Quizzes

Test your knowledge with these quizzes, prepared for your amusement by members of the Helen Mirren Appreciation Society.

Beginner

Roles

Plots

Co-stars

Awards

Prime Suspect

Theatre

Trivia

Beginner
1) The name of Helen Mirren's hard-nosed detective in Prime Suspect is:
a) Jane Harrison
b) Jane Tennison
c) Jane Andersen
d) Jane Jefferson

2) Besides catching them in Prime Suspect, Helen has played a number of murderers. In which film did she NOT whack somebody?
a) Gosford Park
b) Shadowboxer
c) Teaching Mrs. Tingle
d) The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover

3) The British series Prime Suspect was created by:
a) Brian de Palma
b) Lynda la Plante
c) Amy Rennert
d) Margaret Thatcher

4) Helen’s first feature film was:
a) O Lucky Man!
b) Age of Consent
c) Caligula
d) Hussy

5) Helen met husband Taylor Hackford during the production of which film?
a) An Officer and a Gentleman
b) Against All Odds
c) White Nights
d) The Devil's Advocate

6) Helen Mirren won an Oscar for which film?
a) Prime Suspect
b) The Queen
c) Gosford Park
d) Elizabeth I
Roles
1) Ayn Rand, who Helen played in The Passion of Ayn Rand, espoused the philosophy of:
a) Existentialism
b) Objectivism
c) Stoicism
d) Transendentalism

2) Queen Elizabeth I, who Helen played in the mini-series of the same name was of the house of:
a) Windsor
b) Stewart
c) Tudor
d) Hannover

3) Helen, famous for "getting her kit off" played a real-life woman who found fame by taking off her clothes in what film:
a) Greenfingers
b) The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone
c) Losing Chase
d) Calendar Girls

4) Adult Helen played a child in what performance?
a) Teaching Mrs. Tingle
b) Blue Remembered Hills
c) Hussy
d) The Collector

5) Having stated that she never desired to be a mother herself, Helen has played a mother in all but which one of the following movies?
a) Door to Door
b) The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone
c) The Clearing
d) The Queen

6) In Coming Through, Helen plays Frieda Weekley, wife of which man of letters?
a) D.H. Lawrence
b) e.e. cummings
c) A.E. Houseman
d) E.M. Forster

7) Which of the following is NOT one of Helen's non-human roles?
a) a lion, in Pride
b) a supercomputer, in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
c) a faery queen, in A Midsummer Night's Dream
d) an alien, in 2010 - The Year We Made Contact
Plots
1) In the film The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover what happens to the Thief?
a) He is locked in a van with rotting meat
b) He gets shot
c) He gets cooked
d) He gets food stuffed down his throat

2) In the film Where Angels Fear to Tread how does Helen's character die?
a) Tuberculosis
b) Syphilis
c) Pneumonia
d) Childbirth

3) In which film is the conflict in Northern Ireland NOT a significant element in the plot?
a) Cal
b) Some Mother's Son
c) The Long Good Friday
d) The Comfort of Strangers

4) Jane Tennison was promoted to Superindendent in which episode of the series Prime Suspect?
a) Prime Suspect 2
b) Prime Suspect 3
c) Prime Suspect 4
d) Prime Suspect 6

5) In Robert Altman's "who-cares-who-done-it", Gosford Park, who done it?
a) Ryan Phillipe's character
b) Maggie Smith's character
c) Kristin Scott Thomas' character
d) Helen Mirren's character
Co-stars
1) Helen Mirren's co-star in the Mosquito Coast was:
a) Harrison Ford
b) Mel Gibson
c) Kevin Costner
d) Hugh Laurie

2) Helen starred opposite Bob Hoskins in which two films?
a) The Long Good Friday, Door to Door
b) The Pledge, The Passion of Ayn Rand
c) Last Orders, The Long Good Friday
d) The Clearing, Mosquito Coast

3) Helen's character fell in love and kissed which co-star's character?
a) Kyra Sedgwick, in Losing Chase
b) Anne Bancroft, in The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone
c) Judi Dench, in A Midsummer Night's Dream
d) Kate Hudson, in Raising Helen

4) Whose final role was with Helen in The Fiendish Plot of Dr. Fu Manchu?
a) Alec Guiness
b) Lawrence Olivier
c) Rex Harrison
d) Peter Sellers

5) Which actor did NOT have a role in a Prime Suspect episode?
a) Ralph Fiennes
b) Peter Capaldi
c) Stuart Townsend
d) David Thewlis
Awards
1) Helen won her first major award, Best Actress at Cannes, for what film?
a) The Madness of King George, in 1994
b) Caligula, in 1980
c) Age of Consent, in 1969
d) Cal, in 1984

2) Helen Mirren was first nominated for an Oscar for:
a) King George III
b) Mad About You
c) The Madness of King George
d) The King of Scotland

3) Helen has competed against herself for what prize?
a) Emmy 2007, for Elizabeth I and Prime Suspect 7
b) Golden Globe 2007, for Eilzabeth I and Prime Suspect 7
c) Bafta 2007, for Elizabeth I and Prime Suspect 7
d) SAG awards 2007, for Elizabeth I and Prime Suspect 7

4) Helen made history when odds for her Oscar win for The Queen grew so high that bookmakers refused more and paid out before the awards were announced. What were the odds?
a) 1/66
b) 1/77
c) 1/55
d) 1/100

5) Helen won BAFTA's for which Prime Suspect episodes?
a) Prime Suspect 5, 6 and 7
b) Prime Suspect 4, 5 and 6
c) Prime Suspect 4, parts 1, 2 and 3
d) Prime Suspect 1, 2 and 3
Prime Suspect
1) Which episodes of Prime Suspect bear a writer's credit for Lynda la Plante?
a) First and second
b) First and third
c) First, second and third
d) First and last

2) Which is NOT the title of a Prime Suspect episode?
a) The Inner Child
b) The Final Act
c) Errors of Judgment
d) Scent of Darkness

3) The series is to a large degree based on:
a) Real-life DCI Jackie Malton
b) Lynda la Plante's own life
c) London Police archives
d) The US TV series Cagney and Lacey

4) In Prime Suspect 6, what country does the victim come from?
a) Serbia
b) Macedonia
c) Albania
d) Bosnia

5) What year was the first Prime Suspect released?
a) 1988
b) 1990
c) 1992
d) 1994
Theatre
1) Helen Mirren made her acting debut in;
a) 1964 in A Midsummer Night's Dream
b) 1961 in Macbeth
c) 1965 in Antony & Cleopatra
d) 1960 in Hamlet

2) Helen's first role with the Royal Shakespeare Company was:
a) Coriolanus
b) Cressida
c) Cleopatra
d) The Duchess of Malfi

3) Helen Mirren made her Broadway debut in:
a) Mourning Becomes Electra
b) Dance of Death
c) A Month in the Country
d) Orpheus Descending

4) HMAS members, as a group, have NOT seen Helen on stage in:
a) Mourning Becomes Electra
b) Collected Stories
c) Orpheus Descending
d) Dance of Death
e) Antony & Cleopatra
f) A Month in the Country

5) "There was no scenery or sets, just a carpet in the middle of the desert. The audiences may turn out to be two women and a goat or 2,000 Tuaregs on camels", said Helen Mirren of which theatre experience:
a) French and Saunders comedy sketch "Master Class"
b) Interview with Ruby Wax
c) Experimental troupe tour with Peter Brook
d) Broadway opening of Dance of Death
Trivia
1) Helen Mirren was born in...
a) England
b) Russia
c) Wales
d) Ireland

2) Helen's given name is Ilyena Petrovna Mironoff. Her family nickname is:
a) Lenie
b) Cabbage
c) Popper
d) Cleo

3) Helen has a small tattoo on her:
a) Right hand
b) Left hand
c) Right shoulder
d) Left shoulder

4) In her twenties Helen visited a palm reader who pronounced that Helen would achieve great success in her late forties. If you were to consult Helen’s astrological chart, you should look under:
a) Aries
b) Leo
c) Scorpio
d) Taurus

5) Helen met husband Taylor Hackford during the production of which film?
a) An Officer and a Gentleman
b) Against All Odds
c) White Nights
d) The Devil's Advocate

6) Helen was made a Dame of the British Empire in which year, the same year as which film was released?
a) 2006 - The Queen
b) 2004 - The Clearing
c) 2003 - Calendar Girls
d) 2005 - Shadowboxer