In a brief announcement on the Royal Family’s official Twitter, it was confirmed that Queen Elizabeth II has died at age 96.
The longest-reigning monarch in British history, “died peacefully” Thursday at her summer home, Balmoral Castle in Aberdeenshire, Scotland.
In her 70 years on the throne, Queen Elizabeth II had a ringside seat to history, and as such, has been portrayed on the big and small screen many times during her reign.
In fact, since taking the throne at age 27, the monarch had been immortalized onscreen countless times, according to IMDB, and has appeared as herself in more than 270 productions.
Queen Elizabeth II was portrayed by performers in projects ranging from serious based-on-real life dramas like the Oscar-winning 2010 film The King’s Speech, and 2006’s The Queen, but she’s also been played for laughs, with appearances in 1988’s The Naked Gun and 2002’s Austin Powers in Goldmember.
Freya Wilson played a fiery young queen-to-be in The King’s Speech.
Helen Mirren won an Oscar for playing the monarch in The Queen.
In the two comedies, the queen was portrayed by lookalike Jeannette Charles.
That said, the queen, herself, had shown a sense of humor over her reign, like when she took part in a skit at the open of the 2012 Olympics in London, alongside Daniel Craig in character as 007. A stand-in for the queen parachuted out of a helicopter along with the super spy to kick off the games.
Elizabeth II was also portrayed in her teen years in 2015’s A Royal Night Out. That film dramatized a legendary true story of the queen-to-be, who had been a truck mechanic and driver for a women’s branch of the British Army during WWII, secretly partying amongst the commoners on VE Day. Sarah Gadon played the celebrating royal in that production.
Most recently, Netflix’s Emmy-winning royal family drama The Crown has seen Elizabeth taking the spotlight, portrayed respectively by actresses Claire Foy and Olivia Colman.
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