The Best Actors Who Played Historical Royals On Film & Television

Cate Blanchett has played Queen Elizabeth I - who enjoyed one of the longest reigns in English history, ruling from 1558 to 1603 - two times: first in 1998's Elizabeth and then in the 2007 sequel, Elizabeth: The Golden Age. Each film focuses on a specific period of Elizabeth's life, ranging from her struggles as a young woman on the throne to her savvy statesmanship in later life.

Both of Blanchett's Elizabethan performances - in which she portrays a fiery, sharp, and conflicted monarch - earned her Academy Award nominations. In fact, she is one of only a handful of actors to receive an Oscar nomination twice for the same role.

Blanchett is one of a long line of actors - like Glenda Jackson and Judi Dench - who have portrayed Elizabeth. She admires Elizabeth's Shakespearean complexity: "If you look at the long legacy of actresses who've played her and will continue to play her, it's a little bit like the female Hamlet."

2010's The King's Speech dramatizes King George VI - who led the United Kingdom through WWII - and his struggles to overcome his debilitating stammer. Colin Firth stars as the troubled king.

Though Firth's research materials were limited - "the royal family don't let you get that close," he said to the BBC - Firth relied on footage of George VI to get his performance right.

Critics applauded the "theatrical gusto" of Firth's "touching" depiction of George. Firth's performance - which succeeded partly because he had empathy for his character - and the film won four Oscars, including Firth for best actor.

Netflix spared no expense for The Crown, which ranks as one of the most expensive television series ever produced. Each season of the prestige drama tracks several years in the life of Queen Elizabeth II as she struggles to balance her personal relationships and regal role. 

For the first two seasons, Claire Foy played Elizabeth in the 1950s and early 1960s. Her experience on The Crown actually helped Foy understand Elizabeth as a person:

[Before this project] I thought she was just the queen and he was Prince Philip, and that was just who they were, without thinking about them as a mother or a father or daughter. So, it's been really interesting to try and understand them as human beings. And when you see what they've been through, it's relatively easy, to be honest. I have a huge amount of respect and understanding for them.

Foy's "stellar" portrayal of Elizabeth earned her numerous accolades, including Emmy, Golden Globe, and SAG awards.

Before she was Margaery Tyrell in Game of Thrones, Natalie Dormer was Anne Boleyn in The Tudors, Showtime's sexed-up version of the story of Henry VIII and his six wives. Henry executed Boleyn - perhaps his best-known and most controversial bride - in 1536.

According to Dormer, a history buff, getting to portray the Tudor queen "was a pairing of my two favorite loves, acting and history." She immersed herself in research to prep for the role. Dormer said of her performance:

By the time I walked on to the scaffold [for Anne's execution] I hope I did have that phenomenal air of dignity that Anne had - because she went out in the most incredible manner. It was one of the best experiences of my career so far [...] Anne was a pawn in a man's world.

The Hollywood Reporter gushed that the "exquisite Natalie Dormer as the ill-fated Anne Boleyn is reason to celebrate" the series. Since Dormer claimed she "didn't want to play [Anne] as this femme fatale," her portrayal of the sharp queen even won over some Anne Boleyn scholars, like Susan Bordo.

The Crown attempts to delve into the private life of Queen Elizabeth II and her family over the course of several decades. Matt Smith played her husband, Prince Philip, for the show's first two seasons.

In an interview with Town & Country, Smith recalled that his prep work was "detailed" and included:

A lot of books, and we sourced as much audio and visual footage as we could find and really immersed ourselves in both the royal family and their emotional journey and the events that happened in their life, but also the cultural and political context of the '40s and the '50s.

In Smith's words, Philip is "a bit of a cool cat" who has "done what he wants, when he wants, how he wants, with whom he wants. He hasn't asked permission. And his wife's the queen." As some reviewers and historians have pointed out, the show does Philip no favors by emphasizing his entitlement.

The show was initially popular with viewers and critics alike. Smith's performance earned him Emmy and SAG nominations.

Though Judi Dench won an Oscar for playing Queen Elizabeth I in 1998's Shakespeare in Love, her royal cred runs deep: Dench has twice starred as Queen Victoria.

Both performances depict Victoria's real-life relationship with male servants. In 1997's Mrs. Brown, the lonely, widowed Victoria finds happiness with her Scottish servant John Brown. Twenty years later, Dench again appeared as Victoria in Victoria & Abdul, which focuses on the queen's friendship with her Indian servant Abdul Karim.

While discussing Victoria & Abdul, Dench claimed:

I just have to believe that [Victoria] possessed more humor than we give her credit for, especially in this final part of her life with this wonderful young man, who she could talk to and tell jokes to. That shows such great spirit, doesn't it, and something we don't attach to that rather solemn view we have of her.

Her acting in Mrs. Brown earned Dench her first Oscar nomination. Though critics called her performance in Victoria & Abdul "marvelous" and "shrewd [and] affecting," the film itself was met with less enthusiasm.