Photos Of Young Helen Mirren You Need To See (Rare & Vintage Photos Show Another Side To Helen Mirren)
Helen Mirren is an English actress and recognizable to just about everyone that has a passion for film. She began her career as a stage actress before moving on to television and film where she has established herself as one of the most respected women in the profession. With countless awards and nominations under her belt, she has proven herself to be one of the best in the business. In honor of Hellen Mirren, we've collected some vintage photos of the superstar along with some interesting facts about her life. Let's take a look at her incredible life and career. Keep reading to find out more.
Her Breakthrough Came In The '80s
During the 1980s, Mirren really came into her own. She had notable appearances in several well-known films. These included Excalibur, White Nights, and Mosquito Coast.
During that time, she also earned a Cannes Film Festival Award for her performance in the 1984 film Cal. While this is impressive enough, her major break came when she played Detective Inspector Jane Tennison ins the British mystery series Prime Suspect.
She Comes From Royalty
Although Helen Mirren is a queen of Hollywood in her own right, she also has connections to real royalty. Unknown to most, Helen Mirren's father has roots in the Russian aristocracy. This is why the name that she was given when she was born is Lydia Petrovna Mironova.
However, when she was just nine years old, her father changed his last name to sound more English, ergo, "Mirren." Furthermore, Mirren's grandfather was a butcher that used to be the primary provider of meat that was presented to Queen Victoria.
The Love Story Of Mirren And Liam Neeson
Liam Neeson and Mirren ended up meeting on the set of the 1980s film Excalibur and ended up dating for the four following years. Neeson claimed that he was "smitten" with the actress from the first time he saw her in her Morgan le Fay costume.
Unfortunately, their relationship ended when Mirren, seven years older, encouraged Neeson to find his own way in the film industry. Just a year later, Mirren met her future husband, Taylor Hackford, although she and Neeson are still on good terms.
She's An Expert When It Comes To Packing
When celebrities travel a lot, it's not uncommon that they develop certain traveling habits. That is definitely the case when it comes to Helen Mirren. She has a very strategic formula when it comes to packing her own belongings.
For example, when she travels to a cold location to shoot, she only packs one thing: underwear. She then goes thrift shopping to acquire anything that she might need to endure the climate of wherever she is filming.
She Has A Wax Figure Of Herself
Unsurprisingly, on her 70th birthday, Helen Mirren was presented with the honor of being immortalized in Madame Tussauds Wax Museum in London. While most people only have one wax rendition of themselves, Mirren has a whopping three of them.
They include her as Queen Elizabeth II, her Prime Suspect character of Jane Tennison, and one of her most famous looks on the red carpet. Mirren is a fan of all three, telling Reuters that "It's like having three sisters,"
Her Parents Didn't Want Her To Become An Actress
Although Mirren fell in love with theater at a young age, especially after watching Hamlet's production when she was 13, her parents did not want her to pursue acting as a profession. So, to prevent her from doing so, they sent her to a Catholic Convent school in Southern-on-Sea.
Nevertheless, when she was 18, she auditioned for the National Youth Theatre on a teacher's recommendation. However, her mother insisted that she went to the teacher's college to establish herself in a more "stable profession."
She's Been Good About Keeping Her Age A Secret... Maybe A Little Too Good
Impressively, Helen Mirren managed to keep her age a relative secret for some time, apparently not even knowing her own age herself. However, in January of 2018, she shocked audiences when she revealed her actual age on Ellen.
During the episode, Mirren was shocked to learn that she was a whole year younger than she originally thought. Although she claimed that she was just 74, her husband corrected her, saying that she was only 73. She commented saying she's been given a "whole extra year."
The Mirren Family Wasn't Small And They Were Hard Workers
Helen Mirren has two other siblings. She is three years younger than her older sister, Katherine, and also has another younger brother, Peter Basil. In order to support his three children, Mirren's father worked especially hard.
Throughout Mirren's childhood, her father worked a number of jobs. At one point he was a viola player with the London Philharmonic, and after World War II, he drove a cab. Eventually, he became a driving-test instructor, and then he landed a position at the Ministry of Transport.
She's No Stranger To Playing A Queen
Incredibly, Mirren has played the character of a queen an astonishingly six different times over the course of her career. She starred as Queen Elizabeth II in 2006's The Queen, for which she won an Oscar, Golden Globe, and a SAG Award for her impressive performance.
On top of all that, even Queen Elizabeth II herself noted that The Queen was one of her favorite films of the year. Clearly, Mirren was doing something right!
She Has An Interesting Take On Having Children
Mirren has made the personal choice to not have children claiming that, "I never felt the need for a child and never felt the loss of it. . .I'd always put my work before anything." To this day, she hasn't regretted her decision, although she has said that the movie Parenthood had a particular impact on her.
Essentially, as she told Vanity Fair, the legacy that she wants to leave behind is a legacy that extends beyond children. She wants people to remember her for her performances and not her family life.
She's Not Afraid Of Taking A Stand
Although most celebrities might consider this to be an honor, in 1996, Helen Mirren actually refused the Commander of the Order of the British Empire. However, she did accept a Dame Commander of the Order in 2003 for her work in the arts and entertainment.
Although the reason for her refusal of the initial award is still unknown to the public, it's believed that she may have had issues with the English government when she received notification of the honor.
Her Performance In The Queen Did Not Go Unnoticed
For her performance in The Queen, Mirren was rightfully awarded a BAFTA for Best Actress, which she dedicated to Ian Richardson, her mentor from since she was a novice. She received the award just two days after his death.
However, this isn't the only award that she won. Incredibly, for her role in The Queen, Mirren won more than 40 Best Actress awards across the globe, making her performance the second-highest total of any awards sweep.
She's One Of The Few Women To Claim A Triple Crown
Unsurprisingly, considering all of her incredible work, Helen Mirren is one of a handful of women in the industry that can claim they have accomplished the feat of earning the Triple Crown. This means that she has earned an Oscar for acting in a film, an Emmy for television, and a Tony in the theater.
This incredible accomplishment was finally established when she won a Tony Award for her work in The Audience. Only 14 other actresses have managed to pull off such an accomplishment, with only nine males doing the same.
She Had A Moment Of Youthful Rebellion
It's not unusual for most teenagers and young adults to have an act of rebellion here and there, and Helen Mirren is no exception. In her youth, Mirren decided to do something that she has described as being "utterly disgusted by."
While it might sound bad, she only got a small tattoo of a symbol near her thumb. In an interview with People, she noted that the tattoo was the most "shocking thing I could think of doing," although it turns out nobody cares or knows for that matter.
She Broke One Of Her Two Rules
Much like Helen Mirren had claimed that she would never have children for fear that it would affect her career and simply because she didn't want any, she felt the same way about getting married. Nevertheless, she found love and broke her own rule.
She married director Taylor Hackford in 1997, with the ceremony taking place in the Scottish Highlands. The two met on the set of 1985's White Night, with the marriage being her first and his third. They remain a married couple today.
She Was An Incredibly Convincing Queen Elizabeth
In 2007, Mirren was forced to turn down a personal dinner invitation from Queen Elizabeth II of England due to scheduling conflicts. Although many people might see this as a slight, they're both on good terms.
To further demonstrate their close relationship, when the queen was unable to fulfill the wish of a sick child, Mirren stepped in dressed in her costume as Elizabeth II from the play she was in titled The Audience. The children in the hospital couldn't tell the difference, and Mirren acted as queen-like as she possibly could, and the children couldn't have been happier.
She Wasn't Always A Feminist
Although Mirren is considered a feminist icon for the many roles that she has played and how she presents herself and vocalizes her beliefs, her beliefs weren't always aligned with her image.
Yet, in 2017, at the commencement speech for Tulane University, she explained that she used to shy away from the label of being a feminist. However, in recent years, she has changed her stance and views feminism as "a necessity," encouraging both males and females to be more progressive as well.
Her Looks Are Stil Hailed In Her Older Years
Throughout her life and career, Helen Mirren has been described as objectively one of Hollywood's most breathtaking actresses. While she was a bit of a sex symbol in her youth, not much has changed in the decades that have followed.
That being said, not many people were surprised when she was named the Sexiest Woman Alive in 2010 by Esquire. On top of that, in 2011, she did a risqué photoshoot for the magazine in which she covered her body with the Union Jack.
Shakespeare Was One Of Her Greatest Influences
In her teenage years, around the age of 13, Mirren was exposed to the theater. However, what she watched wasn't any ordinary play. Instead, she watched a performance of Shakespeare's Hamlet, which had a profound impact on her.
According to Mirren, it was during that play that she knew she wanted to be an actor.
Detective Inspector Launched Her Career
As a young and blossoming actress, Mirren made a name for herself portraying Jane Tennison in the popular series Prime Suspect, an award-winning series and beloved by the United Kingdom. Nevertheless, her work did not go unnoticed either.
For her performance as Tennison, Mirren earned three consecutive British Academy Television Awards for Best Actress, which made her one of four actors who acquired three consecutive BAFTA Awards for a single role. In 2006, she was ranked 29th on ITV's poll of TV's 50 Greatest Stars by the British public.
She's Very Open About Her Religious Beliefs
Although many celebrities may keep their personal beliefs to themselves regarding religion, unsurprisingly, Mirren has no problem sharing her with the public. Numerous times, she has claimed that she's an atheist and openly proud of it.
In a 2011 issue of Esquire magazine, she commented, "I am quite spiritual. I believed in fairies when I was a child. I still do sort of believe in the fairies. And the leprechauns. But I don't believe in God."
She Has A Connection With The Beatles
Not only was Helen Mirren immortalized for multiple roles in Madame Tussauds wax museum, but she arguably had an even higher honor when she was included in the new version of the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band album cover.
She was given this opportunity due to her incredible work, which has established her as one of the most impressive celebrities to hail from the United Kingdom during her lifetime.
She Has An Impressive Amount Of Accolades
Impressively, in the Queen's 2003 Birthday Honors, Mirren was appointed as a Dame or DBE for her work in drama with the ceremony taking place in Buckingham Palace.
Just one decade later, in 2013, she was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and the next year, she received the BAFTA Fellowship for lifetime success from the British Academy of Film and Television Arts. These are just a few of the numerous accolades she has received throughout her career.
She Had An Interesting Nickname
Because of her ethnic background, for a period of time, Mirren was referred to as "Little Mother Russia" in the business. However, if that wasn't a title enough in itself, her family had a much different nickname that she went by.
According to The New Yorker, her family would call her Popper or Pop, supposedly "because she would pop off into dreams." If this was the case, her dreams came true and now she's one of the most respected actresses in the business.
Her Early Roles Earned Her An Abrasive Nickname
While there's no doubt that Helen Mirren is a beautiful actress, her employers took full advantage of her appearance in the early stages of her career.
For example, as a budding actress, she portrayed characters such as Castiza in The Revenger's Tragedy in 1966, Cressida in Troilus and Cressida in 1968, and Lady Macbeth in a rendition of Macbeth in 1974. Although these were all highly respectable roles, she earned the somewhat unfair nickname of the "Sex Queen of Stratford."
She Was In A Movie That Had To Be Renamed Because Of A Tragic Event
After her success as a lead in Prime Suspects, Mirren landed the title role in the Killing Mrs. Tingle, a teen slasher film written by Kevin Williamson, who wrote the iconic script for Scream.
However, after the horrific events that transpired after the Columbine killings, the film had to be renamed. So, instead of Killing Mrs. Tingle, the title was changed to Teaching Mrs. Tingle. Although it was one of Mirren's personal favorite films that she worked on, it thrashed by the box office.
She Published An Autobiography
In September of 2007, Mirren released her autobiography titled In the Frame: My Life in Words and Pictures. Her work was published in the United Kingdom by Weidenfeld & Nicholson and received positive reviews.
John Thaxter from The Stage reviewed her book and commented, "Sumptuously illustrated, at first sight, it looks like another of those photo albums of the stars. But between the pictures there are almost 200 pages of densely printed text, an unusually frank story of her private and professional life, mainly in the theatre, the words clearly Mirren's own, delivered with forthright candour."
She Was In A Questionable Film
Mirren's film debut was in the film Caligula, which was produced by the adult magazine Hustler and starring Peter O'Toole. As a whole, the film was considered to be extremely controversial because of it's obvious violence and adult imagery.
The film was eventually edited and given an R-rating so that it could be shown to the public. To this day, the uncut version is banned in several countries because of its subject matter.
