My Journey: Helen Mirren
Helen Mirren’s NYT career began in 1963. After hearing that the NYT was holding auditions, she tried out and won a place. In 1965 she played Cleopatra in the company’s Antony and Cleopatra at the Old Vic, then home of the National Theatre, in a production directed by NYT founder Michael Croft. Press photographs from rehearsals show a young Mirren preparing for the role, and she has written in her memoir that it launched her career.
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Helen Mirren vists REP company
Helen Mirren’s parents were wary of acting as a career and encouraged her towards something more secure. She attended a convent school and then a teacher-training college, and before acting took over she worked at an amusement park.
In 1967 she joined Manchester’s repertory company, playing Kitty in Charley’s Aunt and Nerissa in The Merchant of Venice. The same year she made her film debut in the experimental British film Herostratus.
With the Royal Shakespeare Company and the National Theatre she took on a long run of Shakespeare, including Much Ado About Nothing (1968), Richard III (1970), Hamlet (1970), Macbeth (1974) and Troilus and Cressida. In 1972 she joined Peter Brook’s International Centre for Theatre Research, touring the United States and Africa with the company.
On television she won acclaim as DCI Jane Tennison in Prime Suspect. Her honours include an Academy Award, multiple Golden Globe, Emmy and Screen Actors Guild Awards, and the Olivier Award for Best Actress for playing the Queen in The Audience. She was made a Dame in 2003.