Helen Mirren

"It's the creme-de-la-creme of bullshit." - Helen Mirren
Dame Helen Mirren, DBE (born Ilyena Lydia Mironova on 26 July 1945) is an English stage, television and movie actress. She is particularly well-known for her roles as the female detective Jane Tennison in the Prime Suspect series of television dramas, and as the stern Soviet spaceship commander in the 1984 science fiction film 2010: Odyssey Two, based on the novel by Sir Arthur C. Clarke.Mirren was born in England to a Russian-noble father and an English mother who had Gypsy ancestry; her paternal grandfather, a Russian diplomat, was negotiating an arms deal in England and was stranded there, along with his family, after the Russian Revolution. Following appearances on stage during her school years at St Bernard's School for Girls in Westcliff-on-Sea, Essex, her first starring role was in 1965 as Cleopatra for the National Youth Theatre. This led to her joining the Royal Shakespeare Company, playing Cressida in Troilus and Cressida, and Lady Macbeth in the production by Trevor Nunn.In 1972 she joined Peter Brook's International Centre for Theatre Research, and joined the group's tour across North Africa which created The Conference of the Birds. The "sexy" image she acquired in her youth has — in the opinion of some — been little affected by encroaching old age; she did nothing to detract from it by appearing nude on the cover of the Radio Times for her fiftieth birthday.She married American film director Taylor Hackford, her domestic partner since 1986, on his 53rd birthday on 31 December 1997, in the Scottish Highlands.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 two actresses (the other is 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. 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. -Wikipedia