Helen Mirren: God Save The Queen

SAG-AFTRA’S 57th SAG LIFE ACHIEVEMENT AWARD honoree is a true queen. A top-tier acting talent and star of stage and screen, Oscar winner Helen Mirren is a worthy addition to the list of legendary honorees.

The 76-year-old London native has been acting since the mid ’60s. She brings poise, charisma and a mastery of the acting craft to each of her roles — so she was the natural choice to play the queen of England. She was made a Dame of the British Empire in 2003 and is the most decorated SAG Life Achievement recipient, with a total of 13 SAG Awards® nominations and five SAG Awards Actor wins.

“Dame Helen Mirren is quite simply a brilliant and luminous talent,” SAG-AFTRA President Fran Drescher said. “Her work runs the gamut of characters, from a not-so-retired CIA superkiller and a ruthless Russian spy handler to a Hungarian cleaning lady and the most exquisite Elizabeth II. She has set the bar very high for all actors and, in role after role, she exceeds even her own extraordinary performances.” “I am honored to have been chosen to receive the SAG Life Achievement Award,” said Mirren. “Since I was a young actor starting out, I have always been inspired by and learned from American screen acting, so this award is particularly meaningful for me.”

It’s easy to see why the SAG-AFTRA National Honors and Tributes Committee selected Mirren for the SAG Life Achievement Award, but the trophy is going to have to compete for space on an already-crowded awards shelf. In 2006, she received an Academy Award, Screen Actors Guild Award®, and BAFTA Award for her portrayal of Queen Elizabeth II in The Queen. Her critically acclaimed performance in the 2001 film Gosford Park earned her dual SAG Awards, one for Female Actor in a Supporting Role and a second as part of the winning cast. Mirren has also received Oscar nominations for her performances in The Madness of King George, Gosford Park, and most recently earned an Oscar nomination for her performance in The Last Station.

Mirren was born on July 26, 1945, the second of three children, to a Russian father and English mother. She began acting in school productions and, at the age of 18, joined the National Youth Theatre. Her work got her noticed, and two years later, she was invited to join the Royal Shakespeare Company. She would go on to tour with Peter Brook’s theater company. 

Her first major film was Age of Consent in 1969, and she had her breakthrough performance in The Long Good Friday in 1980. Early films included Excalibur; Cal; The Mosquito Coast; The Cook, the Thief, His Wife and Her Lover; and Where Angels Fear to Tread.

Among her other film credits are Some Mother’s Son, on which she also served as associate producer, Calendar Girls, The Clearing, Shadowboxer, State of Play, The Tempest and Brighton Rock. Recent films include F9: The Fast Saga, The Good Liar, Berlin, I Love You, Anna, Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw, The Nutcracker and the Four Realms, The Leisure Seeker and Trumbo. 

Mirren, who affectionately refers to herself and her fellow actors as “rogues and vagabonds,” got her SAG card when she came to the United States in 1984 to do a movie called 2010:The Year We Make Contact, the sequel to 2001: A Space Odyssey. 

She takes pride in being a union member. “I’ve always been a unionist all my life. I’m a very proud member of SAG-AFTRA,” she said. “Without the protection of a union, really, you are thrown to the wolves, aren’t you? You are in a very savage world without that protection. Obviously, there is strength in numbers, and I have in fact been a part of union action more than once in my life.”

She not only stands side by side with her fellow union members, she also has great affection for them. In an interview with SAG-AFTRA in December, Mirren had a message for union actors.

“Thank you for being you. Thank you for choosing this ridiculous, dangerous, wonderful, creative, obsessive, profession that is the profession of being an actor,” she said. “[W]hen we open this beautiful parcel, it’s so brightly and perfectly wrapped with wonderful wrapping and on it, it says, ‘You are an actor,’ and you open this wonderful parcel, and in it are all kinds of beautiful surprises and heartbreak and difficulties and struggle and all of that. But I love actors for the fact that they decided to open that parcel, and I’m one of them.”

Mirren is a true original who has always done things her own way and remained true to herself. She gave an interview with The Guardian in 2015, shortly after she signed on to be a spokesperson for L’Oréal Paris. At 70, she was the oldest recipient of a major cosmetics contract — and as part of the deal, she insisted that her photos not be retouched.

“It was about time that someone of my age, not necessarily me, did it,” she told The Guardian. “Certainly my whole life, one had these images of perfect, incredibly youthful girls shoved at you as what you should aspire to. And we’re not even talking about 25-year-olds, incidentally, we are talking about girls of 15. Who looks 15? It’s not fair.”

Even so, Mirren has little reason to feel insecure. In a 2011 issue of Esquire, then 65-year-old Mirren handily beat 25-year-old Megan Fox in a reader poll for Sexiest Woman Alive.

But she has little tolerance for those who judge her by her looks alone. In 2016, a clip went viral of a 1975 interview in which Mirren calls out an interviewer for his sexist questions, while he remains oblivious to the inappropriateness of his queries.

Perhaps one of the things that gives her an enduring appeal is her empathy and desire to use her fame to ease suffering in the world. She is deeply involved in numerous charitable causes in pursuit of that goal.

Mirren has worked with Oxfam throughout the years to draw attention to humanitarian crises and the destructive effect of weapons on people who live in poor countries. In 1998, she traveled to South Africa and, in 2004, she visited northern Uganda, where she met with children who had been kidnapped and forced into being soldiers. 

She also supports Meals on Wheels, which operates across America to address senior hunger and isolation, and SAY: The Stuttering Association for the Young, a national nonprofit organization that provides support, advocacy and life-changing experiences for young people who stutter. Additionally, Mirren was named an ambassador for Women for Women International, a charity that supports women who have been the victims of war by providing education and job skills training. Her global advocacy efforts also include work with Greenpeace; Freedom from Torture, a charity that provided torture victims with therapeutic care; and Refuge, a UK-based organization that helps to rebuild the lives of women and children who are survivors of violence and abuse.

Whether it’s on screen, on the red carpet, advocating for important issues or onstage accepting an award, Mirren is always in her element. With her outspoken demeanor, refined acting talent and a wicked sense of humor, she knows she’s royalty. As she told Esquire in 2011, “Whenever I see the queen, I always think, ‘Oh, there I am!’”

Photo by Maarten de Boer/Shutterstock.

 This item was originally featured in the SAG-AFTRA magazine 2022 Digital Issue.