Helen Mirren Helen Mirren Dame Helen Lydia Mirren, (; born 26 July 1945) 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. She won the Academy Award for Best Actress in 2007 for her performance as Queen Elizabeth II in "The Queen" and received the Olivier Award for Best Actress and Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play for the same role in "The Audience". Mirren's other Academy Award nominations include "The Madness of King George" (1994), "Gosford Park"
Judi Dench Tomlin in Franco Zeffirelli's semi-autobiographical period drama "Tea with Mussolini" which tells the story of young Italian boy Luca's upbringing by a circle of British and American women, before and during World War II. 1999 also saw the release of Pierce Brosnan's third Bond film, "The World Is Not Enough". This film portrayed M in a larger role with the main villain, Renard, coming back to haunt her when he engineers the murder of her old friend Sir Robert King and seemingly attempts to kill his daughter Electra. In January 2001, Dench's husband Michael Williams died from lung cancer. Dench