Highlights:
- The ceremony will take place during a new primetime special called Golden Eve on 8 January
- Already won four Baftas, five Emmys, three Golden Globes and a Tony
- Globes president calls her “a force of nature” whose career has inspired generations
- Past winners include Meryl Streep, Viola Davis, Tom Hanks and Barbra Streisand
Helen Mirren is receiving another one for the shelf; the Golden Globe lifetime achievement award. The Cecil B. DeMille honour will be presented in January 2026 during a primetime show called Golden Eve. She has already won an Oscar, Baftas, Emmys, Golden Globes and a Tony. Golden Globes president Helen Hoehne called her career extraordinary.
Helen Mirren to be honoured with the Golden Globes’ highest lifetime award in January 2026 Getty Images
Why the award matters
The Golden Globe lifetime achievement award is not handed out lightly. It goes to actors who have changed the game. Past recipients include Walt Disney, Elizabeth Taylor, Robert Redford, Meryl Streep and Oprah Winfrey.
She has spent more than fifty years moving between Shakespeare, TV cops, queens, gangsters, and narrating Barbie. Every role looks different, but it is always unmistakably her. Mirren once said she “never planned anything,” and just kept saying yes to the right parts, an approach that clearly worked.
Helen Mirren has earned global praise for her six-decade film and television careerGetty Images
From Shakespeare to streaming
She first worked with the Royal Shakespeare Company back in the 1970s, then moved into films such as O Lucky Man! and The Long Good Friday. She became a star after Prime Suspect, in which she played Detective Jane Tennison. The show ran through the 1990s and made her a household name on British television.
In 2006 she took on the role of Queen Elizabeth II in The Queen, which won her an Oscar and pushed her career to a global level. She has been on a roll since with projects like Gosford Park, The Madness of King George, Calendar Girls, Golda, and a deadpan voiceover in Barbie.
She’s been shooting The Thursday Murder Club for Netflix and will next play Patricia Highsmith in Switzerland.
Mirren joins icons like Meryl Streep and Tom Hanks in receiving the Golden Globes lifetime honourGetty Images
What happens next
Golden Eve airs on 8 January on CBS and Paramount+. The main Globes night follows on 11 January, hosted by Nikki Glaser. Mirren is likely to make a short speech, so expect dry humour, a touch of grace, and probably no tears. She has been doing this too long for that.
