BAFTA To Honor Helen Mirren With A Fellowship

The award-winning actress will be given the academy's highest honor

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Actress Helen Mirren is often described as a national treasure in her native United Kingdom, but now the British Academy of Film and Television Arts plans to make it official. BAFTA will award the star its highest honor, the Fellowship, on Feb. 16.

The award is given annually to a person who has made an outstanding and exceptional contribution to film, television or games. Mirren — who was invested as a dame for her services in the arts in 2003 — certainly fits the bill with an illustrious career that began in the 1960s. With the award, she’ll be joining the likes of Charlie Chaplin, Alfred Hitchcock, Anthony Hopkins, Laurence Olivier, and Judi Dench, who have all won the Fellowship in the past.

“Dame Helen Mirren receives the Fellowship as one of the most outstanding actresses of her generation,” said BAFTA chairman John Willis, reports Variety. “Dame Helen’s incredibly successful career is testament to the determination, dedication and skill she brings to each of her roles.”

For her part, Mirren — who already has an Oscar, three Golden Globes, four Emmys and four BAFTAs to her name — called the award “the greatest professional honor I can imagine.”

[Variety]