Helen Mirren is shown here in 2007 with her Oscar for her performance in "The Queen." The actress born in 1945 has collected many prestigious prizes over the years. She also obtained Academy Award nominations for her roles in "The Madness of King George" (1994), "Gosford Park" (2001) and "The Last Station" (2009).

Mirren was appointed Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire for her services to drama in 2003 (photo). Even though she once said that her upbringing was "very anti-monarchist," she nevertheless ended up wearing different crowns throughout her career...

Mirren is among the few actors to have achieved the so-called Triple Crown of Acting, a title which describes performers who have won an Academy Award for their role in a film, an Emmy Award for a part in a TV series and a Tony Award for a Broadway performance.

She won one of her Emmys for her performance in "Elizabeth I," a two-part British historical drama from 2005 (pictured, with Jeremy Irons). She has obtained 11 nominations for the US award recognizing the best in television — and won it four times, including for her well-known role as the no-nonsense detective Jane Tennison in "Prime Suspect," which originally ran from 1991 to 2006.

Stephen Frears' 2006 biopic "The Queen" focuses on how the British monarch reacted to the death of Lady Diana in 1997. Mirren's studied portrayal of Queen Elizabeth II won her critical praise and several awards, including an Oscar, a BAFTA and Screen Actors Guild Award. Even though the film didn't portray Elizabeth II in a friendly light, the Queen praised Mirren's subtle performance.

By winning the Tony Award for the same role in the play titled "The Audience," the 2013 Broadway version of "The Queen," Mirren joined the ranks of other legendary actors with the Triple Crown of Acting, such as Ingrid Bergman, Al Pacino, Frances McDormand and Jeremy Irons — who will also be in Berlin as head of the film festival's jury.

At the age of 20, Mirren played Cleopatra for the first time in a National Youth Theatre production. It launched her career, as she went on to join the Royal Shakespeare Company shortly afterwards, and the rising star was luridly dubbed "the sex queen of Stratford." She is shown here in a reprisal of the "Anthony and Cleopatra" play in 1998, with the late Alan Rickman.

Mirren also embodied a Roman empress: Milonia Caesonia, the fourth and last wife of emperor Caligula. The kitschy art-porn historical drama "Caligula" from 1979 did not, however, make the most of her acting talent. The film initially received extremely bad reviews, even if it went on to become an underground cult classic. Mirren described it as "an irresistible mix of art and genitals."

In Arthurian legends, the enchantress Morgan le Fay, Arthur's half-sister, is often referred to as the Fairy Queen. Mirren took on the role in John Boorman's historical fantasy "Excalibur" (1981). It's while working on this film that she met actor Liam Neeson, who became her boyfriend in the early 1980s. She then met her future husband, director Taylor Hackford, on another film set in 1985.

The 1994 historical biopic "The Madness of King George" focuses on the power struggle triggered by the deteriorating mental health of Great Britain's George III, a period known as the Regency Crisis of 1788-89. Starring alongside Nigel Hawthorne, Helen Mirren won the Cannes Film Festival award for best actress for her depiction of Queen Charlotte.

Mirren rules once again in the 2019 HBO four part miniseries, "Catherine the Great," in which she portrays Russia's longest-ruling female leader. The 18th-century empress managed to cling on to power following a military coup in 1762. The story even has a link to the Russian aristocratic roots of the actress, whose family name is actually Mironov.

Mirren is Magdalene "Queenie" Shaw, the matriarch of the Shaw family, in the "Fast & Furious" films. She appears four titles of the action film franchise, including "Fast X" (2023, above). Little of her back story is revealed, but as a crime boss of some sort, she has a fearsome reputation.

This crown came in 2013: Mirren's legacy was immortalized with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, right next to Colin Firth's, who also won an Oscar for portraying a royal in "The King's Speech." Mirren's reaction: "I think it's very good for the British monarchy that, here on Hollywood Boulevard, the King and the Queen are going to actually sleep together, for the rest of history."

Hard to believe, but Clint Eastwood's career began quite modestly in television. Now a film hero and world-famous actor, he had to keep himself afloat then by taking on minor TV roles beginning in the mid-1950s. The powerful-looking actor also had some roles in feature films, but they were likewise minor appearances.

The US TV actor Eastwood was eventually hired by Italian director Sergio Leone, who couldn't afford more expensive stars — and earned about $15,000 for his appearance in the Spaghetti western "A Fistful of Dollars," playing a gunslinger who goes on the gravy train among two rival gangs. The film was a huge success.

Clint Eastwood also played the cool bounty hunter in Leone's succeeding westerns "For a Few Dollars More" and "The Good, The Bad and The Ugly." They marked Eastwood's breakthrough and turned him into a star. Ruggedly handsome and with an enormous physical presence, he often played tough men. In the war movie "Where Eagles Dare," he made his mark at Richard Burton's side.

Eastwood made his next career leap in 1971 when he played the rude inspector Harry Callahan in "Dirty Harry" for director Don Siegel, with whom he also shot numerous movies in the following years. The tough police thriller became one of the most influential movies of the genre. The cynical and inconsiderate Callahan became something of a cult among millions of cinema fans.

Shortly after "Dirty Harry," Clint Eastwood took on his first role as director: with the thriller "Play Misty for Me." Establishing himself as an action-oriented filmmaker, the star actor remained true to the western genre as a director, for example with "High Plains Drifter" (photo), in which he continued to hone his cinema image as a taciturn, assertive and often unscrupulous pistolero.

Clint Eastwood set new accents in the 1985 western "Pale Rider." The director and actor had already tried his hand at other genres before, including comedies. With "Pale Rider," he not only returned to the western, he rewrote the legend. His roles were no longer quite so unscrupulous and one-dimensional. "Pale Rider" earned him an invitation to the Cannes Film Festival.

Three years later, Clint Eastwood finally made the leap to arthouse cinema as a director. With "Bird," jazz fan Eastwood paid a cinematic tribute to the American musician Charlie Parker. The biographical film starring Forest Whitaker collected several awards.

In 1992, Clint Eastwood returned to his favorite genre with the western "Unforgiven." But he completely demystified the role of the tough cowboy and pistol shooter. "Unforgiven" depicted an older gunslinger who falls off his horse and hardly has any control over the situation. The work was rewarded with four Oscars, including best picture and best director.

By the mid-1990s, Clint Eastwood had reached retirement age, but he remained very active, imbuing his work with his life experience. In the romantic drama "The Bridges of Madison County," a love affair between Robert (Eastwood) and Francesca (Meryl Streep) deeply affects the rest of their lives. For the first time, Eastwood directed a movie with a woman as the central figure.

A decade later, Eastwood was at the absolute peak of his career. In the 2004 film "Million Dollar Baby," the actor played an aging boxing coach who takes a talented athlete (Hilary Swank) under his wing, and she eventually makes it to the world championship. A stirring tragedy about life and death, the sports film grabbed four Oscars.

At age 78, Clint Eastwood directed his 17th film, and proving his enormous energy and creativity yet again, he was both director and leading actor. "Gran Torino" takes a look at immigrants in the US, at racism and violence, at prejudice and how to deal with it. The movie shines with complex characters and great actors.

Clint Eastwood's 2014 film "American Sniper" was a huge success. The story of US Navy SEAL Chris Kyle — the most successful sniper in the US Army in Iraq but later murdered in his home country — was an absolute box-office hit.

Eastwood took up with mega-star Tom Hanks (shown here) to create the 2016 drama "Sully," about the US pilot Chesley Sullenberger, who initiated the January 2009 emergency landing of a doomed flight onto the Hudson River in New York. The film revolves around the landing, the survival of all 155 passengers and crew, and the subsequent publicity and investigation.

Clint Eastwood's most recent film, "Richard Jewell," released at the end of 2019, revolves around US security guard Richard Jewell, who saved many lives from an exploding bomb at the 1996 Olympics. He was later vilified by journalists and the press, who falsely reported that he was a terrorist.

As an actor, director and public figure, Clint Eastwood is a cult figure in his home country, but also worldwide. Yet he has never been flashy or forced himself into the limelight. Eastwood is not a big fan of red-carpet appearances, and has never been one to show off his marriages in public. Here he is with his longtime wife Dina, from whom he separated in 2013.

Eastwood has been involved in US politics, formerly for the Republicans. "I think I was already socially liberal and fiscally conservative before this became fashionable," he once said. He has been critical of US foreign missions, but also been criticized by fellow actors like Meryl Streep for his support of US President Donald Trump. He has meanwhile distanced himself from the president.

Eastwood is known to be a fitness enthusiast, conscientious eater and practitioner of transcendental meditation, surely helping him stay fit at age 90.