Image Source: KSAT 12, Screen Actors Guild Awards

Helen Mirren, also known as Dame Helen Lydia Mirren, is an English actress who will be honored with the SAG Lifetime Achievement Award at the Screen Actors Guild Awards next year. The award is SAG-top AFTRA's Lifetime Achievement Award, and it will be given again after a year apart due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The actress will receive the 57th SAG Life Achievement Award, which has been given out since 1962. Helen Mirren will accept the award at the 28th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards, which will be hosted at the Barker Hangar in Santa Monica on February 27th, 2022. That night, at 8 p.m. ET, the telecast will be carried live on TNT and TBS. The honorees of the SAG Life Achievement Award are chosen for their contributions to the "finest principles of the acting profession," which includes both professional and humanitarian achievements.

Fran Drescher, SAG-AFTRA president said about Helen Mirren, “Dame Helen Mirren is quite simply a brilliant and luminous talent. Her work runs the gamut of characters, from a not-so-retired CIA super-killer and a ruthless Russian spy handler to a Hungarian cleaning lady and the most exquisite Elizabeth II. She has set the bar very high for all actors and, in role after role, she exceeds even her own extraordinary performances.”

Because of the COVID-19 restrictions, the most recent SAG Awards were held virtually and pre-taped. As a result, SAG-AFTRA decided not to award Lifetime Achievement Awards in 2020. However, since the restrictions are now being lifted, the plan is to host the award ceremony in person and at a new venue by February. This will be the first time the concert has been held at the Shrine Auditorium and Expo Hall since 1997.

Helen Mirren has been nominated for 13 SAG Awards and has won five of them, making her the most decorated recipient of the SAG Lifetime Achievement Award. The actress has received an Academy Award, multiple SAG Awards, three Emmys, two BAFTA Awards, a Tony Award, a BAFTA Fellowship Award, and the Chaplin Award from The Film Society at Lincoln Center. In 2003, she was also appointed a Dame of the British Empire.

Helen Mirren joins a long list of previous SAG Life Achievement Award winners, including Robert DeNiro, Alan Alda, Morgan Freeman, Lily Tomlin, Carol Burnett, Debbie Reynolds, and Rita Moreno, who were all honored recently. Since Julie Andrews in 2006, she is the first British actress to earn the prize.

Helen Mirren wanted to be an actor since she was a child, and her passion for the craft drove her to audition for the National Youth Theatre, where she was accepted. Helen played Cleopatra in the National Youth Theatre production of Antony and Cleopatra at the Old Vic when she was 20 years old, a performance that she believes started her career and led to her signing with agent Al Parker. She later joined the Royal Shakespeare Company, where she earned the moniker "Stratford's sex queen" for her propensity to strip naked on stage. Helen, who is known for being at ease in her flesh, admits to "being famous for being cool about not being pretty."

Young Helen Mirren. Image Source: Woman and Home 

Helen wasn't always so confident of herself, and not long after making her television debut in a BBC production of Herostradus at the age of 25, a "depressed" Helen pursued an unorthodox path to find her way in life. She continues, "I went to a hand reader. This Indian man who lives in a hipster neighborhood said that 'You won't reach the pinnacle of your accomplishment until you're in your late 40s". 

It was a prophecy that Helen Mirren heeded. "I felt a lot better after that because I realized I didn't want to know what was going to happen. All I wanted to do was get on with it." The actors' instincts in her kept her in both theater and film, and after establishing herself on the London stage, she confirmed her big-screen credentials in such classics as Caligula, Excalibur, and The Cook, The Thief, His Wife, And Her Lover in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

Helen Mirren as Detective Chief Inspector Jane Tennison in 'Prime Suspect'. Image Source: Entertainment Weekly

Helen Mirren created a reputation for herself in the United Kingdom as Detective Chief Inspector Jane Tennison in the TV series Prime Suspect. Her performance as the unglamorous cop in the 1990s drama garnered her three BAFTA awards and an Emmy for the fourth season. Helen describes the part as her "career's biggest break." In 2002, she was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role in the murder mystery Gosford Park.

Helen Mirren made an unusual decision for a British stage actress six years before securing Prime Suspect by decamping to Los Angeles, California, to film the large budget drama in 2010. She explains, "I left England because I was desperate for a change in my artistic life. And, unlike some of my English colleagues, I've always been a big fan of American actors."

The actress received worldwide acclaim at the age of 61 for her portrayal of Elizabeth II in the film The Queen, as well as her television appearances as Elizabeth I. "This has been the most fantastic year of my life," she stated as she accepted two Golden Globe Awards in 2007. She went on to replicate her Golden Globe double triumph at the Screen Actors Guild Awards, and as soon as Helen Mirren rose to the top of the odds to win Best Actress at the Oscars that year.

Helen Mirren as 'Elizabeth II' in 'The Queen'. Image Source: Town and Country Magazine

With being announced as the SAG Lifetime Achievement Award recipient, Helen Mirren said in a statement, “I am honored to have been chosen to receive the SAG Life Achievement Award. Since I was a young actor starting out, I have always been inspired by and learned from American screen acting, so this award is particularly meaningful for me.”

Helen Mirren is now filming "Golda" (as Golda Meir) and will host the TBS and Cartoon Network competition series "Harry Potter: Hogwarts Tournament of Houses" later this month. Mirren's upcoming films are "The Duke" and "White Bird: A Wonder Story," both set for release in 2022. 'Meals on Wheels' and 'SAY: The Stuttering Association for the Young' are two of Mirren's charity endeavors. The actress was honored at Variety's Power of Women event in 2016 for her contributions to the organization.

Helen Mirren as Golda Meir for 'Golda'. Image Source: The Hollywood Reporter

The Lifetime Achievement Award is nominated and voted on by the SAG-AFTRA National Honors and Tributes Committee. "The recipient of this award is a well-established performer who has helped to strengthening the image of the acting profession and has a history of active participation in humanitarian and public service activities," according to the organization.