--- description: The dame celebrates her 70th birthday on Sunday title: Here Are 13 of Helen Mirren's Best Roles image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- * [Entertainment](/section/entertainment/) ## Entertainment Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [movies](/tag/movies/) ## movies Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Here Are 13 of Helen Mirren's Best Roles by [Sarah Begley](/author/sarah-begley/) ## Sarah Begley Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Jul 26, 2015 12:00 PM CUT by [Sarah Begley](/author/sarah-begley/) ## Sarah Begley Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Jul 26, 2015 12:00 PM CUT Few actors can boast a resume as impressive as Helen Mirren’s. The London-born dame has played a detective (_Prime Suspect_, two Emmy awards), Ayn Rand (Emmy win), prominent wives (in Hitchcock, about the director, and _The Last Station_, about Tolstoy) and several British queens: Charlotte in _The Madness of King George_ (Oscar nomination), the title role in _Elizabeth I_ (Golden Globe win) and Elizabeth II in _The Queen_ (Oscar win). Mirren, who turns 70 on Sunday, has a total nomination count of four Academy Awards, 13 Golden Globes and 11 Emmys. Here are 13 of her best film and television roles over the course of a fruitful (and, thankfully, ongoing) career. All hail the queen.  Caligula, Caesonia, 1979 Penthouse  Excalibur, Morgana, 1981 Warner Bros.  Cal, Marcella, 1984 Warner Bros.  Prime Suspect, Jane Tennison, 1991-2006 Matthew Ford—Granada Television  The Madness of King George, Queen Charlotte, 1994 Samuel Goldwyn Company  Gosford Park, Mrs. Wilson, 2002 Focus Features  Calendar Girls, Chris, 2003 Touchstone Pictures  Elizabeth I, Elizabeth I, 2005 HBO  The Queen, Queen Elizabeth II, 2006 Granada Productions  The Last Station, Sofya, 2010 Stephan Rabold—Sony Pictures  Hitchcock, Alma Reville, 2012 Suzanne Tenner—Montecito Picture Company  The Hundred-Foot Journey, Madame Mallory, 2014 Francois Duhamel—Touchstone Pictures  Woman in Gold, Maria Altmann, 2015 Robert Viglasky—BBC Films ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3971279/helen-mirren-best-roles/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3971279/helen-mirren-best-roles/"},"headline":"Here Are 13 of Helen Mirren's Best Roles","datePublished":"2015-07-26T12:00:03.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T05:02:19.695Z","description":"The dame celebrates her 70th birthday on Sunday","url":"https://time.com/3971279/helen-mirren-best-roles/","keywords":["movies","photography","Helen Mirren"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Sarah Begley","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/sarah-begley/"}],"articleSection":"Entertainment","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/entertainment/","name":"Entertainment"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/movies/","name":"movies"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3971279/helen-mirren-best-roles/","name":"Here Are 13 of Helen Mirren's Best Roles"}}]}] ```