Best portrayals of Queen Elizabeth II in movies and TV shows

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Screen Queens

Queen Elizabeth II.photo: Samir Hussein/WireImage(c)Getty Images/HBO — Samir Hussein/WireImage/Getty Images/HBO

Queen Elizabeth II, the longest-reigning British monarch, died on Sept. 8 at age 96, just months after notching 70 years on the throne. Her lengthy time on the throne is a feat we're unlikely to see again in our lifetimes. She became queen in February 1952 (although she was not officially coronated until 1953) at the age of 25, and her decades of rule have seen vast social and cultural changes in Britain and around the globe. But one thing that remained constant was the media's desire to portray and understand the royal, to dig underneath that carefully cultivated mask of duty and honor. Beginning largely with comedic spoofs and parodies, pop culture portrayals of the Queen eventually have evolved into more dramatic takes, ones that seek to comprehend the humanity beneath the crown. Here is a look at our favorite pop culture portrayals of the Queen.

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Jeannette Charles

Jeannette Charles built an entire career on impersonating Elizabeth II. When a painting she commissioned of herself was mistaken for one of the Queen, it launched a flurry of offers to portray the monarch, particularly in print advertisements. Seizing on the resemblance, she studied the Queen's voice and physicality and ultimately played Elizabeth across numerous films, mostly in a comedic sense. Key titles include National Lampoon's European Vacation, The Naked Gun: From the Files of the Police Squad!, and Austin Powers in Goldmember. She also regularly appeared on television impersonating the Queen, including a spot on Saturday Night Live.

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Carol Burnett

On The Carol Burnett Show, comedian Carol Burnett spoofed the royal family and Queen Elizabeth II multiple times, bringing her madcap sense of humor to the rather humorless royals. But perhaps one of her most famous takes on the Queen isn't her impression itself but her inability to keep a straight face through a sketch about deciding who should marry Princess Anne, as portrayed by Vicki Lawrence.

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Prunella Scales

A QUESTION OF ATTRIBUTION — Everett Collection

Prunella Scales may be best remembered for her portrayal of Sybil Fawlty, wife of John Cleese's Basil, on BBC comedy Fawlty Towers, but she played the Queen memorably multiple times. In a more comedic turn, she had a small role as the Queen in spy comedy Johnny English, where the royal's abdication is a major plot point. But her best turn was in both the stage and subsequent television adaptation of Alan Bennett's A Question of Attribution, a play about notorious British art expert and former Soviet agent Sir Anthony Blunt. The 1991 screen version earned her a BAFTA nomination.

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Saturday Night Live

Saturday Night Live loves to parody global international figures, so it makes sense that the Queen would have been the subject of sketches countless times over decades on the air. Many hosts and cast members have worn the crown over the years, including Mike Myers, Fred Armisen, Joan Cusack, Jon Lovitz, and Kate McKinnon.

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Helen Mirren

Queen Elizabeth II most memorable portrayals — Helen Mirren in 'The Queen'. Everett Collection

Before The Crown became a streaming sensation, Peter Morgan wrote a biopic following the monarch in the days after Princess Diana's death. The Queen earned Helen Mirren an Oscar for her take on Elizabeth II, humanizing the monarch during one of the lowest periods of her reign and popularity. It also established a relationship between Morgan and Mirren, which they continued onstage in The Audience where Mirren once again portrayed Elizabeth.

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Herself

James Bond; Queen Elizabeth II — Olympics/YouTube

The Queen has made many television appearances in her life, but perhaps none as cheeky or as fun as her role in the London 2012 Summer Olympics opening ceremony. In the short film made for the broadcast, Happy and Glorious, the Queen holds an audience with James Bond as played by Daniel Craig. He escorts her via helicopter to the Olympic stadium, and stuntman Gary Connery doubled as Elizabeth for a parachute jump into the ceremony.

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June Squibb

Sports mockumentary 7 Days in Hell features Andy Samberg and Kit Harington as two rival tennis players facing off in a historic singles match at Wimbledon. Wry June Squibb (Nebraska) took on the role of the monarch here, instructing Harington's Charles Poole to "win" and attending the match near its conclusion.

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Penelope Wilton

Steven Spielberg's live-action take on Roald Dahl's classic The BFG never quite took off, but it does feature a sterling take on Elizabeth II from Downton Abbey star Penelope Wilton. As widowed Isobel Crawley on Downton, she's expert at playing a matronly figure who can see through people, but she gets a more whimsical turn as the monarch here. When the BFG and heroine Sophie (Ruby Barnhill) deliver a nightmare to the Queen, she recruits soldiers to fight in Giant Country.

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Claire Foy

TheCrown_201_Unit_01348_R — Robert Viglasky/Netflix

Not satisfied with his take on the Windsors and Elizabeth II in The Queen and The Audience, Peter Morgan decided to take a more all-encompassing approach with this Netflix series that begins with Elizabeth's ascendancy as queen regnant and follows her throughout her time on the throne. Claire Foy was the first to don the titular crown, portraying Elizabeth as a young queen finding her footing and struggling to balance the demands of her duty with the needs of her family. Foy won an Emmy for her work in season 2.

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Jessica Ellerby

Pennyworth is an origin story for Bruce Wayne's loyal butler, Alfred Pennyworth, that situates him as a young man and former British SAS soldier in the process of forming his own security company. Ellerby portrays a younger version of Elizabeth II in this alternate reality of 1950s and '60s Britain.

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Olivia Colman

After Claire Foy's two seasons, British national treasure Olivia Colman assumed the throne on The Crown, bringing Elizabeth II to life through the course of her middle age. Colman portrayed the Queen through particular periods of crisis, including the Cold War, Princess Margaret's divorce, the Troubles in Ireland, and Charles' engagement and marriage to Diana. She earned an Emmy for her work in season 4.

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Judy Kaye

In 2021, Princess Di was all the rage once more, even getting her own Broadway musical — the epic disaster that was Diana. Seemingly created for hate-watching, the show didn't have much to offer — but there was Judy Kaye's villainous and campy take on the queen to delight in (or maybe just scratch your head at).

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Stella Gonet

While Kristen Stewart earned raves for her portrayal of Princess Diana in Spencer, there's the rest of the supporting cast that breathed life into her antagonists, sometimes even near-captors. Scottish stage star Stella Gonet took on the role of the queen, a far more regal role than some of her early work, including playing Ophelia opposite Daniel Day-Lewis' Hamlet. Gonet has also played Margaret Thatcher, spanning the gamut of female British political figures.

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Imelda Staunton

The Crown gets its third (and supposedly final) iteration of Queen Elizabeth in Harry Potter veteran Imelda Staunton. Staunton will portray a more elderly Queen, one who must weather Princess Diana's death and a period of great scandal and unpopularity for the monarchy. We just hope she's kinder than Professor Umbridge.