Helen Mirren actors to achieve the “Triple Crown of Acting”, joining the ranks of legends including Ingrid Bergman‚ Dame Maggie Smith, and Al Pacino. In 1998, Mirren played Cleopatra to Alan Rickman's Antony in "Antony and Cleopatra" at the National Theatre. The production received poor reviews; "The Guardian" called it "plodding spectacle rarely informed by powerful passion", while "The Daily Telegraph" said "the crucial sexual chemistry on which any great production ultimately depends is fatally absent". 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
Maggie Smith her first Emmy Award for the 2003 TV film "My House in Umbria". On stage, she starred as Madeleine Palmer, opposite Judi Dench, in the David Hare play "The Breath of Life" in 2002, toured Australia in Alan Bennett's "Talking Heads" in 2004, and starred in "The Lady from Dubuque" in 2007. Beginning in 2010, Smith appeared as Violet Crawley, Dowager Countess of Grantham, in the British period drama "Downton Abbey". This role won her a Golden Globe Award and two Emmy Awards. In 2014, the role also won her a Screen Actors Guild Award. In 2012, she played Muriel