On July 26, 1945, Helen Lydia Mironoff was born in a London hospital to parents Vasiliy and Kathleen Mironoff (or Mironov depending on the spelling). During the 1950s, Vasily changed the family last name to “Mirren,” and for his young daughter, the rest is history. From her breakout role in Michael Powell’s Age of Consent to her Oscar-winning turn as Queen Elizabeth in The Queen , Mirren has been one of Hollywood’s greatest — and seemingly ageless — actresses for five decades. As Liz Lemon once said in reaction to one of Mirren’s famous bikini pics, “Is she a wizard?”
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Happy 66th Birthday, Helen Mirren! What’s Her Finest Onscreen Moment?
