updated: 06/06/2003
Queen Elizabeth I, the Virgin Queen, is a recurrent favourite and has been played by: Sarah Churchill, Bette Davis (The Virgin Queen and The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex), Glenda Jackson (Elizabeth R and Mary, Queen Of Scots), Flora Robson (twice), Claudette Colbert, and Jean Simmons among others. Recent movies have featured Cate Blanchett (Elizabeth) and Judi Dench (Shakespeare in Love) in the role, not forgetting the unforgettable portrayals by Miranda Richardson in Blackadder: a movie with Glenn Close was supposedly in production or pre-production but appears to have disappeared into development-hell. And yes I know that Quentin Crisp is not an actress – but it’s my site so I’ve included him.
Here the look of the character is somewhat constrained by surviving portraits. But the they look almost bizarre to today’s eyes, and many Elizabeths have shied away from an appearance that might prevent audiences identifying with the character (eg apart from the hairline Sarah Churchill’s makeup looks more 1950s than sixteenth-century).
In the UK, the aged Elizabeth was at one time an almost a standard makeup test for aspiring makeup artists. It’s easy to see why: the older queen involves a whole series of skills, ageing, bald-cap, wig, creating a likeness and the whole thing topped off with, what appears, to us at least, as an outlandish colour scheme.