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French and Saunders is a British sketch comedy television show written by and starring comic duo Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders. It is also the name by which the performers are known on the occasions when they appear elsewhere as a double act.

Widely popular in the late 1980s and the early 1990s, the show was given one of the highest budgets in BBC history to create detailed spoofs and satires of popular culture, movies, celebrities and art. The duo continue to film holiday specials for the BBC, and both have been successful starring in their own shows. Saunders won a BAFTA, an Emmy Award and international acclaim for writing and playing the lead role of Edina Monsoon in Absolutely Fabulous, which led to her minor, cameo roles in the American sitcoms Roseanne and Friends. She won an American People's Choice Award for voicing the wicked Fairy Godmother in the DreamWorks animated film Shrek 2, but more recently she has written and starred in another two BBC sitcoms, Jam and Jerusalem and The Life and Times of Vivienne Vyle. Her other work includes being the face of Barclays Bank and BBC America. Meanwhile, French starred in the highly successful sitcom The Vicar of Dibley which received great critical acclaim as well as numerous holiday specials and future airplay, receiving cult status. She also starred in three series of the comedy show Murder Most Horrid. She had a voice over role as Mrs. Beaver in The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, but more recently she has starred in Jam and Jerusalem, written by Saunders, and Lark Rise to Candleford, of which the fourth series has just been commissioned. For many years she became popular for her appearances in the Terry's Chocolate Orange adverts saying the famous line "It's not Terry's, it's mine!" and is currently the voice of W H Smith and Tesco adverts. She recently released her autobiography Dear Fatty, referring to Saunders, to whom she gave the nickname "Fatty".

In a 2005 poll to find The Comedian's Comedian, the duo were voted among the top 50 comedy acts ever by fellow comedians and comedy insiders. Their last special, 2005's French and Saunders Christmas Celebrity Special, aired on 27 December 2005 on BBC One. In 2006, both Saunders and French announced that their sketch show was now dead, and that they had moved on to more age appropriate material. Their last ever concert, and last ever performing as a duo act, Still Alive tour ran until the end of 2008, and then resumed in Australia in the summer of 2009.

In 2009, they were jointly awarded the BAFTA Fellowship.

History[link]

Early years (1978–1987)[link]

French and Saunders met each other in 1978 while attending the Central School of Speech and Drama and began their career to collaborate on comedy projects. They came to prominence in the early 1980s for performing at the London comedy club The Comic Strip, which also gave its name to the television series and the informal grouping of so-called alternative comedians. French and Saunders were featured on the 1981 live comedy album of The Comic Strip recorded by comedy entrepreneur Martin Lewis for his Springtime! label and released in September 1981. Their first mainstream television appearance was in 1982 in the British comedy programme The Comic Strip Presents..., where they were appeared in approximately 30 episodes each as well as writing material for the series. French and Saunders began to establish themselves in what was referred to as the "underground comedy" scene, along with many other prolific actors and comedians like Alan Rickman and Miranda Richardson, people whom they would go on to work with for the next twenty-plus years. From 1984, they appeared as comedy relief on the weekly Channel 4 music programme The Tube, for which French had the honour of being the first person to use the word "blowjob" on UK TV.

In 1985, French and Saunders collaborated on their programme Girls On Top, which they again wrote and starred in. Co-stars Tracey Ullman and Ruby Wax rounded out a set of four oddball roommates, and the show ran for two years. In 1986, they made their first of many appearances on Comic Relief, and they signed a long-term contract with the BBC. Although the two have parted somewhat to find great success individually, they frequently reunite for holiday specials on BBC. A six-DVD boxed set of their work was released internationally.

[edit] French and Saunders (1987–2010)

On 9 March 1987, the duo launched their sketch show French and Saunders, which has carried over six seasons and 46 episodes up until 24 December 2007. Their show began humbly but immediately established its own niche as a spoof on other types of shows. In the first season, it was intentionally set up to look like a low-budget variety show in which the two stars were constantly attempting grandiose stunts and often failing miserably. Often a "famous" guest star (usually very much a B-list celebrity) would be brought on then treated badly. Also featured during this season was a set of geriatric dancers and a bongos/keyboard music duo called Raw Sex, actually long-time collaborators Simon Brint and Rowland Rivron and the vocal talents of Kirsty MacColl.

As their series progressed and ratings skyrocketed, French and Saunders received higher and higher budgets with which to create elaborate parodies of mainstream culture. These ranged anywhere from recreations of films (Thelma & Louise, Misery, Titanic, and What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?) to spoofs on popular music artists (Madonna, Bananarama, ABBA, and The Corrs being favourites). Certain spoken phrases and sight gags that referenced previously performed sketches (often from years before) were incorporated for loyal fans. In particular there is a running gag suggesting that the duo are unable to accurately affect accents; this first appeared in their spoof of Gone with the Wind when they break their character in the middle of an elaborate and expensive parody to argue about the authenticity of their Southern accent. Saunders goads French to try the accent by saying: "How are you?", and French responds with an interpretation sounding more like a strong Northern Irish accent. Since then, the duo often break character in the middle of elaborate sketches to do an "accent check" and repeat these lines.

The show also featured meta references: an awareness that the viewer was actually watching a parody. Unlike many parodies that are done in a straightforward manner for effect, French and Saunders uses the viewer's awareness of what is going on to further stretch out the joke. In their parody of Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings film trilogy, an encounter by Frodo and Galadriel is thrown off when Saunders delivers her line: "I have passed the test, and now I will diminish, and go to the West and remain Galadriel", to which French responds: "You will what, sorry?" and Saunders replies: "I will diminish... I don't understand, it's in the book." Other characters that make a recurring appearance are the bald, fat, perverted old men ("Begging for it, she is!"); Star Test (most memorable character is Sonia, played by French); and Out and About ("I bet she dos [sic] tricks"). The love child named Jean is a prominent feature in many of their sketches.

BBC Radio 2 (2010–present)[link]

In Christmas 2010, French and Saunders are featured in three two-hours radio shows on BBC Radio 2. This was followed by further specials in 2011 for Easter and the Bank Holidays.

List of Series and other appearances[link]

Series 1 - 1987[link]

Other appearances and work

• 1987 - Alison Moyet - Love Letters (promo video - F&S appearance)
• 1988 – Comic Relief

Series 2 - 1988[link]

Other appearances and work

• 1988 - Bananarama & Lananeeneenoonoo – Help! Promo video (Comic Relief single)
• 1988 - Bananarama & Lananeeneenoonoo – Help! Comic Relief '88 Live performance
• 1988 - Jim Henson's The Storyteller - the bad sisters in Sapsorrow
• 1988 - Christmas Special 28 December 1988 (Kathy Burke, Harriet Thorpe) (40 min)
• 1989 – Hysteria 2 (live appearance C4 (Tiger Television), Standup/sketch, colour, 1989
• 1989 – Comic Relief 2: A Night Of Comic Relief 2
• 1989 - The Secret Policeman's Biggest Ball - ITV (Central), Standup/sketch

Series 3 - 1990[link]

Other appearances and work

• 1990 Little Pig Robinson (Beatrix Potter)
• 1990 – French and Saunders Live! (1990 Tour) Home video release (non-BBC)
• 1991 - Comic Relief ’91: F&S and Birds of a Feather – Mistaken Identity
• 1991 - Hysteria III (UK, C4 (Noel Gay Television), Standup/sketch, colour)
• 1991 - Amnesty International's Big 30 (ITV (Working Title Television for Central), Standup/sketch
• 1993 - Comic Relief’ 93: Total Relief

Series 4 - 1993[link]

Other appearances and work

• 1994 - Christmas Special 30 December 1994 (Adrian Edmondson, Chris Ryan, Harriet Thorpe, Richard Briers) (40 min)
• 1994 - Dusty Springfield - Full Circle (BBC Interview/Documentary)
• 1994 - Alison Moyet - Whispering Your Name (promo video - Dawn appearance)
• 1995 – Comic Relief '95: The Night Of Comic Relief (BBC, Sketch/standup)

Dawn, a parody of Oprah-style chat-shows featuring Dawn French and Victoria Wood/ F&S Sketch

Series 5 - 1996[link]

Other appearances and work

• 1997 - Spice Girls & The Sugar Lumps – Who Do You Think You Are - Promo video (Comic Relief)
• 1997 – Comic Relief ’97

Series 6 - 2004[link]

[edit] Series 7 - A Bucket o' French and Saunders 2007

• A Bucket O' French and Saunders was shown from 7 September till 5 October (the sixth episode not being shown). The series was shown as a retrospective, showing 20 years of the French and Saunders sketch show. The series also included new prerecorded sketches, which were interspersed between the classic sketches. The new sketches were recorded in June 2007 at the BBC Television Centre. New material included parodies of America's Next Top Model, The Apprentice, Gordon Ramsay's The F-Word, The Academy Awards (featuring a cameo appearance by Dame Helen Mirren), X Factor, Big Brother, Fame Academy and a parody of disgraced celebrities Amy Winehouse and Britney Spears.

Special Episodes[link]

• 1988 - Christmas Special - A French and Saunders Christmas Story
• 1994 - Christmas Special - French and Saunders Christmas Carol
• 1998 - Christmas Special – The Making of: The Filming of: The Making of: Titanic (30mins)
• 1999 - Bank Holiday Special – Witless Silence/F&S TV - Home Shopping Network (30mins)
• 1999 - Christmas Special – French and Saunders: The Phantom Millennium (30mins)
• 2000 - Comic Relief Special (Video Only) - The Extras On Doctor Who (unaired extended sketch recorded 13 years previously for series 1 episode 6 and eventually released as a short special as part of the Doctor Who Comic Relief video compilation)
• 2000 - French and Saunders - Live in 2000 Tour (Home video release – non-BBC)
• 2002 - Easter Special – The Egg
• 2002 - Christmas Special – Celebrity Christmas Puddings
• 2003 - Comic Relief Special – Harry Potter and The Secret Chamberpot of Azerbaijan
• 2003 - Christmas Special – French and Saunders: Actually
• 2005 – Christmas Special - French and Saunders Celebrity Christmas Special
• 2007 - TV Series - A Bucket O' French and Saunders
• 2009 - Comic Relief Special - Gimme, Gimme, Gimmick (Mamma Mia: The Movie) (Last official sketch under the brand of "French and Saunders")

Live Shows[link]

French and Saunders began a UK tour at Blackpool Opera House on 29 February 2008. The first leg of the show concluded in May 2008. The show ended 9 November, in London. Previously they have toured their comedy act / sketch show very rarely, with UK tours in 1990 & 2000. The current tour contains a selection of their favourite sketches, as well as new material written specifically for the tour. The show was directed by Hamish McColl, set design by Lez Brotherstone, lighting, video and visual effects by Willie Williams.

• Live 1990
• Live in 2000
• French and Saunders: Still Alive! The Farewell Tour

Side projects and spin-off series[link]

Featuring French and Saunders[link]

• The Comic Strip Presents (1982–1998)
• Happy Families (1985)
• Girls On Top (1985–1986)
• Let Them Eat Cake (1999)
• Jam & Jerusalem (2006–2009)
• Coraline (2008)

Featuring French[link]

• Murder Most Horrid (1991–1999)
• The Vicar of Dibley (1994–2007)
• Wild West (2002–2004)
• Lark Rise to Candleford (2008–2011)
• Psychoville (2009–2011)

Featuring Saunders[link]

• Absolutely Fabulous (1992–2012)
• The Life and Times of Vivienne Vyle (2007)

Video & DVD Releases[link]

UK video[link]

• French and Saunders The Video (Best Of Series 1 & 2) (1990)
• French and Saunders Live (4 Front Video) (1991)
• French and Saunders Series 3 (1993)
• French and Saunders At The Movies (Best Of Series 4) (1994)

UK DVD[link]

• French and Saunders Live (Universal) (2001)
• The Best Of French and Saunders (or Gentlemen Prefer French and Saunders) (2002)
• French and Saunders At The Movies (also includes the 1999 Christmas Special) (2005)
• French and Saunders: Complete Series 1-6 (2008)
• French and Saunders: Still Alive (2008)

USA video[link]

• French and Saunders At The Movies (1997)
• Gentlemen Prefer French and Saunders (1997)
• French and Saunders Ingenue Years (1998)
• French and Saunders Living In A Material World (1998)

USA DVD[link]

• Gentlemen Prefer French and Saunders (2002)
• French and Saunders At The Movies (2002)
• French and Saunders The Ingenue Years (2003)
• French and Saunders Living In A Material World (2003)
• French and Saunders On The Rocks (2005)
• French and Saunders Back With A Vengeance (2005)

Australian video[link]

• French and Saunders: Series 3 - Complete and Un-edited(ish) - (Part One) (1993)^[1]
• French and Saunders: The Best of Series 4 (1994)^[2]
• French and Saunders: Series 3 - Complete and Un-edited(ish) - (Part Two) (1996) ^[3]
• French and Saunders: Live (2002)

Australian DVD[link]

• French and Saunders: Live (2003)
• French and Saunders At The Movies (with 1999 Christmas Special) (2005)
• BBC Presents "The Best of: French and Saunders" (2005)
• French and Saunders: Complete Series 1-6 (2008)
• French and Saunders: Still Alive - The Farewell Tour (2008)^[4]
• French And Saunders: Series One Episodes 1-3 (Comedy Bites) (4 March 2010)
• Dawn French Bundle (2011)

International broadcasters[link]

Country	TV Network(s)
Australia	ABC (first runs) UK.TV/The Comedy Channel (repeats)
Canada	BBCK on BBC Kids
France	Arte (first runs), Pink TV (France) (repeats)
Germany	EinsFestival, Arte
New Zealand	UK.TV
Portugal	RTP2 (first runs), BBC Prime/BBC Entertainment (repeats)
Singapore	BBC Entertainment
Thailand	BBC Entertainment
United States	BBC America

References[link]

External links[link]

• French and Saunders Dot Com
• British Film Institute Screen Online
• French and Saunders BBC page with cast, crew, and episode list
• French and Saunders at the Internet Movie Database
• French and Saunders at TV.com
• French and Saunders receive the BAFTA Fellowship

Darcey Bussell CBE
Darcey Bussell at a curtain call after a performance of Theme and Variations
Born	(1969-04-27) 27 April 1969 (age 43) London, England, United Kingdom
Occupation	Ballet dancer
Spouse	Angus Forbes (1997–present)
Children	Phoebe Olivia and Zoe Sophia
Parents	John Crittle and wife Andrea (divorced) Adopted by Philip Bussell when he married Andrea

Darcey Andrea Bussell CBE (born Marnie Mercedes Darcey Pembleton Crittle^[1] on 27 April 1969 in London) is a retired English ballerina. Trained at the Arts Educational School and the Royal Ballet School,^[2] she was later employed by the Royal Ballet, where she was promoted to the rank of Principal Dancer and would become recognised as one of the greatest English ballerinas of all time.^[3][4] She has performed as a guest artist with leading international ballet companies and, since retiring from professional ballet in 2007, has continued to be active in the world of dance. She has performed with Katherine Jenkins in the show Viva La Diva, appeared as guest judge on the BBC television show Strictly Come Dancing in 2009, and authored a series of dance books for children. Darcey will be replacing Alesha Dixon on the Strictly Come Dancing judging panel for the 2012 series.

Biography[link]

Darcey Bussell was born to businessman John Crittle and his English wife Andrea.^[5] After the couple divorced when Darcey was three, her mother remarried and Darcey was adopted by her mother's new husband, Australian dentist Philip Bussell. The family spent some time in Australia, where Darcey attended school before they returned to London for Darcey to be educated at the Fox Primary School.

Dancing career[link]

Darcey Bussell began her professional training at the Arts Educational School,^[6] a specialist dance and musical theatre school in London. At the age of 13, she moved to continue her studies at the Royal Ballet Lower School, a leading international ballet school based at White Lodge, Richmond Park. At 16, she progressed to the Royal Ballet Upper School in Baron's Court, before graduating into the Sadler's Wells Royal Ballet in 1987. Whilst studying at the Royal Ballet School, she appeared in a number of school productions, including performances at the Royal Opera House.

While Bussell was still at school, the choreographer Kenneth MacMillan had noticed her talent, and in 1988 he gave her the leading role in his ballet The Prince of the Pagodas to Benjamin Britten's music, which led to her moving to The Royal Ballet. A year later, in December 1989, on the opening night of the show, she was promoted to Principal, at the time the youngest ballerina to be given this honour.

Her many roles include Masha in Winter Dreams and Princess Rose in The Prince of the Pagodas, both choreographed by MacMillan, as well as Princess Aurora in The Sleeping Beauty, Odette/Odile in Swan Lake, Nikiya and Gamzatti in La Bayadère, the Sugar Plum Fairy in The Nutcracker, Manon in Manon, and Giselle in Giselle.

She made several guest appearances with the New York City Ballet, starting in June 1993, with a performance of the pas de deux from Agon.^[7][8]

She danced the première of Sylvia by Léo Delibes choreographed by Sir Frederick Ashton at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden on 4 November 2004.

In 2006 she announced her retirement as a principal dancer at the Royal Ballet, though stayed with the company as "guest principal artist".

She retired from ballet on 8 June 2007 with a performance of MacMillan's "Song of the Earth" (music Gustav Mahler: Das Lied von der Erde). It was performed at the Royal Opera House in London, and at the end of the piece she received a standing ovation lasting over 8 minutes. It was also broadcast live on BBC Two.^[9]

Despite retiring from the professional stage, Bussell remains deeply involved in the dance world. She continues to be a patron of the International Dance Teachers Association and has also joined the board of directors of Sydney Dance Company. She is also a recipient of the Carl Alan Award for contributions to dance.

Modelling[link]

Darcey Bussell has modelled clothes for Mulberry, Bruce Oldfield and Marks & Spencer. She has also been photographed for Tatler, Vogue and Vanity Fair. She was famously photographed with a diamond in her mouth in a promotion for De Beers.

Literary career[link]

In 2008, Bussell released six books in a new children's series entitled The Magic Ballerina.^[10][11] The story line involves a little girl called Delphie who joins a ballet school and discovers her shoes are magical. She then also did more books with the title "The Magic Ballerina" with names such as Rosa,Holly and Jade, all of which the girls own magic sparkly red ballet shoes. and She also co-wrote The Young Ballerina with the Royal Ballet School and wrote an introduction to the book The Illustrated Book of Ballet by Barbara Newman, which showcases five of the ballets in which she starred.

Other[link]

Darcey Bussell, Carlos Acosta and Gary Avis curtain call for "Song of the Earth", 8 June 2007

She was awarded the OBE in 1995 and the CBE in 2006. She guest starred as herself in the popular BBC1 comedy The Vicar of Dibley in 1998.

Bussell has recently teamed up with Katherine Jenkins and they plan to stage a song and dance production to pay tribute to the stars who have inspired them^[12] which include Madonna and Judy Garland.^[13] With a £1 million budget, the show was launched in Manchester in November and is entitled Viva la Diva.^[12] Bussell and Jenkins performed a segment of Viva la Diva before the Queen at the 79th Royal Variety Performance which was televised on 9 December 2007.^[14]

She joined the BBC's Strictly Come Dancing judging panel in the final stages of the 2009 series.^[15] In the semi-final of the competition she danced a jive with the professional dancer Ian Waite.^[16] In December 2011 she featured in a television show where alongside choreographer Kim Gavin she recreated some of Hollywood's famous dance routines including some by Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers and Gene Kelly from films such as Singing In The Rain and Top Hat ("Cheek to Cheek") on BBC Four.

On 18 July 2009, Bussell received an honorary doctorate (DLitt) from the University of Oxford. During the ceremony the University’s Public Orator noted that she "adds to technical mastery, charm and imagination, in such a way that she seems to reveal the grace of her personality as well as the grace of movement… Moreover, she wants those who are perhaps put off by the grand portals of the Royal Opera House to enjoy the pleasures that ballet affords."^[17]

Bussell is the "Godmother" of MS Azura, a 115,000 ton cruise liner of the P&O Cruises fleet. When the ship was officially launched in April 2010, Bussell performed the tradition ceremony of breaking a bottle of champagne to name the ship. She also staged a dance performance with students from the Royal Ballet School.^[18]

It was confirmed on the 25th April 2012 that Darcey would be replacing Alesha Dixon on the Strictly Come Dancing judging panel for the 2012 series.^[19]

Personal life[link]

In 1997, Bussell married Australian Angus Forbes, a merchant banker, in Cherwell, Oxfordshire. They originally lived in Kensington with their two daughters, both of whom were born in Kensington and Chelsea, London: Phoebe Olivia (born 2001) and Zoe Sophia (born 2004).^[20] In 2008, the family relocated to Sydney, Australia.^[5]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official website
• NY Times, Alastair Macaulay, 12 June 2007
• Darcey Bussell at the National Portrait Gallery (seven portraits held)
• The 'Darcey Bussell' rose
• Temple Destruction Scene, La Bayadère, Gamzatti's Act III Variation on YouTube
• Dance legend Darcey Bussell's next step | Interview by Chris Wiegand in the Guardian, 19 May 2009

v t e Ballet General information ballets companies glossary history music timeline Ballet terminology Ballet d'action Barre Ballet blanc Comic ballet Contemporary ballet Ballets de cour Demi-soloist Divertissement Narrative ballet Neoclassical ballet Opéra-ballet Pas de deux Pas de quatre Pas de trois Pièce d'occasion Pointe shoes Romantic ballet Turnout Tutu Variation Ballet by genre character classical contemporary neoclassical Ballet by region British French Italian Russian Dancers American British French Russian Technique Balanchine Bournonville Cecchetti Royal Academy Vaganova Ballet apparel dance belt leotard pointe shoes slippers tights tutu unitard Schools The National Ballet School of Canada Stuttgart Ballet Cuban National Ballet School Elmhurst School for Dance English National Ballet School Moscow State Academy of Choreography Royal Ballet School School of American Ballet La Scala Theatre Ballet School Vaganova Academy of Russian Ballet Royal Winnipeg Ballet Companies American Ballet Theatre Anaheim Ballet Atlanta Ballet Ballet Manila Ballet Philippines Barcelona Ballet Berlin State Ballet Birmingham Royal Ballet Bolshoi Ballet Boston Ballet Cairo Opera Ballet Company Cape Town City Ballet Carolina Ballet Cincinnati Ballet Cuban National Ballet Dayton Ballet Donetsk Ballet Dutch National Ballet English National Ballet Finnish National Ballet Georgian National Ballet Greek National Opera Guangzhou Ballet Hamburg Ballet Hong Kong Ballet Houston Ballet Iaşi Romanian National Opera Iranian National Ballet Company Joffrey Ballet K-ballet Kiev Ballet Korea National Ballet Company La Scala Theatre Ballet Les Ballets de Monte Carlo Les Grands Ballets Canadiens Los Angeles Ballet Mariinsky Ballet Moldova National Opera Ballet National Ballet of Canada National Ballet of China National Ballet Theater of Puerto Rico National Opera and Ballet National Theatre Munich New Jersey Ballet New York City Ballet Norwegian National Opera and Ballet Oklahoma City Ballet Oregon Ballet Theatre Pacific Northwest Ballet Paris Opera Ballet Philippine Ballet Theatre Polish National Ballet Queensland Ballet Royal Danish Ballet Royal New Zealand Ballet Royal Swedish Ballet Royal Winnipeg Ballet San Francisco Ballet Scottish Ballet Shanghai Ballet Company Spanish National Dance Company Stuttgart Ballet The Australian Ballet The Royal Ballet Tokyo Ballet Tulsa Ballet Universal Ballet West Australian Ballet Ballet portal Did you know? today's news today's article today's biography today's picture recent news 2009 2008

Sir Anthony James Dowell, CBE (born 16 February 1943 in London, United Kingdom) is a retired English danseur and former Artistic Director of the Royal Ballet. He studied at the Hampshire School and The Royal Ballet Schools, before joining the Royal Ballet in 1961.^[1] He was ultimately promoted to the most senior rank of Principal Dancer, and is recognised as one of the companies star dancers of the 1970s and early 80s. He is most noted for the role of Oberon in The Dream by Sir Frederick Ashton and for his filmed performance as Prince Siegfried in Swan Lake with Natalia Makarova in 1980. He also formed a famous partnership with dancer Antoinette Sibley. After retiring as a principal dancer, in 1984 he was appointed Assistant to the Director of the Royal Ballet, being promoted to Associate Director in 1985. He was appointed as artistic director of the Royal Ballet in 1986, and held the position until 2001 when he officially retired.^[2][3] He continues to be active in the dance industry as a guest teacher and lecturer. He is a Governor of the Royal Ballet School and is also a member of organisations such as the Royal Academy of Dance^[4] and the Imperial Society of Teachers of Dancing.^[5]

Roles[link]

Proving to have a strong technique, lyrical quality, and extraordinary dramatic sensibilities, by 1966 Dowell was promoted to the rank of principal dancer and created other rôles in Ashton's works including Beliaev in his A Month in the Country, Troyte in Enigma Variations, and Lo Straniero in Varii Capricci. For Sir Kenneth MacMillan, he created Des Grieux in Manon, Benvolio in Romeo and Juliet, Kchessinska’s partner in Anastasia, the Boy in Triad and Autumn in The Four Seasons. He also created the Boy with Matted Hair in Antony Tudor’s Shadowplay, Prospero in Nureyev’s The Tempest and the leading rôle in Hans van Manen’s Four Schumann Pieces, for which he was the inspiration. Rôles in which he was particularly praised include the leads in Ashton’s La Fille mal gardée, Cinderella, Daphnis and Chloë and Symphonic Variations; MacMillan’s Song of the Earth, Ondine and Romeo and Juliet; La Bayadère, Jerome Robbins’ Dances at a Gathering and In the Night and Balanchine’s Agon. That "he is, without a doubt, the finest Drosselmeyer who has ever danced the rôle....is without question. Sir Anthony is a consummate man of the theater...one of the last we shall know....We should rejoice in the recorded legacy of his work onstage." -Michael Maglaras

In demand[link]

In the late 1970s he danced with both The Royal Ballet in London and American Ballet Theatre in New York where his extensive repertory included the rôle of Solor in the first performances of Natalia Makarova’s production of La Bayadère. One of his last full dancing rôles was as Palemon in a revival of Sir Frederick Ashton's ballet, Ondine in the late 1980s. While Artisic Director of the Royal Ballet, Dowell presented a new version of The Sleeping Beauty. The production was filmed and features Dowell in the character rôle of Carabosse.

A new career[link]

In September 1986 he was appointed Director of The Royal Ballet, a post he held until August 2001, (having become Assistant to the Director in September 1984 and Associate Director in 1985). He was succeeded by Ross Stretton.

References[link]

• Willis, Margaret (1 August 1999), DOWELL TO LEAVE ROYAL BALLET IN 2001, Dance Magazine
• Simpson, Jane (January 1999), Legend: Anthony Dowell, Ballet.co.uk
• Anthony James DOWELL, C.B.E., Artistic Director,. Royal Ballet. For services to Ballet Supplement to The London Gazette, 17 June 1995
• Portraits of Sir Anthony Dowell (National Portrait Gallery), painted by Alan Bergman, Philip Harris, and Bernard Lee Schwartz

External links[link]

• Anthony Dowell at the Internet Movie Database

v t e Ballet General information ballets companies glossary history music timeline Ballet terminology Ballet d'action Barre Ballet blanc Comic ballet Contemporary ballet Ballets de cour Demi-soloist Divertissement Narrative ballet Neoclassical ballet Opéra-ballet Pas de deux Pas de quatre Pas de trois Pièce d'occasion Pointe shoes Romantic ballet Turnout Tutu Variation Ballet by genre character classical contemporary neoclassical Ballet by region British French Italian Russian Dancers American British French Russian Technique Balanchine Bournonville Cecchetti Royal Academy Vaganova Ballet apparel dance belt leotard pointe shoes slippers tights tutu unitard Schools The National Ballet School of Canada Stuttgart Ballet Cuban National Ballet School Elmhurst School for Dance English National Ballet School Moscow State Academy of Choreography Royal Ballet School School of American Ballet La Scala Theatre Ballet School Vaganova Academy of Russian Ballet Royal Winnipeg Ballet Companies American Ballet Theatre Anaheim Ballet Atlanta Ballet Ballet Manila Ballet Philippines Barcelona Ballet Berlin State Ballet Birmingham Royal Ballet Bolshoi Ballet Boston Ballet Cairo Opera Ballet Company Cape Town City Ballet Carolina Ballet Cincinnati Ballet Cuban National Ballet Dayton Ballet Donetsk Ballet Dutch National Ballet English National Ballet Finnish National Ballet Georgian National Ballet Greek National Opera Guangzhou Ballet Hamburg Ballet Hong Kong Ballet Houston Ballet Iaşi Romanian National Opera Iranian National Ballet Company Joffrey Ballet K-ballet Kiev Ballet Korea National Ballet Company La Scala Theatre Ballet Les Ballets de Monte Carlo Les Grands Ballets Canadiens Los Angeles Ballet Mariinsky Ballet Moldova National Opera Ballet National Ballet of Canada National Ballet of China National Ballet Theater of Puerto Rico National Opera and Ballet National Theatre Munich New Jersey Ballet New York City Ballet Norwegian National Opera and Ballet Oklahoma City Ballet Oregon Ballet Theatre Pacific Northwest Ballet Paris Opera Ballet Philippine Ballet Theatre Polish National Ballet Queensland Ballet Royal Danish Ballet Royal New Zealand Ballet Royal Swedish Ballet Royal Winnipeg Ballet San Francisco Ballet Scottish Ballet Shanghai Ballet Company Spanish National Dance Company Stuttgart Ballet The Australian Ballet The Royal Ballet Tokyo Ballet Tulsa Ballet Universal Ballet West Australian Ballet Ballet portal Did you know? today's news today's article today's biography today's picture recent news 2009 2008

Helen Mirren
Mirren at the 83rd Academy Awards in 2011.
Born	Helen Lydia Mironoff (1945-07-26) 26 July 1945 (age 66) Chiswick, Middlesex, England
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1965–present
Spouse	Taylor Hackford (1997–present)
Partner	Taylor Hackford (1986–1997)
Website
Official site

Dame Helen Mirren, DBE (born Helen Lydia Mironoff; 26 July 1945) is an English actor. She has won an Academy Award for Best Actress, four SAG Awards, four BAFTAs, three Golden Globes, four Emmy Awards, and two Cannes Film Festival Best Actress Awards.

Early life and family[link]

Mirren was born Helen Lydia Mironoff^[1][2] in Queen Charlotte's Hospital, Chiswick, West London.^[3] Her father, Vasiliy Petrovich Mironov (1913–1980), was of Russian origin, and her mother, Kitty (née Kathleen Alexandrina Eva Matilda Rogers; 1909–1996), was English.^[4] Mirren's paternal grandfather, Colonel Pyotr Vasilievich Mironov, was in the Tsarist Army and fought in the 1904 Russo-Japanese War. He later became a diplomat, and was negotiating an arms deal in Britain, when he and his family were stranded during the Russian Revolution.^[5] The former diplomat became a London cab driver to support his family.

His son, Helen Mirren's father, changed the family name to the Scottish-sounding Mirren in the 1950s and became known as Basil Mirren. He played the viola with the London Philharmonic before World War II, and later drove a cab and was a driving-test examiner, before becoming a civil servant with the Ministry of Transport. Mirren's mother was from West Ham, East London, and was the 13th of 14 children born to a butcher whose father had been the butcher to Queen Victoria.^[4] Mirren considers her upbringing to have been "very anti-monarchist".^[6]

The first house she remembers living in was in Westcliff-on-Sea, Essex, when she was two or three years old, after the birth of her younger brother, who was named Peter Basil after his grandfather and great-great-grandfather. Mirren was the second of three children, born two years after her older sister Katherine ("Kate"; born 1942). She later lived in Leigh-on-Sea.

Education[link]

Mirren attended St Bernard's High School for Girls in Southend-on-Sea, where she acted in school productions, and subsequently a teaching college, the New College of Speech and Drama in London, "housed within Anna Pavlova's old home, Ivy House" on the North End Road – which leads from Golders Green to Hampstead, N. London. At age eighteen, she auditioned for the National Youth Theatre and was accepted. By the time she was 20, she was Cleopatra in the NYT production of Antony and Cleopatra at the Old Vic, which led to her signing with the agent Al Parker.^[7]

Theatre[link]

Early years[link]

Her work for the NYT led to Mirren joining the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC), playing Castiza in Trevor Nunn's 1966 staging of The Revenger's Tragedy, Diana in All's Well That Ends Well in 1967, Cressida in Troilus and Cressida and Phebe^[8] in As You Like It in 1968, Julia in The Two Gentlemen of Verona in 1970, and Tatiana in Gorky's Enemies at the Aldwych and the title role in Miss Julie at The Other Place in 1971. She also appeared in four productions, directed by Braham Murray for Century Theatre at the University Theatre in Manchester between 1965 and 1967.^[9]

In 1970 Director/producer John Goldschmidt made the documentary film Doing Her Own Thing about Mirren at the Royal Shakespeare Company. The film was made for ATV and shown on the ITV Network in the UK.

In 1972–73 Mirren worked with Peter Brook's International Centre for Theatre Research, and joined the group's tour in North Africa and the US which created The Conference of the Birds. Returning to the RSC she played Lady Macbeth at Stratford in 1974 and at the Aldwych Theatre in 1975.

As reported by Sally Beauman in her 1982 history of the RSC, Mirren, while appearing in Nunn's Macbeth (1974) and in a highly publicised letter to The Guardian newspaper, attacked both the National Theatre and the RSC for their lavish production expenditure, declaring it "unnecessary and destructive to the art of the Theatre," and adding, "The realms of truth, emotion and imagination reached for in acting a great play have become more and more remote, often totally unreachable across an abyss of costume and technicalities..." There were no discernible repercussions for this rebuke of the RSC.^[10]

West End and RSC[link]

At the Royal Court in September 1975 she notably played rock star Maggie in Teeth 'n' Smiles, a musical play by David Hare, which was revived at Wyndham's Theatre in May 1976 winning her the Plays & Players Best Actress award, voted by the London critics.

From November 1975 Mirren played in West End repertory with the Lyric Theatre Company as Nina in The Seagull and Ella in Ben Travers' new farce The Bed Before Yesterday ("Mirren is stirringly voluptuous as the Harlowesque good-time girl": Michael Billington, The Guardian, 10 December 1975). At the RSC in Stratford in 1977, and at the Aldwych the following year, she played a steely Queen Margaret in Terry Hands' production of the three parts of Henry VI, while 1979 saw her 'bursting with grace' with an acclaimed performance as Isabella in Peter Gill's otherwise unexceptional production of Measure for Measure at Riverside Studios.

In 1981 she returned to the Royal Court for the London premiere of Brian Friel's Faith Healer. In the same year she also received acclaim for her performance in the title role of John Webster's The Duchess of Malfi, a production of Manchester's Royal Exchange Theatre which transferred to The Roundhouse in Chalk Farm, London. Reviewing her portrayal for The Sunday Telegraph, Francis King wrote: "Miss Mirren never leaves it in doubt that even in her absences, this ardent, beautiful woman is the most important character of the story."

Her performance as Moll Cutpurse in The Roaring Girl at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in January 1983, and at the Barbican Theatre April 1983), "swaggered through the action with radiant singularity of purpose, filling in areas of light and shade that even Thomas Middleton and Thomas Dekker omitted." – Michael Coveney, Financial Times, April 1983.

After a relatively barren sojourn in the Hollywood Hills, she returned to England at the beginning of 1989 to co-star with Bob Peck at the Young Vic in the London premiere of the Arthur Miller double-bill, Two Way Mirror, performances which prompted Miller to remark: "What is so good about English actors is that they are not afraid of the open expression of large emotions" (interview by Sheridan Morley: The Times 11 January 1989). In Elegy for a Lady she played the svelte proprietress of a classy boutique, while as the blonde hooker in Some Kind of Love Story she was "clad in a Freudian slip and shifting easily from waif-like vulnerability to sexual aggression, giving the role a breathy Monroesque quality" (Michael Billington, The Guardian).

Broadway debut[link]

A further stage breakthrough came in 1994, in an Yvonne Arnaud Theatre production bound for the West End, when Bill Bryden cast her as Natalya Petrovna in Ivan Turgenev's A Month in the Country. Her co-stars were John Hurt as her aimless lover Rakitin and Joseph Fiennes in only his second professional stage appearance as the cocksure young tutor Belyaev. "Instead of a bored Natalya fretting the summer away in dull frocks, Mirren, dazzlingly gowned, is a woman almost wilfully allowing her heart's desire for her son's young tutor to rule her head and wreak domestic havoc....Creamy shoulders bared, she feels free to launch into a gloriously enchanted, dreamily comic self-confession of love." (John Thaxter, Richmond & Twickenham Times, 4 March 1994).

Mirren was twice nominated for Broadway's Tony Award as Best Actress (Play): in 1995 for her Broadway debut in A Month in the Country, now directed by Scott Ellis ("Miss Mirren's performance is bigger and more animated than the one she gave last year in an entirely different London production", Vincent Canby in the NY Times, 26 April 1995). Then again in 2002 for August Strindberg's Dance of Death, co-starring with Sir Ian McKellen, their fraught rehearsal period coinciding with the terrorist attacks on New York on September 11, 2001 (as recorded in her In the Frame autobiography, September 2007).

National Theatre[link]

Mirren had an unhappy experience at the National Theatre in 1998 when she played Cleopatra to Alan Rickman's Antony. In 2000 Nicholas Hytner, who had worked with Mirren on the film version of The Madness of King George, cast her as Lady Torrance in his revival of Tennessee Williams' Orpheus Descending at the Donmar Warehouse in London. Michael Billington, reviewing for The Guardian, described her performance as "an exemplary study of an immigrant woman who has acquired a patina of resilient toughness but who slowly acknowledges her sensuality."

At the National Theatre in November 2003 she again won praise playing Christine Mannon ("defiantly cool, camp and skittish", Evening Standard; "glows with mature sexual allure", Daily Telegraph) in a revival of Eugene O'Neill's Mourning Becomes Electra directed by Howard Davies.

“This production was one of the best experiences of my professional life, The play was four and a half hours long, and I have never known that kind of response from an audience ... It was the serendipity of a beautifully cast play, with great design and direction, It will be hard to be in anything better.” (In the Frame, September 2007).

She played the tragic title role in Jean Racine's Phèdre at the National in 2009, in a production directed by Nicholas Hytner. The production was also staged at the amphitheater of Epidaurus on 11 and 12 July 2009.

Selected stage credits[link]

• Cleopatra, Anthony and Cleopatra, Old Vic Theatre, London, 1965
• Cathleen, Long Day's Journey Into Night, Century Theatre, Manchester,England 1965
• Kitty, Charley's Aunt, Century Theatre, Manchester, 1967
• Nerissa, The Merchant of Venice, Century Theatre,Manchester, 1967
• Castiza, The Revenger's Tragedy, Royal Shakespeare Company, Stratford-upon-Avon, England, 1967
• Diana, All's Well That Ends Well, Royal Shakespeare Company, Stratford-upon-Avon, 1967
• Cressida, Troilus and Cressida, Royal Shakespeare Company, Aldwych Theatre, London, 1968
• Hero, Much Ado about Nothing, Aldwych Theatre, 1968–1969
• Win-the-Fight Littlewit, Bartholomew Fair, Aldwych Theatre, 1969
• Lady Anne, Richard III, Royal Shakespeare Company, Stratford-upon-Avon, 1970
• Ophelia, Hamlet, Royal Shakespeare Company, Stratford-upon-Avon, 1970
• Julia, The Two Gentlemen of Verona, Royal Shakespeare Company, Stratford-upon-Avon, 1970
• Tatyana, Enemies, Royal Shakespeare Company, Aldwych Theatre, 1971
• Harriet, The Man of Mode, Royal Shakespeare Company, Aldwych Theatre, 1971
• Title role, Miss Julie, Royal Shakespeare Company, Aldwych Theatre, 1971
• Elayne, The Balcony, Royal Shakespeare Company, Aldwych Theatre, 1971
• Isabella, Measure for Measure, Riverside Studios Theatre, London,1974
• Lady Macbeth, Macbeth, Royal Shakespeare Company, Stratford-upon-Avon, 1974, then Aldwych Theatre, 1975
• Maggie, Teeth 'n' Smiles, Royal Court Theatre, London, 1975, then Wyndham's Theatre, London, 1976
• Nina, The Seagull, Lyric Theatre, London, 1975
• Ella, The Bed before Yesterday, Lyric Theatre, 1975
• Queen Margaret, Henry VI, Parts I, II and III, Royal Shakespeare Company, Stratford-upon-Avon, 1977, then Aldwych Theatre, 1978
• Title role, The Duchess of Malfi, Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester, England, 1980, then The Roundhouse, London, 1981
• Grace, Faith Healer, Royal Court Theatre, 1981
• Cleopatra, Antony and Cleopatra, Pit Theatre, London, 1983
• Moll Cutpurse, The Roaring Girl, Barbican Theatre, London, 1983
• Marjorie, Extremities, Duchess Theatre, London, 1984
• Madame Bovary, 1987
• Angela, "Some Kind of Love Story," and dying woman, "Elegy for a Lady," in Two-Way Mirror (double-bill), Young Vic Theatre, *London, 1989
• Sex Please We're Italian, 1991
• Natalya Petrovna, A Month in the Country, London, 1994, then Criterion Theatre, New York City, 1995
• Antony and Cleopatra, Royal National Theatre, London, 1998
• Collected Stories, London, 1999
• Lady Torrance, Orpheus Descending, Donmar Warehouse, London, 2000
• Alice, Dance of Death, Broadhurst Theatre, New York City, 2001–2002
• Mourning Becomes Electra, Lyttelton Stage, Royal National Theatre, 2003
• Phedre, National Theatre, 2009
• Also appeared as Susie Monmican, The Silver Lassie; in Woman in Mind, Los Angeles.

Film[link]

Mirren at the 2010 Comic Con in San Diego, 22 July 2010

Mirren has also appeared in a large number of films throughout her career. Some of her earlier film roles include Age of Consent, O Lucky Man!, Caligula, Excalibur, 2010, The Long Good Friday, White Nights, When the Whales Came and The Mosquito Coast. She appeared in Some Mother's Son, Painted Lady, The Prince of Egypt and The Madness of King George. One of her other film roles was in Peter Greenaway's The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover, as the eponymous thief's wife, opposite Michael Gambon. Her favourite film is Teaching Mrs. Tingle, in which she plays sadistic History teacher, Mrs Eve Tingle.^{[citation needed]}

Mirren continued her successful film career when she starred more recently in Gosford Park with Maggie Smith and Calendar Girls where she starred with Julie Walters. Other more recent appearances include The Clearing, Pride, Raising Helen, and Shadowboxer. Mirren also provided the voice for the supercomputer "Deep Thought" in the film adaptation of Douglas Adams' The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. During her career, she has portrayed three British queens in different films and television series: Elizabeth I in the television series Elizabeth I (2005), Elizabeth II in The Queen (2006), and Queen Charlotte, the wife of George III, in The Madness of King George (1994). She is the only actress ever to have portrayed both Queens Elizabeth on the screen.

Mirren's title role of The Queen earned her numerous acting awards including a BAFTA, a Golden Globe, and an Academy Award, among many others. During her acceptance speech at the Academy Award ceremony, she praised and thanked Elizabeth II and stated that she had maintained her dignity and weathered many storms during her reign as Queen. Mirren later appeared in supporting roles in the films National Treasure 2: Book of Secrets, Inkheart, State of Play, and The Last Station, for which she was nominated for an Oscar.^[11]

In preparation for her role as a retired Israeli Mossad agent in the film The Debt, Mirren reportedly immersed herself in studies of Hebrew language, Jewish history, and Holocaust writing, including the life of Simon Wiesenthal, while in Israel in 2009 for the filming of some of the movie's scenes. The film is a remake of a 2007 Israeli film of the same name (Hebrew: Ha-khov).^[12]

Television[link]

Mirren is known for her role as detective Jane Tennison in the widely viewed Prime Suspect, a multiple award-winning television drama that was noted for its high quality and popularity. Her portrayal of Tennison won her three consecutive BAFTA awards for Best Actress between 1992 and 1994.

Some of Mirren's other television performances include Cousin Bette (1971); As You Like It (1979); Blue Remembered Hills (1979); The Twilight Zone episode "Dead Woman's Shoes" (1985); Losing Chase (1996); The Passion of Ayn Rand (1999), where her performance won her both the Emmy and the Golden Globe; Door to Door (2002); and The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone (2003). In 1976, she appeared with Laurence Olivier, Alan Bates and Malcolm McDowell in a production of Harold Pinter's The Collection as part of the Laurence Olivier Presents series. She also played Elizabeth I in 2005, in the television serial Elizabeth I, for Channel 4 and HBO, for which she received an Emmy Award. Mirren won another Emmy Award on 16 September 2007 for her role in Prime Suspect: The Final Act on PBS in the same category as in 2006.

Mirren hosted Saturday Night Live on 9 April 2011.^[13]

Awards and recognition[link]

Film awards[link]

Mirren at the 69th Annual Golden Globe Awards

In 1984, Mirren won Best Actress for her role in the film Cal at the Cannes Film Festival and the 1985 Evening Standard British Film Awards. In 1994 and 2001, she was nominated for the Best Supporting Actress Academy Award for her roles in The Madness of King George and Gosford Park, respectively. In 1995, she had also been awarded for Best Actress once again in Cannes for playing Queen Charlotte in The Madness of King George.^[14] In 2002, she received the SAG Award for Best Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture for Gosford Park. Mirren is the first female actress to be nominated for three acting performances at the Golden Globe Awards in the same year. She won the Golden Globe for Best Actress in a Leading Role in the movie drama category for Stephen Frears' The Queen in 2006 (along with two nominations in the Actress in a Mini-series or TV Movie category for Elizabeth I, and Prime Suspect: Final Act). She won both Golden Globes for The Queen and Elizabeth I and also won two SAG awards the same year for the same roles. Mirren is the third actor to win two Golden Globes in the same year, and the first ever to win for both leading roles in TV and film in the same year. She is one of only three actresses (the first was Liza Minnelli in 1973 and then decades later Helen Hunt) to win a Golden Globe, an Oscar and an Emmy for performances given in the same year.

Along with the Golden Globe, Mirren's acclaimed performance in The Queen won her the 2007 Academy Award for Best Actress.^[15] She also received Best Actress awards from the Venice Film Festival, Broadcast Film Critics, National Board of Review, Satellite Awards, Screen Actors Guild and a BAFTA, as well as critics awards from all over the world. Entertainment Weekly recently ranked her Number 2 for Entertainer of the Year for 2006 and also won the award for best actress in film at the new Greatest Britons Awards for her role in The Queen. In 2007, Mirren became an Honorary Patron of the University Philosophical Society at Trinity College Dublin.

She won the Best Actress award at the 2009 Rome International Film Festival for her performance as Tolstoy's wife in The Last Station.^[16]

Academy Award nominations[link]

• Best Actress
  • 2006 – The Queen
  • 2009 – The Last Station

• Best Supporting Actress
  • 1994 – The Madness of King George
  • 2001 – Gosford Park

Television awards[link]

Mirren won a Golden Globe for Best Actress in a Leading Role in a Mini-series or TV Movie in 1997 for her role in Losing Chase. She received two nominations in the Actress in a Mini-series or TV Movie category for Elizabeth I, and Prime Suspect: The Final Act, where she only won the Golden Globe for her title role performance in Elizabeth I. In that same year she won an SAG award for that same role. Mirren also won an Emmy for her role in Elizabeth I in category Lead Actress in a Mini-Series or a Movie in 2006. She had previously won an Emmy twice before, in that same category, in 1996 for her role in Prime Suspect: Scent of Darkness and in 1999 for The Passion of Ayn Rand.^[17]

At the end of a triumphant year of awards for her acclaimed movie performance as Queen Elizabeth II in The Queen, Dame Helen also collected a 2007 Emmy Television award as Best Actress in a Mini-Series for her performance as Detective Superintendent Jane Tennison in Prime Suspect: The Final Act. She now has four Emmy awards. This seventh, and apparently concluding instalment, of the Prime Suspect saga portrayed Tennison as an alcoholic destined for retirement. It was screened in the US on the public service network PBS.

Emmy Awards[link]

Awards won are indicated by bold lettering.

• Outstanding Lead Actress in a Miniseries or Movie

• 1993 – Prime Suspect 2
• 1994 – Prime Suspect 3
• 1996 – Prime Suspect 4: "Scent of Darkness"
• 1997 – Prime Suspect 5: Errors of Judgment
• 1999 – The Passion of Ayn Rand
• 2003 – The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone
• 2004 – Prime Suspect 6: The Last Witness
• 2006 – Elizabeth I
• 2007 – Prime Suspect: The Final Act

• Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Miniseries or Movie

• 2003 – Door to Door

Critics' Circle Award for Distinguished Service to the Arts[link]

Mirren at The Critics' Circle Awards Luncheon in April 2007

Each year, since 1988, The Critics' Circle has presented an award for Distinguished Service to the Arts voted for by all members of the Circle embracing: Dance, Drama, Film, Music, Visual Arts and Architecture. At a celebratory luncheon, on 10 April 2007 in the National Theatre's Terrace Restaurant, the award for 2006 was presented to Dame Helen Mirren.^[18] As David Gritten, chairman of the Film section made clear, the decision to make the award was voted on in November 2006, well in advance of the awards hubbub that surrounded her performance in The Queen. Accepting the award, an engraved crystal rose bowl, Mirren described it as the most useful she has ever received, while reflecting poignantly that this now "might be the last award I will win in my life. It has been a most incredible year. You do the work and then....." Previous recipients include Peter Hall (1988), Judi Dench (1997) and Ian McKellen (2003).

Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire[link]

On 5 December 2003, she was invested as a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE). When she received the honour, Mirren commented that Prince Charles was "very graceful" but forgot to give her half of the award. Another person had to remind him to give Mirren the star. She also said that she felt wary about accepting the award and had to be persuaded by fellow comrades to accept the DBE. In 1996, she had declined appointment as a Commander of the order (CBE).^[19]

Personal life[link]

Mirren married American director Taylor Hackford (her partner since 1986) on 31 December 1997, his 53rd birthday. The ceremony took place at the Ardersier Parish Church near Inverness in the Scottish Highlands.^[20] The couple had met on the set of White Nights. It is her first marriage, and his third (he has two children from his previous marriages). Mirren has no children and says she has "no maternal instinct whatsoever."^[21]

In the August 2011 issue of Esquire magazine, Mirren said, "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."^[22]

Mirren's autobiography, In the Frame: My Life in Words and Pictures, was published in the UK by Weidenfeld and Nicolson in September 2007. Reviewing for The Stage, John Thaxter wrote: "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."^[23]

In 1990, Mirren stated in an interview that she is an atheist.^[24]

In a GQ interview in 2008, Mirren stated she had been date raped as a student and had often taken cocaine at parties during the 1980s.^[25][26] She stopped using the drug after reading that Klaus Barbie made a living from cocaine dealing.^{[25][26][27][28]}

On 11 May 2010, Mirren attended the unveiling of her waxwork at Madame Tussauds London. The figure reportedly cost £150,000 to make and took four months to complete.^[29]

Criticism[link]

In July 2010, during the Anglo-American BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill, Mirren declared herself to be "embarrassed and mortified at being British" had England defeated the US at football during the 2010 FIFA World Cup. "I was so relieved it was a draw because, you know, if Britain had beaten America, what with BP, which to my mind stands for bloody p***-poor."^[30][30]

This provoked an angry response in the UK, where the tabloid The Daily Mail accused her of being disloyal and cynically playing up to her American audience.^[31]

References in pop culture[link]

• The Mars Volta on their 2008 album The Bedlam in Goliath have a song called "Ilyena" that is named after Mirren.^[32] Mars Volta lyricist/singer Cedric Bixler-Zavala has stated an affinity for Mirren.^[33]

Filmography[link]

Further reading[link]

• Command Performance, a profile of Helen Mirren written by John Lahr in The New Yorker magazine, 2 October 2006
• In the Frame: My Life in Words and Pictures (autobiography) by Helen Mirren, Weidenfeld and Nicholson, 2007 ISBN 978-0-297-85197-4.
  • Rather than writing an autobiography Helen Mirren was commissioned by Alan Samson at Orion Books to write about her life in a series of chapters based on pictures from her extensive personal collection of photography and memorabilia. Edited by Chris Worwood, with whom she worked on the Award-winning HBO series Elizabeth, the book covers every aspect of her life from her aristocratic Russian heritage to her days with Peter Hall's RSC company to her Academy Award for The Queen.

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Helen Mirren

• Official website
• Helen Mirren at the Internet Movie Database
• Helen Mirren at the TCM Movie Database
• Helen Mirren at the Internet Broadway Database
• Helen Mirren at the MBC Encyclopedia of Television
• Helen Mirren Biography at Tiscali
• The Helen Mirren Appreciation Society, official fan club
• Helen Mirren on Charlie Rose
• Works by or about Helen Mirren in libraries (WorldCat catalog)
• Helen Mirren collected news and commentary at The Guardian
• Helen Mirren collected news and commentary at The New York Times
• Arifa Akbar, "Helen Mirren: The good, the bad and The Queen", (interview), The Independent (London), 27 May 2007
• Kevin Maher, Dame Helen Mirren: I'm an Essex Girl (interview), The Times (London), 12 February 2010
• Morley Safer profile of Helen Mirren on CBS 60 Minutes, 7 January 2007