Helena Bonham Carter is connected by blood to the aristocracy and democracy of England, being the great-granddaughter of a British Prime Minister and the first cousin of a Baroness. Early in her career, she became known for embodying works of English fiction such as A Room with a View, Lady Jane, Howard’s End, and her pinnacle in those roles in The Wings of the Dove. She’s excelled in TV, starring opposite Sam Neil in the underrated 1990s miniseries Merlin, opposite Michael Keaton in HBO’s excellent Live from Baghdad, and most recently playing Elizabeth Taylor in Burton & Taylor. Fight Club, The King’s Speech, Harry Potter, and her relationship with director Tim Burton (with whom she’s made seven films) catapulted her into the top rungs of Hollywood actresses where she remains.
Helena Bonham Carter’s Best 10
1. Big Fish (2003) Jenny/The Witch
2. Fight Club (1999) Marla Singer
3. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Pt. 2 (2011) Bellatrix Lestrange
4. The King’s Speech (2011) Queen Elizabeth
5. Live from Baghdad (2002-HBO) Ingrid Formanek
6. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2007) Bellatrix Lestrange
7. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Pt. 1 (2010) Bellatrix Lestrange
8. The Wings of the Dove (1997) Kate Croy
9. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2009) Bellatrix Lestrange
10. Les Miserables (2012) Madame Thenardier
Honorable Mention: Merlin (1998-NBC) Morgan Le Fay
Oscars, Golden Globes & Emmys
Oscar Wins (0): None
Oscar Nominations (2): The Wings of the Dove (1998), The King’s Speech (2011)
Golden Globe Wins (0): None
Golden Globe Nominations (7): Fatal Deception: Mrs. Lee Harvey Oswald (1994), The Wings of the Dove (1998), Merlin (1999), Live from Baghdad (2003), Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2008), The King’s Speech (2011), Burton and Taylor (2014)
Emmy Wins (0): None
Emmy Nominations (3): Merlin (1998), Live from Baghdad (2002), Burton and Taylor (2014)
My Favorite Bonham Carter Scene:
“The Battle at the Ministry” from Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2007)
Next Film: Bonham Carter will join the cast of The Crown for season three of the Netflix drama’s acclaimed run. Carter will take over as Princess Margaret from Vanessa Kirby. New episodes are expected in early 2019. Season three of the show is expected to cover a time period of roughly 1964-1970.
Im not saying planet of the apes should make the list but she really elevated that movie. this is the one off with mark wahlberg not the recent trilogy. She makes every movie she is in better.
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She was the best part of that film, and unlike Depp, she makes Burton’s films better, hence my #1 being my favorite of his films. I think his whole take was misguided on Apes, and the ending was just so wrong, but then they didn’t have access to the kind of tech that allowed Serkis and Reeves to make what they did.
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God, I love Burton’s Apes. I walked out of that theater on opening night knowing that it would not go over, but he took a cheesy cult film and revamped it with impeccable artistry and consummate weirdness. Plus it had the same exact plot as the original, but the script disguised it so skillfully that few noticed, and it was able to be the same yet startlingly different. And why is the ending so awful? It’s pure Rod Serling.
There was talk of CGI even back then. Burton said no. He said the point was having humans dressed up as apes. And he was right. It would not have worked with the recent films, because of subject matter and tone, but the films that came before were fanciful, and demanded human beings in prosthetics.
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She’s one of those actors that is watchable in everything she does and she certainly embodied Bellatrix better than anyone else I can think of. In fact all the HP movies were cast damn near perfectly, and even though I wouldn’t’ve gone with Michael Gambon and Dumbledore it still worked. 😀
… she played the Queen Mum in The Kings Speech though. Elizabeth II was her daughter.
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DAMMIT! This is why I need you. You’re absolutely right. I’m just so used to everyone playing QEII that I added it, but I should have listened to IMDB. It’s easy to keep track of our leaders. We put them on reality shows (DOWWWN, POLITICAL DAVE, DOWWWWN). You’re right, she was almost a better villain than Voldemort in Potter. In a flawlessly cast franchise, she was one of the best picks. I think she had a blast playing it too. The Harris-to-Gambon transfer had to have been so traumatizing for those kids. I give Gambon all credit for making Dumledore his own but not making the transfer from Harris (who does look so frail in Chamber of Secrets) jarring. I can’t imagine Jude Law as him in his 60s, but I guess we’ll find out next year in Fantastic Beasts 2 (he better rock that plum suit, because Gambon pulled off that plum suit like no one has ever plum suited before).
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It was indeed, the epitome of plum-suit-osity. 😀
… to be fair the Queen mum’s name was Elizabeth too. 🙂
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Mix it up!
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She is very good.
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I’m quite happy you didn’t put too many Burton’s movies here.
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Well, she doesn’t drag him down like Depp does, and #1 is a Burton movie (Burton’s best movie in my opinion). Her iconic role though is Lestrange. She was one of the best bits of casting in one of the best casted franchises ever made.
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Agree!
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Now that she and Tim are splitsville, I suppose that is the end of that creative partnership. Too bad. They were made for each other, at least as an actor and director.
Umbrage is the best HP villain by far on the page, but onscreen it is Lestrange by a mile.
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Umbridge is so loathesome I have problems not punching the book or tv.
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I would put her up there with Vader and Hannibal Lector.
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