Entertainment
The Queen at film and theatre premieres and events, from James Bond to The Grinch-David Alexander-Entertainment – Metro
Seventy years of stars from stage and screen.
Seventy years of stars from stage and screen (Picture: Getty; PA)
How many people can say they’ve met both Marilyn Monroe and Lady Gaga? What about both Frank Sinatra and Daniel Craig?
The frankly astounding longevity of Queen Elizabeth II produced a vast number and astounding variety of star encounters – many of them at premieres and openings celebrating stage and screen.
From her very first appearance at the Royal Variety Performance as an endearingly star-struck young monarch, to her late-in-life introduction to the glamour of Gaga, we trace them here.
First Royal Variety Performance (1952)
Kicking things off with a right Royal extravaganza (Picture: PNA Rota/Getty Images)
‘This is the best show of all,’ announced the newly proclaimed Queen after the end of this, her first Royal Variety Performance.
The spectacle had featured many of the period’s most popular musicians (the Beverley Sisters, Ian Wallace) and comedians (including Tony Hancock, who went down particularly well with the Duke of Edinburgh). Wartime icon Vera Lynn had also used the occasion to sensationally relaunch her career.
Queen Elizabeth II dead: What happens next?
Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II has died after 70 years on the throne, her death announced by Buckingham Palace on September 8, 2022.
She died at the age of 96 at her home in Balmoral, with her son, the now King Charles, and daughter Princess Anne by her side.
King Charles III addresses the nation for the first time
What happens next following the death of the Queen?
Britain officially enters period of mourning after death of Queen
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The evening was the first of a vast number of royal entertainments the Queen was to enjoy throughout her reign.
The Battle of the River Plate (1956)
Two of the biggest stars of their generation (Picture: Daily Herald/Mirrorpix/Mirrorpix via Getty Images)
The premiere of The Battle of the River Plate is famous for nothing to do with the film being shown.
Although the movie boasted a cast full of stars, the most iconic attendee at its first screening – Marilyn Monroe, at the height of her fame – wasn’t one of them.
She had just happened to be in England at the time, and was hurried to the premiere, and a meeting with the young monarch, to whip up publicity.
Monroe and the Queen were the same age, though the Some Like It Hot star raised eyebrows by wearing a considerably racier dress.
Me and the Colonel (1958)
Sinatra couldn’t take his ol’ Blue Eyes off the young Queen (Picture: Bettmann Archive)
Another huge star at another premiere they had little to do with.
Frank Sinatra managed to squeeze in a trip to attend the London premiere of his friend Danny Kaye’s movie Me and the Colonel before rushing back to the US the next day.
Even this emblem of cool and leader of the Rat Pack couldn’t turn down the chance to meet the Queen.
Born Free (1966)
Stars flocked to see the animal classic (Picture: Keystone/Getty Images)
The Queen’s love of wildlife has been well-documented and led to her attending the premiere of one of the most iconic animal movies ever made, Born Free.
Assembled to meet her in Leicester Square was a stellar line-up of contemporary showbiz talent: Raquel Welch, Deborah Kerr, Warren Beatty, and, pictured, Julie Christie.
Queen Elizabeth Hall Opening (1967)
A new home for the country’s avant-garde tastes (Picture: PA)
The Queen was there as the South Bank’s iconic performance space opened with a bravado performance by Benjamin Britten, establishing its continued commitment to daily classical music performances (if not quite predicting the venue’s later forays into debuting the avant-garde).
The event marked an altogether higher-brow occasion than some of her earlier meetings with film and music stars.
You Only Live Twice (1967)
The beginning of a beautiful friendship (Picture: Keystone/Getty Images)
The Royal Family has always enjoyed James Bond films. Even last year, Charles, Camilla, William and Catherine all appeared at the Royal Albert Hall for the premiere of No Time to Die, Daniel Craig’s final showing.
The relationship between the spy and the monarch goes right back to Sean Connery, the first on-screen Bond. The Queen met the iconic Scot and his wife at the premiere of Connery’s fifth film, the Japan-set fifth adventure, You Only Live Twice.
Funny Lady (1975)
Queen Elizabeth II meets her match (Picture: Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
One of the most remarkable celebrity meetings of the Queen’s reign occurred when she encountered Barbra Streisand at the premiere of Funny Lady (the sequel to Funny Girl).
Draped in a floor-length, light-pink, faux-medieval cape designed by the legendary Ray Aghayan, Streisand summoned the nerve to query Royal protocol.
‘Your Majesty, why is it that women have to wear white gloves to meet you and men don’t?’ Streisand asked.
Unflustered, the Queen replied: ‘I’ll have to think about that one. I suppose it’s tradition.’
The National Theatre (1976)
Opening the iconic national venue (Picture: Ron Galella/Ron Galella Collection via Getty Images)
Though the National Theatre company had begun work in 1963, with Peter O’Toole performing as Hamlet, it was under Peter Hall in 1976 that the now iconic building was opened by the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh.
By then, the royal duo had established a long-held interest in theatre, having enjoyed a Royal Gala performance of Henry VIII almost 25 years earlier.
Kramer vs. Kramer (1980)
One of the Queen’s stranger line-ups (Picture: Hulton-Deutsch Collection/CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Images)
A truly unpredictable selection of stars lined up for the premiere of divorce drama Kramer vs. Kramer in 1980.
Dustin Hoffman and Meryl Streep were to be expected as the stars of the film, but the additions of Swedish film legend Liv Ullman and irreverent comedy icon Peter Sellers made this one of the Queen’s stranger engagements (even though the days of meeting Peter Kay and will.i.am would later put things in perspective).
The Grinch (2000)
Carrey on clowning (Picture: Tim Graham Picture Library/Getty Images)
If I had to guess a list of film stars the Queen had met, then, truth be told, I’m not sure Jim Carrey would have been on it.
But sublimely, the pair did meet at the premiere of Carrey’s Dr. Suess adaptation. How the Canadian actor’s madcap style related to the monarch’s famously dry sense of humour is anyone’s guess.
Die Another Day (2002)
Insert pop royalty joke here (Picture: Anwar Hussein/Getty Images)
In one of the more surreal nights in showbiz history, Madonna had spent the evening practising curtsying for the Queen with John Cleese, while Pierce Brosnan, Rosamund Pike and Halle Berry twiddled their thumbs anxiously.
This was the night of the Die Another Day premiere – not, in truth, a high point for the James Bond saga.
Madonna proceeded to burst into giggles when she finally met the Queen, after it became clear that the monarch had absolutely no idea who the pop star was.
Casino Royale (2006)
The name’s Windsor… (Picture: Pool Photograph/Corbis/Corbis via Getty Images)
Another premiere, another Bond. And this time, in Daniel Craig, a future co-star, as years after they were introduced at the premiere of Casino Royale, he and the Queen were to appear together in a comedy sketch at the 2012 Olympics.
Boris Johnson said this week that the skit’s finale, which involved the pair appearing to jump out of a helicopter and parachute into the London Stadium, was thought by one Middle Eastern leader to have involved the actual Queen.
The 2009 Royal Variety Performance
What did Gaga make of the monarch’s poker face, though? (Picture: Anwar Hussein/Getty Images)
Lady Gaga had reportedly toned down her performance so as not to displease the ageing monarch. But she still rocked a frankly outrageous, half-Tudor inspired outfit, and brought the venue alive with kinetic pop energy in 2009.
Whatever the Queen thought of Gaga’s energy, she surely must have been impressed by the music star’s sheer, unadulterated verve.
Oklahoma! (1947)
The American classic became a perennial Royal favourite (Picture: Keystone/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
While not technically a premiere, perhaps the most memorable interaction of the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh with the movies or the stage came in 1947, when they together attended a performance of Oklahoma!.
Staged at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane, the show received 14 encores and became firmly embedded in the shared memory of the royal couple.
From that night on, it’s said People Will Say We’re in Love was ‘their song’.
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