It may be indicative of the diverse talents of Helen Mirren that, this season alone, she earned an Emmy for playing Queen Elizabeth in HBO’s “Elizabeth” (for which she also won a Golden Globe), and that in 1994, she was nominated for a Supporting Oscar for playing another Queen, in “The Madness of King George,” a film for which her colleague, the late stage actor Nigel Hawthorne, was also nominated (in the lead).
The Academy voters have always loved royalty figures in period dramas. What’s the allure Costumes Accents Good and bad, based on published literary sources or original scripts, these films have connoted prestige, from “Marie Antoinette” in 1934, to “Anastasia” in 1956, to “Anne of the Thousand Days” in 1969, to “The Madness of King George” in 1994, to “Elizabeth” and “Shakespeare in Love” both in 1998, to this year’s “The Queen.”
Here’s for your consideration a list of women who have been nominated for or won the Best Actress for playing a queen (O.K., princesses, too).
Anastasia
Ingrid Bergman won her second Best Actress in 1956 for playing an amnesiac refugee, who may or may not be the youngest daughter of King Nicholas II. Rumored to have escaped the 1917 Bolsheviks’ massacre, Anastasia has to convince the dowager Emperess (Helen Hayes) that she is royal blood. Scheming behind the scenes is Yul Brynner as the Russian prince.
Anne of the Thousand Days
Nominated for many Oscars, including Best Picture, “Anne of the Thousand Days” conferred a Best Actress nomination (her only one) on the charming French-Canadian actress Genevieve Bujold, as the second, ill-fated wife of King Henry VIII (played by Richard Burton in an Oscar-nominated turn).
Watch out for a retelling of the Boleyn sisters in a new movie this year, “The Other Boleyn Girl,” co-starring Natalie Portman and Scarlett Johansson, as sisters Mary and Anne. (See my preview about this film).
Cleopatra
Cecil B. DeMille’s firstand betterversion–of “Cleopatra” was nominated for the 1934 Best Picture, but not for Best Actress, perhaps because that film’s queen, Claudette Colbert, scored bigger that year in Frank Capra’s comedy “It Happened One Night,” for which she won the Best Actress for playing a runaway heiress (a different kind of queen).
Cleopatra
Joseph Mankiewicz’s 1963 version, a multiple-Oscar nominee that also didn’t get its Queen, Elizabeth Taylor, Academy recognition, is better known for the scandalous off screen romance of Taylor and Richard Burton; meanwhile Rex Harrison received his first Best Actor nomination as Julius Caesar.
Conquest
The 1937 Oscar-nominated film features Charles Boyer as Napoleon and Greta Garbo as the Polish Princess Maria Walewska. Though a star vehicle for Garbo, then at her peak, it’s Boyer who was nominated for Best Actor, as well as Cedric Gibbons and William Horning’s Interior Decoration.
Elizabeth
Australian Cate Blanchett received her first Best Actress nod for playing the title queen, turning in a bravura performance that put her on the forefront of leading actresses.
The Lion in Winter
Katharine Hepburn received her third Best Actress as Eleanor of Aquitaine, the estranged wife of King Henry II, in Anthony Harvey’s 1968 version of James Goldman stage play. Partner Peter O’Toole, playing the King, was nominated but didn’t win. “Lion in Winter” also won Adapted Screenplay Oscar for Goldman and Best Score for John Barry.
The Madness of King George
Helen Mirren and Nigel Hawthorne received Oscar nominations (she in the supporting and he in the lead) as Queen Charlotte and King George III of England. The film was also nominated for Alan Bennett’s adapted screenplay and won the Art Direction-Set Decoration Oscar for Ken Adam and Carolyn Scott.
Mary, Queen of Scots
Vanessa Redgrave received a 1971 Best Actress nomination for playing the ill-fated Queen Mary of Scotland, outmatched in the Tudor power game by Elizabeth I (played by Glenda Jackson, who was not nominated).
Mrs. Brown
Judi Dench received her first Best Actress nomination for playing Queen Victoria in this 1997 British drama.
Nicholas and Alexandra
Based on Robert K. Massie’s novel, this 1971 movie was nominated for Best Picture and many other awards, including Best Actress for Janet Suzman, as Alexandra, wife of Russian Czar Nicholas II (played by Michael Jayston).
The Queen
I have written about “The Queen” and its fabulous star Helen Mirren quite extensively ever since I saw the movie in August. Tune in on Sunday, Feb 25, when Mirren gets the Best Actress Oscar (her first!)
Shakespeare in Love
Judi Dench received her second nomination (this time in the supporting league) and first Oscar as Queen Elizabeth in this charming romantic comedy, which won the 1998 Best Picture and Best Actress for Gwyneth Paltrow, though she didn’t play a monarch.
