Trivia: Perhaps the ultimate thinking man's sex symbol, Helen Mirren is also one of the most respected actresses of British stage, screen, and television. With classical training, years of work on the London stage, an acclaimed television series, and dozens of films to her name, Mirren has proven herself an actress of talent, versatility, and unforgettable presence.Born Ilynea Lydia Mironoff on July 26, 1945, in London, Mirren is a descendant of the White Russian nobility. Her father was a member of an aristocratic Russian military family who came to England during the Russian Revolution, but while Mirren was growing up, he worked in turn as a violinist with the London Philharmonic, a taxi driver, and a driving instructor. His daughter, on the other hand, knew her true calling by the age of six, when she realized she wanted to become an actress, in the "old-fashioned and traditional sense." After trying to please her parents with a stint at a teacher's college, Mirren joined the National Youth Theatre, where she first made her mark playing Cleopatra. The acclaim for her performance led the way to other work, and she was soon a member of the vaunted Royal Shakespeare Company, with whom she performed a wide range of classics. Her stage career thriving, Mirren made her screen debut in 1968 in the somewhat forgettable Herostratus. The same year, she made a more auspicious appearance as Hermia in Peter Hall's lauded adaptation of A Midsummer Night's Dream, and her screen career soon took off. She worked steadily throughout the late '60s and '70s, starring in 1969's Age of Consent and working with such directors as Robert Altman on The Long Goodbye (1973) and Lindsay Anderson on O Lucky Man! (also 1973). In 1977, Mirren earned permanent notoriety for her work in Caligula, a mainstream porn offering from the powers at Penthouse that also starred such notables as Peter O'Toole, John Gielgud, and Malcolm McDowell.During the subsequent decade, Mirren continued to work on the stage, and she also broadened her cinematic resumé and fan base with such films as Excalibur (1981) and Cal (1984). Her portrayal of an older woman in love with a younger man in the latter film earned her a Best Actress award at the Cannes Film Festival and further established her reputation as an actress willing to explore the kind of unconventional relationships often ignored on the screen. The actress' willingness go beyond safe conventionality was demonstrated with her work in such films as The Mosquito Coast (1986), Pascali's Island (1988), The Cook, the Thief, His Wife and Her Lover (1989), and The Comfort of Strangers (1991). She again took on the role of an older woman in love with a younger man in Where Angels Fear to Tread in 1991, proving that seven years after Cal, her powers of attraction had been in no way tempered by time.At the beginning of the 1990s, Mirren began appearing on the television series Prime Suspect. Her character, Jane Tennison, a hard-boiled detective, proved immensely popular with viewers and critics alike, and she stayed with the series for its seven incarnations. Mirren also continued to do acclaimed work for the stage and screen, earning a Cannes Best Actress award and Oscar and BAFTA nominations for her work in The Madness of King George in 1994, and making her Broadway debut in Turgenev's A Month in the Country in 1995. The following year, she earned further acclaim for her work in Some Mother's Son, in which she played the mother of a Belfast prison hunger striker. In 1997, Mirren found the time to marry producer/director Taylor Hackford before signing on to provide the voice of the Queen in the Disney animated film The Prince of Egypt (1998). In 1999, she played the titular teacher in Kevin Williamson's disappointing Teaching Mrs. Tingle, earning the only good reviews given the movie, and she again won over critics with her title role in the made-for-television The Passion of Ayn Rand, earning an Emmy for her performance. Back on the big screen, Mirren continued with a lighthearted role as a master gardener in Greenfingers (2000), turned up in director Hal Hartley's comic monster fable No Such Thing (2001) and earned her second Oscar nomination for her re-teaming with Altman in the director's acclaimed comedy Gosford Park (2001).This pattern solidified for Mirren as her career moved through the new millennium. She was well received for her performance in yet another quirky British sleeper in 2003, with Calendar Girls. In it she played a middle-aged woman who raises money (as well as eyebrows) for a Women's Institute by posing nude with her peers. She also made notable appearances in movies like the thriller The Clearing (2004) and the romantic comedy Raising Helen (2004), before awing audiences with a performance in Shadowboxer (2005) as an assassin who is diagnosed with terminal cancer. 2005 would prove to be a special year for Mirren as September of that year would kick off a full 12 months of nonstop praise and excitement. Two of Mirren's projects would emerge during this period that would usher her into the upper tier of cinema's lead actresses -- a place that critics and fans had known she belonged all along. Coincidentally, these two projects would find her playing two different English monarchs who shared the same name. First, her performance as Queen Elizabeth I in the BBC miniseries Elizabeth I aired in September 2005, blowing viewers away with her ability to convey the full power and command of perhaps the most important crowned head in British history, all while confined to the small screen. Immersing herself into the opulent 16th century costumes and sets, Mirren tackled the Virgin Queen as a leader, a woman, and a human being, leaving such an impression that the miniseries was later aired in the U.S. By September 2006, the commotion over Mirren's performance had died down just enough for her to make an even bigger splash with her acclaimed role as Queen Elizabeth II in Stephen Frears' film The Queen. Despite the shared name, playing the modern-day figure was as different from her earlier role as it could be. Taking place in 1997 after the death of the globally beloved Princess Diana -- whose divorce from Prince Charles had been a source of epic tabloid controversy -- The Queen found Mirren playing a monarch who wielded little-to-no executive power, but whose title derived all its meaning from tradition, symbolism, and national pride. Mirren handled this queen with gentle attention to detail, following her on confused journeys both personal and in the national consciousness, showing her surprise and bewilderment as the stoic exterior on which a queen's public face had always been built suddenly caused her to be reviled. Mirren's two Elizabeths were both honored with Golden Globe wins, one for Best Actress in a Drama, and one for Best Actress in a TV Movie or Mini-Series. She was further rewarded for her efforts by capturing the Oscar for Best Actress in The Queen.In the next year she appeared in the blockbuster sequel National Treasure: Book of Secrets, but in 2009 she starred opposite Christopher Plummer in The Last Station as the wife of the dying Leo Tolstoy. For her work in that drama Mirren garnered acting nominations from the Screen Actors Guild, the Independent Spirit Awards, and the Academy. Substantial roles continued to rack up honors and acclaim for the actress in 2010, as she played an intriguing role as a former Mossad agent in The Debt, and no-longer-retired secret agent in Red, and none other than the leading role in William Shakespeare's The Tempest - with the gender of the part changed to female. Mirren would then make a comic turn in the 2011 remake of Arthur alongside British comedian Russell Brand, before delving back into drama once more with the reflective 2012 film The Door.

Trivia: Accomplished British actor Michael Sheen was born in Wales and studied at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. As a performer at the Royal National Theatre as well as on Broadway, some of his theatrical credits include Jimmy Porter in Look Back in Anger, Henry V in Henry V, and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in Amadeus. In 1993 he made his television debut as a mentally challenged abandoned kid in the BBC miniseries Gallowglass. His made his feature-film debut two years later as Loco Oliver Parker's Othello, followed by a small part in Stephen Frears' Mary Reilly. Perhaps his best-known role to U.S. audiences was his portrayal of Robbie Ross, the close personal friend of literary icon Oscar Wilde (played by Stephen Fry) in Wilde (1997). As a voice actor, Sheen has read several of Wilde's works and other works of classic literature for Naxos Audio Books. He's also contributed to many programs for BBC Radio 4 and World Service. After he and actress Kate Beckinsale had their first child, he starred in the independent drama Heartlands and made a small appearance in the Victorian-era adventure The Four Feathers. In 2003 he was cast as werewolf leader Lucien in Len Wiseman's action fantasy Underworld, with Beckinsale starring as the vampire warrior on the opposing side of an immortal battle. The same year he completed work on sci-fi adventure Timeline, the stylish period film Bright Young Things, and the romantic comedy Laws of Attraction.He continued to work steadily, but enjoyed his biggest breakthrough returning to the role of Tony Blair for director Stephen Frears when he played opposite Helen Mirren in The Queen. Two years later he would play David Frost to Frank Langella's Richard Nixon in Frost/Nixon, a part he played on stage as well. He had a memorable turn as football manager Brian Clough in the sports drama The Damned United, and played Tony Blair again in the made for cable The Special Relationship. He became part of the Twilight series, taking the part of Aro in New Moon, and sticking with the franchise all the way through to the conclusion.In 2011 he played a pontificating intellectual in Woody Allen's Oscar-winning Midnight in Paris, and two years later he appeared opposite Tina Fey and Paul Rudd in the comedy Admission. In 2013, he began a starring role in Showtime's Masters of Sex, playing human sexuality researcher William Masters.

Trivia: Long-time character actor James Cromwell has spent much of his career on stage and television, only occasionally appearing in feature films until the early '90s, when his film work began to flourish. The tall, spare actor first became known to an international audience with his role as the taciturn but kindly Farmer Hoggett, the owner of a piglet that wants to be a sheepdog, in the smash hit Babe (1995). His work in the film earned Cromwell an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor, as well as numerous opportunities for steady work in Hollywood.The son of noted director John Cromwell and actress Kay Johnson, he originally aspired to become a mechanical engineer, attending both Vermont's Middlebury College and the Carnegie Institute of Technology (now Carnegie Mellon University). But after a summer spent on a movie set with his father, the acting bug bit, and Cromwell decided to become an actor. He started out in regional theater, acting and directing in a variety productions for ten years, and he was a regular performer at the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles. Cromwell made his television debut in the recurring role of "Stretch" Cunningham on All in the Family in 1974, and he subsequently spent the rest of the decade and much of the 1980s on television, as a regular on such shows as Hot L Baltimore and The Last Precinct. Cromwell also appeared in such miniseries as NBC's Once an Eagle and in such made-for-television movies as A Christmas Without Snow (1980). Cromwell made his feature film debut in the comedy Murder By Death (1976). His film work was largely undistinguished until Babe; following the film's success, he began appearing in more substantial roles in a number of popular films, including The People Vs. Larry Flynt (1996), in which he played Charles Keating; Star Trek: First Contact (1996), which cast him as the reluctant scientist responsible for Earth's first contact with alien life forms; and L.A. Confidential (1997), in which he gave a marvelously loathsome performance as a crooked police captain. Adept at playing nice guys and bottom-dwelling scum alike, Cromwell next earned strong notices for his portrayal of a penitentiary warden in The Green Mile (1999).The respected character actor continued strongly into the next decade with appearances in Clint Eastwood's Space Cowboys as well as the live-on-TV production of Fail Safe in 2000. He enjoyed a recurring role on E.R. in 2001. He played the president in the 2002 Jack Ryan movie The Sum of All Fears. In 2003 he took on a recurring role in the respected HBO drama Six Feet Under, and also appeared in the award-winning HBO adaptation of Angels in America. In 2006 he acted opposite Helen Mirren playing Prince Philip in The Queen, and played another head of state for Oliver Stone when he portrayed George Herbert Walker Bush in the biopic W. In 2011 he was the loyal butler to the main character in the Best Picture Oscar winner for that year, The Artist.

Trivia: Educated in convent schools, British leading lady Sylvia Syms trained for her craft at RADA. Syms made her film debut in 1956's My Teenaged Daughter. Though few of her films were memorable (exceptions include The Quare Fellow, Run Wild, Run Free), her popularity seldom faltered. Easing gracefully into character parts in the 1970s, Syms was frequently seen as bejeweled society matrons, often with hyphenated last names. She also starred as Isabelde Gines in British TV series Peak Practice. Sylvia Syms stage and screen credits should not be confused with those of Brooklyn-born nightclub entertainer Sylvia Syms, who died in 1992 at the age of 79.

Trivia: Made his acting debut in regional theater, meeting director and long-time collaborator Nicholas Hytner while playing Maximilien Robespierre in The Scarlet Pimpernel in 1985. Played Oberon in a Royal Shakespeare Company production of A Midsummer Night's Dream that was later filmed; the production also transferred to Broadway. Became the first person to have won Olivier Best Actor Awards for Comedy (Too Clever By Half in 1988), Drama (Peer Gynt in 1996) and a Musical (My Fair Lady in 2003). Famed for portraying royals, he appeared as Prince Charles in 2006 movie The Queen, as Prince Edward, Duke of Windsor in Netflix's The Crown and Leopold I of Belgium in ITV/PBS's period-drama Victoria.

Trivia: A prolific English actress with a marked flair for period drama, Helen McCrory accepted one of her first roles as a New Orleans prostitute in Neil Jordan's gothic horror opus Interview with the Vampire (1994); though this merely constituted a bit part, McCrory gradually ascended to higher billing in outings such as Witness Against Hitler (1995), The James Gang (1997), and Split Second (1999), before tackling the lead role of Anna Karenina in director David Blair's 2001 miniseries adaptation of Leo Tolstoy's seminal novel, and signed for another lead in the humorous made-for-television crime thriller Dead Gorgeous (2002), adapted from the novel On the Edge by Peter Lovesey. McCrory maintained a higher profile and netted more widespread global recognition as the title character's mother in Lasse Hallström's Casanova (2005) and as Cherie Blair, the wife of British prime minister Tony Blair, in the 2006 docudrama The Queen. McCrory then signed for a plum role as Narcissa Malfoy in the fantasy Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2008).

Trivia: Was born in a rectory where his father was a vicar. Inspired to act after seeing plays at The Old Vic theatre in London, England as a boy. One of his earliest roles was the part of a pair of talking testicles in a surreal radio play. Joined the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1981. Played Inspector Javert in the original West End production of Les Misérables in 1985. Shaved off all of his body hair for his role in Privates On Parade in 2001. Appeared in his first pantomime in 2004 playing Abbanazar in Aladdin alongside Ian McKellan.

Trivia: Made his television debut as DC Aplin in Prime Suspect: The Lost Child.Performed as part of the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1995. Won the Ian Charleson award in 1997, for his performance as Konstantin in The Seagull. Played real-life figure Alistair Campbell in the 2006 film adaptation of The Queen. In 2017, starred as Jim Atwood in the third series of ITV crime drama Broadchurch.