Jeannette Charles

Jeannette Charles (born 15 October 1927) is a British retired actress who often portrayed Queen Elizabeth II due to her resemblance to the monarch.[1]

Jeannette Charles
Born (1927-10-15) 15 October 1927
England, United Kingdom
OccupationActress
Years active1974–2014

Biography

Charles appeared as an actress in repertory theatre in her twenties, but had difficulty obtaining Equity membership. Her resemblance to Queen Elizabeth made it difficult to obtain roles, and she eventually left acting to become a secretary. However, in 1972, a painting she commissioned of herself in her forties (as a present for her husband), was displayed by the artist at the Royal Academy in London, where it was taken to be a portrait of the queen. When it was revealed that it was not the queen, Charles (as the actual subject of the painting) received a great deal of press attention, and started receiving offers to portray the queen in print advertisements. Charles accepted the offers she felt were appropriate (turning down, for instance, offers to portray the queen in lingerie or, in one case, as a centrefold), and insisted that it be made clear in any advertisement that the queen was being played by an impersonator.

After studying the queen's voice, as well as her appearance, Charles also made in-character personal appearances at trade shows and corporate events, and soon broadened into film. Charles his played the role of Queen Elizabeth II in numerous films including Secrets of a Superstud (1976), Queen Kong (1976), The Rutles' movie All You Need Is Cash (1978), National Lampoon's European Vacation (1985), The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad! (1988) and Austin Powers in Goldmember (2002).

She also appeared as a semi-regular in Spike Milligan's Q series on BBC Television and appeared on Channel 4's Big Brother 10 to surprise the Brazilian contestant Rodrigo Lopes (who thought he was meeting the real Queen Elizabeth II for a task).

She also appeared in Saturday Night Live episode Season 2, Episode 20 in 1977 [2] and Mind Your Language episode Season 2, Episode 2, "Queen For a Day", in 1978.[3]

She retired in 2014 and lives in Chelmsford, Essex.

Partial filmography

References
  1. "Long Live The Pretender, Jeannette Charles". Beaver County Times. 1 March 1979. Retrieved 30 June 2010.
  2. Nathan Rabin "Saturday Night Live (Classic)", AV Club, 15 May 2008
  3. "IMDB" IMDB, Retrieved 12 August 2015


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