminent death in 1910 at the age of 82.

Christopher Plummer, also in an Oscar nominated performance, is excellent as Tostoy, but it’s Mirren’s fiery performance that makes it special. Tolstoy’s widow would survive the coming Russian revolution and die in relative peace in 1919.

HITCHCOCK (2012), DIRECTED BY Sacha Gervasi

Mirren received Golden Globe and BAFTA nominations but missed out on an Oscar nomination for her portrayal of Alma Reville, Alfred Hitchcock’s wife and helpmate on most of his films. The film itself was a major disappointment with only Mirren rising above the contrivances of a fictional script contriving to be about the making of Hitchcock’s Psycho. Anthony Hopkins’ Hitch is long on imitation and short on inspiration. Scarlett Johannsen as Janet Leigh, Jessica Biel as Vera Miles and other actors are hamstrung by the film’s legal inability to duplicate scenes from the original film. Mirren’s performance is itself somewhat compromised by a fabricated romance with another writer played by Danny Huston but she emerges high above the confines of the material she is given.