The acting sensation first took to the stage as a teenager in a performance of Hamlet in 1963, and followed it up a year later with a role in A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

Yet it was Anthony and Cleopatra’s 1965 performance that many consider his big breakthrough.

In fact, Helen herself describes the sensational show as one that “launched my career”.

Now, as we learn that Helen will be cutting her teeth as Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir for an all-new biopic, let’s take a look at some photos depicting Helen’s early career.

In the photo, Helen is captured in time by the photographers’ lenses and although she is barely recognizable in some photos, it’s an intriguing glimpse into how her brilliant life on stage began.

In the earliest black-and-white photos of Cleopatra, she’s a far cry from the Helen Mirren we know on our screens today, donning an edgy black wig to emulate the legend.

Meanwhile, in others, she’s the picture of innocence as a fresh-faced blonde, posing for a photographer who first saw her in a cafe and felt compelled to capture on still image.

Speaking about the extent of her acting legacy in Helen Mirren: My Life in Words and Pictures, she joked, “It’s always good to be a queen… [in a world when] the word sexist had not yet been invented.”