Beauty is the Beast Trivia Quiz

Born on the 16th of July as Helen Lydia Mironoff, Helen is the daughter of an English mother and a Russian father, the latter's roots tracing back to 16th century Russian nobility. Helen's grandfather, Pyotr, was a Tsarist aristocrat who was in London at the time of the Russian Revolution. The revolt prevented him from returning to Russia and his wife and son (Helen's father, Vasily) soon joined him. Vasily would work in London as a cab driver and would also become a member of the London Philharmonic Orchestra as a violinist. He left the orchestra upon the birth of Helen. Despite her background, Helen does not speak Russian.

Helen's introduction to acting began at an early age. While she was attending primary school, at Hamlet Court, she held the lead role in a production of "Hansel and Gretel". She would continue this passion during her high school years at St. Bernards.

In 1963, at the age of eighteen, Helen passed an audition that saw her enrolled into the National Youth Theatre. Two years later she found herself playing Cleopatra in a production of "Antony and Cleopatra", which got her noticed and an invite to the RSC soon followed.

In little time she was playing Castiza in "The Revenger's Tragedy" (1966), Diana in "All's Well That Ends Well" (1967) and Cressida in "Troilus and Cressida" (1968), among others. She would leave the company for a period after 1971 to work at the International Centre for Theatre Research, before returning to play Lady Macbeth in 1974.

Taylor Hackford had made a name for himself as the director of the highly commercial romantic drama "An Officer and a Gentleman" (1982) and would go on to direct the cult classic "The Devil's Advocate" (1997), before being nominated for Best Director for his work on "Ray", the 2004 biopic focusing on thirty years in the life of soul musician Ray Charles.

He and Helen enjoyed an elemental chemistry on the set of "White Nights" (1985) and it came as little surprise to most when the couple began dating a year later. They would marry in 1997 and, whilst it was Helen's first marriage, it would be Taylor's third. Helen would inherit two children from Taylor's previous relationships and, whilst Helen once stated that she had no maternal instincts, she also stated that she'd found a new joy in Taylor's children.

(Footnote) "White Nights" is a musical drama starring Mikhail Baryshnikov as an expatriate Russian ballet dancer (Nikolai Rodchenko) whose plane is forced to land in the USSR. The Russians take strides to re-convert him to communism and have him dance at the season opener at the Kirov Ballet. To this end they employ an American tap dancer, played by Gregory Hines, who had defected to the Soviet Union and Helen Mirren's Galina Ivanova, another ballet dancer and an old flame of Nikolai's.

Many would argue that this was the role that changed the course of Helen Mirren's career. It showed that she could play complex and professional women rather than being that "sexy young thing". Aside from earning her numerous acting awards and solidifying her status as a respected actress, it also provided a shift in the roles that were now being offered to her.

"Prime Suspect" was a British police procedural crime drama that ran for seven seasons (15 episodes) between 1991 and 2006. It focused on Jane Tennison, a young woman who becomes one of the first female Detective Chief Inspectors in Greater London's Metropolitan Police Service. In a male dominated environment, she eventually rises to the rank of Detective Superintendent, giving the writers plenty of scope to deal with the issue of institutionalized sexism.

The role would see Mirren win three consecutive BAFTA (British Academy of Film & Television Association) awards as TV's Best Actress. This placed her in the esteemed company of the likes of Julie Walters, Michael Gambon and Robbie Coltrane (the latter two being actors), who'd also achieved the same feat.

One of Helen's major breakthroughs came in 1994 when she was chosen by Bill Bryden to play the role of Natalya Petrovna in Ivan Turgenev's play "A Month in the Country", alongside John Hurt and Joseph Fiennes. The play made its Broadway debut the following year and Helen's impressive performance saw her nominated for the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play. She would miss out on winning, lowering her colours to Cherry Jones who played Catherine Sloper in "The Heiress".

This would not be Helen's only nomination for the coveted Broadway award. She would also be nominated for her performance in 2002's "The Dance of Death", alongside Sir Ian McKellen. She would lose to Lindsay Duncan in "Private Lives", however, it would be her effort as Queen Elizabeth II in Peter Morgan's "The Audience" (2013) that would finally see the Tony placed on her mantle.

Helen Mirren and Julie Walters play best friends Chris and Annie, respectively. Annie's husband, John, is diagnosed with leukemia and the pair wind up spending a lot of time on a very uncomfortable sofa in the waiting room of the hospital where John is being treated. John's eventual death then becomes the spark for Chris to create a fundraiser to allow the hospital to purchase a new sofa. The film, which has been labelled as the female version of "The Full Monty" (1997), was made on a modest budget but, like its male version, became a commercial success.

Going nude for the role was not an issue for Helen who stated, in a 2014 interview with the Radio Times, that she was a naturist at heart and was at her most content self when she was on a nude beach and everyone was in their natural state. Previously, in 2004, she'd been named "Naturist of the Year" by British Naturism.

On the surface this may not appear to be a significant moment but it did set Helen Mirren up to be able to create a rather unique piece of screen history... she would go on to become the first person to portray both Queen Elizabeth I and II on either stage or screen and win awards in the process. She played Queen Elizabeth I in the 2005 two-part television drama "Elizabeth I", the first part delving into her relationship with the Earl of Leicester (Jeremy Irons) and the second, her relationship with the Earl of Essex (Hugh Dancy). Helen would win both the Primetime Emmy and the Golden Globe Awards for Best Actress for this performance.

She then played Queen Elizabeth II in "The Queen" (2006) where she, not only, won the Oscar for Best Actress but a welter of other awards. Among these are the BAFTA and Golden Globe. In Peter Morgan's play "The Audience" (2013), as Queen Elizabeth II, she won the Tony for its Broadway release but, previously, had earned the prestigious Laurence Olivier Award as Best Actress for its London release.

Playing royalty, particularly British, is not foreign to Helen. She took on the role of Queen Charlotte in "The Madness of King George" (1994) which saw her Oscar nominated for the first time. In recent times, she portrayed Catherine the Great in a four-part miniseries of the same name (2019). It depicted the life of the Russian empress two years into her reign (1764) until her passing in 1796. Helen was nominated for a Golden Globe for her performance. In 2023 she played the role of Israel's fourth Prime Minister, Golda Meir, in the bio-pic "Golda", which follows her actions during the days of the Yom Kippur War.

Playing the role of Queen Elizabeth II (QE II)has been kind to Helen Mirren. After receiving nominations as a Supporting Actress for her performances in "The Madness of King George" (1994) and "Gosford Park" (2002), it would be her role as QE II in "The Queen" (2006) that would see the Academy salute her with the statuette as Best Actress. She would, later, win a Tony Award as Best Actress, playing the queen in Peter Morgan's "The Audience", a 2013 play.

"The Queen" follows the events in the wake of the death of Princess Diana, a passing that the queen and Buckingham Palace is reluctant to mourn. It falls upon the Prime Minister Tony Blair (played by Michael Sheen) to convince the queen that the failure to do so is likely to be a public relations disaster.

Loosely inspired by the three-part DC Comics' series of the same name (2003-04), "RED" is an action-comedy feature that follows the exploits of a retired CIA black-ops agent named Frank Moses (Bruce Willis), whose peaceful retirement is suddenly shattered when a group of high-tech killers tries to murder him. He then recruits a group of former CIA members, Joe Matheson (Morgan Freeman) and Marvin Boggs (John Malkovich) to try and track down the people that want him dead.

Helen is perfectly cast and delivers a deliciously hilarious performance as Victoria "Vicky" Winslow, a retired MI6 assassin, who still takes contracts on the sly. Helen was, initially, reticent to play the role, primarily because of the graphic violence portrayed in the film but (reportedly) changed her mind when she discovered that Bruce Willis was involved in the project.

Whilst you may not know who Sir Pater Blake may be, it is highly likely that you would recognize his most famous piece of pop-art... the cover of the 1967 Beatles' album "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band". As he approached his 80th birthday (2012) he decided to treat himself by re-jigging some of the models on that album cover. Out went the likes of Marilyn Monroe and W.C. Fields to be replaced by some of Peter's dearest friends. Among them was Helen Mirren.

This represents one of the many tributes and accolades that have been bestowed upon Helen during the course of her career. Aside from the raft of acting awards, in 2013, she had her star placed on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, she received a BAFTA Fellowship in 2014, which was followed by the Berlin Film Festival's Honorary Golden Bear in 2020 and the Screen Actor's Guild's Lifetime Achievement Award in 2022. Rising above those was her appointment as Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire. The appointment was (fittingly) made Queen Elizabeth II in 2003, a woman whom Helen had portrayed on stage and screen in a role that brought her so much acclaim.