Stephen Frears
Frears at the Cardiff Film Festival in 2006 for the premiere of The Queen.
Born	Stephen Arthur Frears (1941-06-20) 20 June 1941 (age 71) Leicester, England
Nationality	British
Alma mater	Trinity College, Cambridge
Occupation	Film director
Years active	1968–present
Spouse	Mary-Kay Wilmers Anne Rothenstein

Stephen Arthur Frears (born 20 June 1941) is an English film director.

Early life[link]

Frears was born in Leicester, England, to Ruth M., a social worker, and Dr. Russell E. Frears, a general practitioner and accountant.^[1] He did not find out that his mother was Jewish until he was in his late 20s.^[2] Frears was educated at Gresham's School, Norfolk, from 1954 to 1959, and later went on to study law at Trinity College, Cambridge, from 1960 to 1963.

Career[link]

After graduating from Cambridge, Frears worked as an assistant director on the films Morgan! (1966) and if.... (1968), but most of his early directing career was spent in television mainly for the BBC, but also for the commercial sector. Frears contributed to several high-profile anthology series such as the BBC's Play for Today, and produced a series of Alan Bennett's plays for LWT, taking responsibility for working in the gallery on The Old Crowd while Lindsay Anderson worked with the actors.

Frears in Sweden, 1989, promoting his movie Dangerous Liaisons

In the mid-1980s, Frears came to international attention as an important director of British and American films. His first film was Gumshoe (1971), but it was his production of the Hanif Kureishi screenplay My Beautiful Laundrette for Channel 4 in 1985 that unexpectedly led to his wider notice. The production, shot on 16 mm film, was released theatrically to great acclaim, and received a nomination for an Academy Award and two nominations for BAFTA Awards. In 1987, he worked with comedian Adrian Edmondson for Mr Jolly Lives Next Door, also starring Peter Cook for a 45-minute programme from the cult series The Comic Strip Presents. In 1985 he had also directed a Comic Strip parody of Rebecca with the usual Comic Strip ensemble.

Frears next directed another successful British film, the Joe Orton biopic Prick Up Your Ears (1987), another collaboration with Alan Bennett, which was followed by a second film from a Hanif Kureishi screenplay, Sammy and Rosie Get Laid (also 1987). The following year he made his Hollywood debut with Dangerous Liaisons. The film was quite successful at the box office. It received numerous nominations for Academy Awards and BAFTA Awards, and Frears himself was nominated for the BAFTA Award for Best Direction. Frears had another critical success with The Grifters (1990), for which he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Director. His film Hero (1992), starring Dustin Hoffman, was a major box-office disappointment. He was also nominated for a Razzie Award for his direction of Mary Reilly (1996).

Frears has since directed a number of successful films in both Britain and America, including The Hi-Lo Country (1998), High Fidelity (2000), Dirty Pretty Things (2003) and Mrs Henderson Presents starring Judi Dench and Bob Hoskins. In recent years he has also occasionally returned to directing for television, perhaps most notably The Deal, a dramatised account of the alleged deal between Tony Blair and Gordon Brown to decide which of them should become leader of the Labour Party in 1994, for Channel 4 in 2003. His film The Queen (2006) was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture. It achieved immense critical acclaim, box-office success and awards. He received his second Academy Award nomination for his direction of the film, and Helen Mirren won the Academy Award for Best Actress.

Frears has also directed two films based on stories by Roddy Doyle, The Snapper and The Van. He holds the "David Lean Chair in Fiction Direction" from the National Film and Television School in Beaconsfield, England, where he teaches frequently.

Personal life[link]

Frears currently lives in London with his wife, the painter Anne Rothenstein, and his two younger children Frankie and Lola. He also has two children, Sam and Will (a stage and film director), from his previous marriage to Mary-Kay Wilmers.

Early in his career he made a programme featuring the band The Scaffold and is name-checked ("Mr Frears had sticky out ears...") in their hit song "Lily the Pink".^[3]

Awards[link]

• 1982: Won BAFTA TV Award for best Single Play BBC2 Playhouse: Going Gently (#7.27)
• 1989: Won César Award for Best Foreign Film for Dangerous Liaisons
• 1990: Nominated for Academy Award for Best Director for The Grifters
• 1995: Won Goya Award for Best European Film for The Snapper
• 1996: Nominated for Razzie Award for Worst Director for Mary Reilly
• 1996: Nominated for the Golden Bear in Berlin for Mary Reilly^[4]
• 1999: Won Silver Bear for Best Director for The Hi-Lo Country in Berlin.^[5]
• 2003: Won BAFTA TV Awards for Best Single Drama for The Deal
• 2006: Nominated for Academy Award for Best Director for The Queen
• 2007: Won Goya Award for Best European Film for The Queen
• 2009: Commandeur de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres^[6]

Filmography[link]

Feature Films[link]

• Gumshoe (1971)
• Bloody Kids (1979)
• The Hit (1984)
• My Beautiful Laundrette (1985)
• Prick Up Your Ears (1987)
• Mr Jolly Lives Next Door (1987)
• Sammy and Rosie Get Laid (1987)
• Dangerous Liaisons (1988)
• The Grifters (1990)
• Hero (1992)
• Mary Reilly (1996)
• The Van (1996)
• The Hi-Lo Country (1998)
• High Fidelity (2000)
• Liam (2000)
• Dirty Pretty Things (2002)
• Mrs Henderson Presents (2005)
• The Queen (2006)
• Cheri (2009)
• Tamara Drewe (2010)
• Lay the Favorite (2012)
• Mercury (2014)

Television[link]

• Three Men in a Boat (1975)
• Afternoon Off (1979)
• One Fine Day (1979)
• Walter and June (1983)
• Saigon: Year of the Cat (1983)
• December Flower (1984)
• The Snapper (1993)
• Fail Safe (2000)
• The Deal (2003)

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Stephen Frears

• Stephen Frears at the Internet Movie Database
• Stephen Frears at the British Film Institute's Screenonline

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

Shashi Kapoor
Shashi Kapoor
Born	Balbir Raj Prithviraj Kapoor (1938-03-18) 18 March 1938 (age 74) Calcutta, West Bengal, British India
Residence	Mumbai, Maharashtra, India
Other names	Balbir Shashi Balbir Raj Shasha (used by his brother, Shammi Kapoor) Shashi Baba
Occupation	Actor, Director, Producer
Years active	1942–1999 (retired)
Spouse	Jennifer Kendal (1958–1984) (died of cancer)
Children	Kunal Kapoor, Sanjana Kapoor, Karan Kapoor
Relatives	Shammi Kapoor (Brother), Raj Kapoor (Brother), Randhir Kapoor (Nephew), Rishi Kapoor (Nephew), Karisma Kapoor (Grand Niece), Kareena Kapoor (Grand Niece), Ranbir Kapoor (Grand Nephew)
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Shashi Kapoor (Hindi: शशि कपूर), born Balbir Raj Prithviraj Kapoor on 18 March 1938 in Calcutta (now Kolkata), is an award-winning Indian film actor and film producer. He has also been film director and assistant director in Hindi Films. He is a member of the Kapoor family, a film dynasty in India's Bollywood cinema. He is the younger brother of Raj Kapoor and Shammi Kapoor, the son of Prithviraj Kapoor, the widower of Jennifer Kendal, and the father of Karan Kapoor, Kunal Kapoor, and Sanjana Kapoor.^[1]

He is remembered for many hit Hindi films like Jab Jab Phool Khile, Kanyadaan, Pyar Ka Mausam, Ek Shriman Ek Shrimati , Haseena Maan Jayegi, Sharmeelee, Aa Gale Lag Jaa, Fakira, Phaansi, Chor Machaye Shor, Mukti, Satyam Shivam Sundaram, Heeralal Pannalal, Junoon, Swayamvar and many such films, including ones he starred in with Pran like Chori Mera Kaam, Phaansi, Shankar Dada, Chakkar Pe Chakkar and with Amitabh Bachchan, such as Deewar, Namak Halaal.

He has also played leading roles in a number of English-speaking Indian films, including the very first Merchant Ivory production The Householder followed by such as Shakespeare-Wallah, Bombay Talkie, Heat and Dust, etc. In 2011, he was honoured with the Padma Bhushan by the Government of India.^[2]

Career[link]

Early Career(1960–1973)[link]

Shashi Kapoor started acting in films as a child in the early 1940s appearing in several mythological films and commercial film like Meena (1944), Tadbir, Bachpan (1945) under the name of Shashiraj. His best known performances as child artist were in Aag (1948) and Awaara (1951) where he played the younger version of the characters played by his older brother Raj Kapoor. Right from the age of four, Shashi had started acting in his plays directed and produced by his dad Prithviraj Kapoor, while travelling with Prithvi Theatres. He was acting in both, the plays, as well as the films, where he had small roles to play. He got opportunity to work as assistant director in the film Post Box 999, debut film of Sunil Dutt and followed by movies like Dulha Dulhan, Shriman Satyawadi, where Raj Kapoor was the lead hero.

He made his debut as a leading man in the 1961 Yash Chopra film Dharmputra and went on to appear in 168 films. He was a very popular debonair actor in Bollywood during the 1960s, 1970s and the mid 1980s. Shashi’s initial films like Dharmaputra directed by Yash Chopra and Prem Patra and Benazir both directed by Bimal Roy didn't do well. So he entered into English Movies. He was one of India's first actors to go international.^[3] But actress Nanda, who was already an established star with hits under her kit before Shashi tasted success, signed half a dozen Hindi films with him even when he wasn't doing well as she had faith in him that he could deliver good performances. Although their first film as a pair the critically acclaimed romantic film Char Diwari(1961) did not work, the rest were successful at the box office.^[4] In the 60’s Shashi had slew of solo hero box office romantic hit films opposite Nanda like Mehndi Lagi Mere Haath (1962), Mohabbat Isko Kahete Hain (1965), Jab Jab Phool Khile (1965), Neend Hamari Khwab Tumhare (1966), Raja Saab(1969) and Rootha Na Karo(1970). In the nineties in an interview, Shashi Kapoor declared that Nanda was his favourite heroine and regards as one of his mentors. Simlarly even Nanda declared in an interview that Shashi Kapoor was her favourite hero. But Shashi Kapoor again faced stiff competition from Rajesh Khanna for acquiring romantic roles, due to which he had a weak period from 1969–1974 although he had hits with Sharmila, Rakhee, Asha Parekh and Nanda in this period.^[5]

Peak period (1974–1985)[link]

Shashi Kapoor formed a hit on screen pair with Rakhee, Sharmila Tagore, Zeenat Aman in the late sixties till the mid eighties. Although he has commercial success even opposite heroines like Hema Malini, Parveen Babi, Moushumi Chatterjee and others too, the pair Shashi-Rakhee, Shashi-Sharmila and Shashi-Zeenat was more popular among the audiences. With their first movie together Sharmelee becoming a blockbuster, Rakhee was paired frequently with him and they gave more hit films like Kabhi Kabhie (1976), Baseraa (1981), Zameen Aasmaan (1984) and Pighalta Aasman (1985) and the critically acclaimed Trishna (1978). The pair Sharmila- Shashi gave hits like Waqt (1965), Aamne Samne (1967), Suhana Safar (1970), Aa Gale Lag Jaa (1973),^[6] Paap Aur Punya (1974), Swati (1986) and the critically acclaimed New Delhi Times (1985), which fetched Shashi a National Film Award for Best Actor in 1986.^[7] With Zeenat Aman, he did Chori Mera Kaam (1975), Deewaangee (1976), Satyam Shivam Sundaram, Roti Kapda Aur Makan, Heeralal Pannalal (1978), Kranti (1981), Pakhandi (1984) and Bhavani Junction (1985).

His most popular movies include Pyar Kiye Jaa (1966), Haseena Maan Jayegi (1968) and Ek Shriman Ek Shrimati (1969) both with Babita, Kanyadan, Pyar Ka Mausam (1969) both opposite Asha Parekh, Chor Machaye Shor opposite Mumtaz and Abhinetri (1970), Aap Beati (1976), Apna Khoon, Trishul (1978), Maan Gaye Ustaad (1981), Aandhi Toofan (1985) with Hema Malini, Bezubaan with Reena Roy, Chakkar Pe Chakkar (1976), Kali Ghata, Kalyug (1981), Vijeta (1982), Pyaar Ki Jeet(1987) all with Rekha and Bepanaah (1985) with Rati Agnihotri. Other solo hits include Dil Ne Pukara (1967), Naina (1973), Phaansi (1978), Salaakhen(1975), Fakira (1976), Junoon (1979) and multi-starrer Neeyat (1980).^[8] He also worked with Rajesh Khanna in Prem Kahani.

In some of his successful films from the 1970s and in early 1980s he co-starred alongside Pran which include hits Biradari, Chori Mera Kaam, Phaansi, Shankar Dada, Chakkar Pe Chakkar, Rahu Ketu, Apna Khoon and Maan Gaye Ustaad and with Amitabh Bachchan in nine films of which Deewaar (1975), Kabhi Kabhie (1976), Trishul (1978), Kaala Patthar (1979), Suhaag (1979), Namak Halaal (1982) were commercially successful and Shaan (1980), Do Aur Do Paanch (1980) and Akayla were flops at the box office. Shashi was regularly casted with Sanjeev Kumar too in films like Mukti (1977), Trishul, Muqaddar (1978), Swayamvar(1980), Sawaal (1982), Pakhandi (1984). Shashi Kapoor, being a senior actor and more popular, was paid more than his male co stars like Amitabh Bachchan, Vinod Khanna, Jeetendra, Randhir Kapoor, Rishi Kapoor in those days with exceptions being Pran, Rajesh Khanna and Sanjeev Kumar who were paid higher than Shashi. Although he was in his forties in the late 70’s, being slim and still having charming looks he was casted with his nephews Randhir Kapoor and Rishi Kapoor and with younger heroines like Neetu Singh, Sulakshana Pandit, Bindiya Goswami, Rati Agnihotri and Poonam Dhillon till 1985. After loss of his wife in 1984, Shashi started slowly gaining weight and this resulted him in moving to character roles in films like Alag Alag, Ilzaam (1986), Sindoor (1987). From 1986 onwards, he became very obese and his body was in contrary to his slim and fit image from the early 60’s till 1985.

He was also known internationally for starring in many British and American films, notably Merchant Ivory productions run by Ismail Merchant, such as Householder (1963) , Shakespeare Wallah (1965) (opposite his sister-in-law Felicity Kendal), Bombay Talkie (1970) and Heat and Dust (1982) in which he co-starred with his wife Jennifer Kendal, The Deceivers (1988) and Side Streets (1998). He also starred in other British and American films such as Pretty Polly (A Matter Of Innocence) (1967) opposite Hayley Mills, Siddhartha (1972), and Sammy and Rosie Get Laid (1987).Ismail Merchant also directed Shashi Kapoor in "In Custody" (Muhafiz) (1994).^[9] He was the first Indian actor to work extensively in Hollywood films and British films, at the kick-start of his acting stint in Bollywood, 1960 onwards.

In 1978, he set up his production house, Film Valas, which produced critically acclaimed films such as Junoon (1978), Kalyug (1981), 36 Chowringhee Lane (1981), Vijeta (1982) and Utsav (1984).^[10] In 1991 he produced and directed a fantasy film titled Ajooba which had his frequent co-star Amitabh Bachchan and nephew Rishi Kapoor in the lead but the film was a disaster at the box office.

He regarded Nanda, Pran, Ismail Merchant, Dev Anand, Dharmendra, Sanjeev Kumar as his closest friends from the industry since the beginning of his career and maintained cordial relations with Amitabh, Yash Chopra, MGR, Kishore Kumar, Mohammad Rafi and most of his female and male co stars.

Later Career (1987–1999)[link]

He accepted very few roles as a character actor in films since 1987. He acted with Pierce Brosnan in The Deceivers (1988).^[11] He also won a National (special jury) Award for his performance in Muhafiz (In Custody)(1994). His last and most recent film appearances were in Jinnah (1998), a biographical film of Mohammed Ali Jinnah in which he was the narrator and another Merchant Ivory production titled Side Streets (1998). He has now retired from the film industry and did not appear in any film since. He was seen in the limelight at the "Shashi Kapoor Film Festival" held in Muscat, Oman (September 2007). He has lost a considerable amount of weight and looked healthy. Recently, at the 55th Annual Filmfare Awards, Shashi Kapoor received the Filmfare Lifetime Achievement Award.[1]

Personal life[link]

Attended Don Bosco High School in Matunga, Bombay. In July 1958, he married the English actress Jennifer Kendal and they acted in a number of films together, most notably in the Merchant Ivory productions. Shashi Kapoor and Jennifer Kendal met in Calcutta in 1956 while working for their respective theatre groups. Shashi Kapoor was both assistant stage manager as well as actor for his father’s theatre group, Prithvi. Geoffery Kendal’s Shakespearana group was also present at the same time in Calcutta and Jennifer was Geoffery’s daughter. After their subsequent meeting, the couple fell in love and after facing initial opposition from Geoffery and support from sister-in-law Geeta Bali, they got married.^[12] He had three children with Kendal; Karan Kapoor, Kunal Kapoor and Sanjana Kapoor. Jennifer and Shashi Kapoor established Prithvi theatre in 5 November 1978 in Mumbai.^[13] Kendal died of cancer in 1984. After his wife’s death, he became de-motivated and started to put on weight. He looked slim and fit in his films till 1985. The English actress Felicity Kendal is his sister-in-law. Shashi Kapoor’s children for a short while became film actors but their Caucasian looks and accented Hindi prevented them from having a successful career in Hindi films. His son Kunal is married to director Ramesh Sippy's daughter and Sanjana to wildlife conservationist Valmik Thapar. Kunal Kapoor then moved onto ad film direction and established his production house Adfilm-Valas which is today extremely successful.^[14] Karan Kapoor became successful in modelling and later he settled down in London and pursued a career in photography. Sanjana Kapoor is in incharge of Prithvi Theater today.^[15]

Awards[link]

Civilian award[link]

• 2011 – Padma Bhushan by the Government of India^[2]

National Film Awards[link]

Winner

• 1986 – National Film Award for Best Actor for New Delhi Times
• 1994 – National Film Award – Special Jury Award / Special Mention (Feature Film) for Muhafiz (1993)
• 1979 – National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Hindi (as producer) for Junoon

Filmfare Awards[link]

Winner

• 2010 – Filmfare Lifetime Achievement Award
• Filmfare Best Movie Award – Won
  1980 Junoon
  1982 Kalyug
  
• Filmfare Best Supporting Actor Award – Won
  1976 Deewar – Ravi Verma
  

Nominated

• Filmfare Best Supporting Actor Award – Nominated
  1977 Kabhi Kabhie – Vijay Khanna
  1983 Namak Halaal – Raja Singh
  

Bengal Film Journalists' Association Awards[link]

• BFJA Award for Best Actor
  1965 Jab Jab Phool Khile^[16] – Raja
  1988 New Delhi Times^[17] – Vikas Pande
  

Other Awards[link]

• 2011 – Mohammed Rafi Award^[18]
• Lifetime Achievement Award

• 2009 – The 7th Pune International Film Festival (PIFF)^[19]
• 2009 – The 11th Mumbai Film Festival (MFF)^[20][21]

Filmography[link]

Actor[link]

Producer[link]

Assistant Director[link]

Director[link]

Works[link]

• Shashi Kapoor presents the Prithviwallahs, by Shashi Kapoor, Deepa Gahlot, Prithvi Theatre (Bombay, India). Roli Books, 2004. ISBN 81-7436-348-3.

Further reading[link]

• The Kapoors: the first family of Indian cinema, by Madhu Jain. Penguin, Viking, 2005. ISBN 0-670-05837-8.

References[link]

• Khalid Mohamed (3 September 2011). "The timeless poster boy of Hindi cinema". Asian Age (India). http://www.asianage.com/columnists/timeless-poster-boy-hindi-cinema-927. 

External links[link]

• Shashi Kapoor with Jennifer, an NDTV Movies image
• Shashi Kapoor at the Internet Movie Database

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Tamsin Greig
Greig in 2010
Born	Tamsin Margaret M. Greig (1966-07-12) 12 July 1966 (age 45) Kent, England[1]
Nationality	British
Other names	Tamsin Leaf
Education	Bachelor of Arts
Alma mater	University of Birmingham
Occupation	Actress
Television	Dr. Caroline Todd in Green Wing Fran Katzenjammer in Black Books Alice Chenery in Love Soup Debbie Aldridge in The Archers Beverly Lincoln in Episodes Mum (Jackie) in Friday Night Dinner
Religion	Christianity
Spouse	Richard Leaf (1997-present)
Awards	Royal Television Society Programme Awards: Comedy Performance 2004 Green Wing Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actress 2007 Much Ado About Nothing Whatsonstage.com Best Supporting Actress in a Play 2011 The Little Dog Laughed

Tamsin Margaret M. Greig ( /ˈtæmzɪn ˈɡrɛɡ/; born 12 July 1966)^[2] is an English actress principally known for her roles in two Channel 4 television comedies: Fran Katzenjammer in Black Books and Dr. Caroline Todd in Green Wing. She currently stars in two sitcoms: as Beverly Lincoln in transatlantic sitcom Episodes, and as Jackie in the Channel 4 sitcom Friday Night Dinner. Other notable roles include Alice Chenery in BBC One's comedy drama Love Soup, Debbie Aldridge in BBC Radio 4's soap opera The Archers, and Miss Bates in the 2009 BBC version of Jane Austen's Emma. Greig is also an acclaimed stage actress; she won a Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actress in 2007 for Much Ado About Nothing, and was nominated again in 2011 for her role in The Little Dog Laughed.