Biographie

Her great-great-great-great-grandfather was field-marshal Kamensky, one of the Russian heroes of the Napoleonic wars.

Has a tattoo of a star on her left hand, acquired at a Native American reservation in Minnesota.

Her paternal grandparents were Russian. Her grandfather, Piotr Vasilievich Mironoff, was a Tsarist aristocrat who was in London negotiating an arms deal during World War I when the 1917 Russian Revolution stranded him there. His wife and son (Helen's father) joined him in London. On her mother's side, she is of English descent.

Lived with Liam Neeson for 4 years after meeting on the set of Excalibur (1981). Subsequently lived for further 4 years with British photographer and fashion designer James Wedge. Mirren first met Wedge when she posed for his cover photo for the July 11, 1971 edition of the "Observer" magazine titled, "Shakespearean Star Helen Mirren Shows How to Dress with Drama". Some of his erotica portraits of her appeared in her 2008 autobiography - "In the Frame: My Life in Words and Pictures".

John Boorman said he cast her opposite Nicol Williamson in Excalibur (1981), against both of their protests, because he felt their dislike of each other made them perfect as rivals Morgana and Merlin.

[About herself] Being famous for being cool about not being gorgeous.

The trick in life is learning how to deal with it.

[About the Academy Awards] It's the creme-de-la-creme of bulls**t.

Actors are rogues and vagabonds. Or they ought to be. I can't stand it when they behave like solicitors from Penge. I'm a would-be rebel. The good girl who'd like to be a bad one.

All you have to do is to look like crap on film and everyone thinks you're a brilliant actress. Actually, all you've done is look like crap.