Helen Mirren

Actor

Biography

Life Story

Dame Helen Mirren was born in Queen Charlotte's Hospital in West London. Her mother, Kathleen Alexandrina Eva Matilda (Rogers), was from a working-class English family, and her father, Vasiliy Petrovich Mironov, was a Russian-born civil servant, from Kuryanovo, whose own father was a diplomat. Mirren attended St. Bernards High School for girls, where she would act in school productions. After high school, she began her acting career in theatre working in many titles, all the way up to Broadway. Dame Helen Lydia Mirren, DBE is an English actor. Mirren began her acting career with the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1967, and is one of the few performers who have achieved the Triple Crown of Acting.

Family

Taylor Hackford (31 December 1997 - Present

Trivia

Her paternal grandparents were Russian. Her grandfather, Piotr Vasilievich Mironoff, was a Tsarist aristocrat who was in London negotiating an arms deal during World War I when the 1917 Russian Revolution stranded him there. His wife and son (Helen's father) joined him in London. On her mother's side, she is of English descent.

Before marrying director Taylor Hackford in 1997, she had lived with him in Los Angeles since 1986.

Used to work in Southend on Sea; Essex; UK at an amusement park "The Kursaal" as a "blagger" to attract customers on to rides.

She was awarded the Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the 2003 Queen's Birthday Honours List for her services to drama.

Filmography