Helen Mirren took center stage when he accepted the Cecil B. DeMille Award just days before the Golden Globe Awards 2026.
The 80-year-old actress received the honor during the new annual prime time special Golden Nightwhich aired on CBS and Paramount+ on Thursday, January 8.
Mirren was praised by her peers on the night, including Harrison Fordwho described the actress as “down” before taking the stage to accept her award.
“The word that comes to mind is not ‘woman,’ it’s ‘badess,'” he said. “And when she gets full, it’s amazing to watch.”
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Accepting the award, Mirren gave a humorous speech where she joked that receiving Golden Globe awards meant she now had “two big balls”. He then said, “As you can imagine, it really helped me in my career.”
He paid tribute to the writers, fellow actors and others he has worked with over the years and said he hoped his career would continue.
“The DeMille Award was described to me as a career recognition, but I like to think of it as lives lived, challenged, lives continued, hopefully. And given that hope, I’d rather think of it as an ongoing reflection of my career rather than a eulogy. Not writing my own eulogy.” he joked. “Although I have to say that if this was my memorial, looking at this audience, I would be absolutely thrilled that they showed up for me and I’m making a list of no-shows.”
In November 2025, the Golden Globes announced Mirren as the winner of the 2026 Cecil B. DeMille Award.
“Helen Mirren is a force of nature and her career is nothing short of extraordinary,” said the president of the Golden Globes Helen Hoehne he said in a statement at the time. “His transcendent performances and commitment to his craft continue to inspire generations of artists and audiences alike. It is a profound honor to present him with the Cecil B. DeMille Award.”
Mirren is the 70th winner of the Cecil B. DeMille Award since its inception in 1952. The award is named after its first honoree, an iconic director who died in 1959. Over more than seven decades, the award has been presented to Hollywood legends such as Walt Disney, Audrey Hepburn, Sydney Poitier, Judy Garland, Elizabeth Taylor, Robert Redford, Barbra Streisand, Meryl Streep i Tom Hanks.
This isn’t the first Golden Globe to grace Mirren’s shelves. Of her 18 career nominations, she has won three Golden Globes in recent years: one for Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama for the queen in 2007 and two for Best Actress in a Limited Series, Anthology Series or a Motion Picture Made for Television for her roles in Losing Chase in 1997 and Elizabeth I in 2007.
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In addition to her Cecil B. DeMille Award, Mirren could also get another nod during the 2026 Golden Globes in a matter of days. she is nominated by Best Performance by a Female Actress in a Television Series – Drama for her work MobLand. His classmates are The last of us‘ Bella Ramsey, Dismissal‘s Britt Lower, Matlock‘s Kathy Bates, The Diplomat‘s Keri Russell i To many‘ Rhea Seehorn.
Before the Golden Globes ceremony, the Golden Night the prime-time special put the spotlight on Mirren’s Cecil B. DeMille Award and Sarah Jessica Parker’s Carol Burnett Award. Viewers were treated to an extensive look at the legacy of the actresses in the form of personal stories, career retrospectives and special presenters. The broadcast was part of Golden Week, a new week-long Golden Globes brand experience on Paramount platforms to celebrate the upcoming awards show.
As for the upcoming Golden Globes, Nikki Glaser will host the event on Sunday, January 11 at The Beverly Hilton in Los Angeles. The broadcast will air live on CBS and Paramount+ at 8:00 PM ET.