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Britain's Helen Mirren has won the best actress Oscar for her
portrayal of Queen Elizabeth in the royal drama The Queen.
It was the first Oscar for Mirren, 61, who has already swept up
more than 20 major awards for her portrayal of the reserved British
monarch in the days after the sudden death in 1997 of Princess
Diana.
The Oscar crowned a sensational 12 months for Mirren who
demonstrated her range and won critical acclaim for playing an
earlier British queen in the television series Elizabeth 1 and a
hard-bitten, alcoholic detective in television's Prime
Suspect.
The silver-haired actress, a 40 year veteran of stage, screen and
television, won universal praise for her nuanced portrayal of Queen
Elizabeth, whose traditional stiff upper lip is challenged and
misunderstood by an emotional public grieving for the popular and
glamorous Diana.
Mirren studied hours of tapes for the role as the very private
monarch and her appearance on the film confounded her image as a
mature but sultry actress who has appeared nude in more than a
dozen movies, including at age 58 in "The Calendar Girls."
It is unknown if the real queen has seen the movie since Buckingham
Palace has a policy of never revealing her personal preferences in
books or movies.
Mirren became one of the oldest women to win an acting Oscar,
joining Katharine Hepburn, Jessica Tandy and fellow Briton Judi
Dench among the handful of females over 60 to get the honor in
Hollywood where youthful beauty is worshiped.
In a category dominated by Britons, Mirren beat Dench and Kate
Winslet, Spain's Penelope Cruz and perennial US favourite Meryl
Streep to win Sunday's Oscar.
