Queen Elizabeth impersonator and actress turned 96

Jeannette Charles, an actress who appeared as Queen Elizabeth II in several projects throughout her acting career, has died. She was 96 years old.

Charles’ daughter Carol Christophi confirmed her mother’s death in a statement to media, including The mirror And The standardand said: “Mom was a real character and a force of nature. She had an incredible life.”

“She was always respectful to the Queen and adored the royal family,” Christophi added, according to British radio station LBC. “We will miss her very much.”

Representative information on Charles and Christophi was not immediately available.

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As a professional “Queen Elizabeth lookalike,” Charles played Her Majesty in several films, including The journey through Europe (1985), The Naked Cannon (1988) and the sequel Austin Powers in Goldmember (2002).

“Before I had children, I worked as an au pair and typist, but I always wanted to be an actor,” the British actress wrote in a 2022 essay for The guard“I took part in amateur productions, took speech lessons and even passed an audition for Rada.”

“But the fees were too high and my looks were a problem – no matter what role I took on, I would get comments from the audience and sometimes even laughter,” she added.

That changed when she realized there might be a way to use my resemblance to the Queen to my advantage,” Charles wrote.

“For the next 40 years, I appeared on TV talk shows, opened supermarkets, assisted magicians and made commercials all over the world,” she continued. “Bands wanted me for music videos, and I gave out gifts with Liberace and presented the band Queen with a silver record.”

However, Charles wanted to ensure that she was “not disrespectful to the royal family”. He explained: “I have always been a staunch royalist and respect the Queen – I would never do anything that would reflect badly on the monarch or myself.”

“Over the years I have turned down large sums of money to Page 3-like images and insisted that I should never be introduced as a queen at performances,” she wrote. “I don’t think anyone has ever made a living resembling a famous person before – there’s an entire industry now.”

Charles retired from acting in 2014 and spent the rest of her life at her home in Essex, England, LBC reports.

Her husband, with whom she had a daughter, Christophi, and two sons, died before her. The Telegraph.