Summary
Jeannette Charleshas playedBritish royal Queen Elizabeth IImore than a dozen times over her three-and-a-half-decade onscreen career. Charles, who died at the age of 96 on June 13, 2025, has 40 credits to her name after making her small screen debut in 1974. Of those credits, 17 involved portraying Queen Elizabeth II in some capacity, while 17 more saw her play queens meant to represent Queen Elizabeth II, meaning that a full 85% of her career involved playing the same role many times over.
Over the years, many different people have played the role for which she became iconic. This includes four different actors who playedQueen Elizabeth onThe Crown, in addition to various decorated performers in other projects including Emma Thompson inWalking the Dogs, Helen Mirren inThe Queen, and even American star Neve Campbell inChurchill: The Hollywood Years. However, in spite of the fact that many of her appearances in the role were brief cameos, it is indisputable thatCharles portrayed the late monarch the most onscreen.
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1Loriots Telecabinet
Premiere Date: July 16, 2025
Long beforeNetflix’sThe Crown, Charles made her debut in the role of Queen Elizabeth IIin the TV movieLoriots Telecabinet. The West German production, which is a parody of a talk show, kicked off a career-long trend of Charles playing the British monarch innearly as many foreign-language productions as solely English-language ones.
In addition to being her first time playing Queen Elizabeth II onscreen,Loriots Telecabinetwas Charles' screen debut. While it wasn’t a widely known project, it marked the first time that she was publicly recognized for her similarity to the queen and it became part of the groundswell of early projects that led to her iconic and unusual career.
Season 1, Episode 7
“Christmas with Rutland Weekend Television”
Rutland Weekend Televisionwasa short-lived two-season sketch comedy show created by Eric Idleafter the end of his iconic comedy seriesMonty Python’s Flying Circus. Charles portrayed Queen Elizabeth II on just one episode of the program, which ran for a total of 14 episodes.
While the show is not as well known as any of Idle’sMonty Pythonworks, it offered the actor her first opportunity to portray the role in a primarily English-language project. Itlaid the groundwork for her appearances in more prominent titles, though her performances would remain on the small screen for the better part of a decade afterward.
Season 2, Episode 21
“Eric Idle/Neil Innes”
Charles' appearance on an early episode of the long-running American sketch comedy show markedher most prominent appearance as Queen Elizabeth II in the 1970s. She appeared on the show during the time when the cast featured comedy icons including Dan Aykroyd, John Belushi, Chevy Chase, Jane Curtin, Garrett Morris, Bill Murray, and Gilda Radner.
It might seem unusual thatSNLwould bring Charles on, considering the fact that they usually have members of their ensemble cast perform impressions of any celebrities in a given sketch. However, the host of the episode wasRutland Weekend Television’s Eric Idle and the musical guest was Neil Innes, who provided the music for the British show. Though she never appeared in a secondRutlandepisode as the Queen,her performance seems to have made an impression on the pairand they brought her along.
Saturday Night Live
Saturday Night Live is a live television sketch comedy and variety show created by Lorne Michaels, premiering in 1975. It features comedy sketches parodying contemporary culture and politics, performed by a rotating cast. Each episode is hosted by a celebrity guest and includes musical performances.
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Season 5, Episode 6
N/A
The British showQ…, which typically had different numbers attached to the letter for each season (running fromQ5throughQ9), offered Charles an opportunity to sharpen her impression of Queen Elizabeth II considerably. After an appearance on a season 3 episode in 1978,she would return to the show six timesthrough its penultimate season in 1980.
Rutland,SNL, andQ…firmlyestablished the precedent that Charles played the role in comedy projects. While the life of Queen Elizabeth II has been dramatized onscreen many times, Charles became a go-to when it came to skewering the iconic monarch in a project with a more satirical bent.
Season 3, Episode 7
“The Royal Command Performance of Not the Nine O’Clock News”
Not the Nine O’Clock Newswas a sketch comedy series that ran on BBC2 opposite BBC1’s legitimate news showNine O’Clock News. The main cast of the show included Pamela Stephenson, Mel Smith, andfutureMr. BeanandBlackaddericon Rowan Atkinson.
Charles portrayed Queen Elizabeth II in a single episode of the show. While this was a similar setup to her appearance onRutland Weekend News,Not the Nine O’Clock Newsmarkedthe first time that her appearance was heralded in some way in the title of the episode. The listing promised a “Royal Command Performance,” emphasizing the parody of the monarch that would appear in the episode.
6The Queen Special
Premiere Date: December 1980
Charles' appearance in the 1980 productionThe Queen Specialwas her most tongue-in-cheek up to that point. The special wasa promotional video for the popular band Queen, led by charismatic singer-songwriter Freddie Mecury. The special focused on their album “The Game” as well as their soundtrack for 1980’sFlash Gordon.
The special featured celebrity cameos including former Beatle Ringo Starr, iconic Bond girl Barbara Bach,Monty Pythonmember John Cleese, and model Twiggy. Alongside those icons, Charles reprised her role as Queen Elizabeth II,embracing the name of the bandby putting her lookalike skills to the test on one of her biggest stages yet.
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7National Lampoon’s European Vacation
Release Date: August 05, 2025
After playing the role of Queen Elizabeth II for more than a decade on the small screen,Charles made her big screen debut as the character inNational Lampoon’s European Vacation. The movie was a direct sequel to the Chevy Chase and Beverly D’Angelo comedyVacation, which had become the 12th highest-grossing movie of 1983 worldwide.
The feature, which continued a franchise that would eventually extend to include six movies in total, was a decent hit, earning $49.3 million against a budget of $17 million. While Charles only appeared in one scene, it was memorable, as sheappeared alongside Peter Hugo as Prince Charles and Julie Wooldridge as Princess Diana in a dream sequence.
Season 1, Episode 3
The short-livedDollywasa variety show created and hosted by iconic country music singer Dolly Parton, who had recently starred in movies including9 to 5andRhinestone. Despite only running for a single season, it featured a cavalcade of guest stars including Hulk Hogan, Tom Petty, Pee-Wee Herman, and Oprah Winfrey.
Also featured, very early on in the show’s run, was Charles' performance as Queen Elizabeth II in an episode featuring a star-studded cast that also included Bruce Willis, Emmylou Harris, Linda Ronstadt, and Daniel Rosen. This cameo from Charleshearkened back to a real-life moment where Parton met the queenin 1977 after performing at her Silver Jubilee.
Season 3, Episode 3
After playing Queen Elizabeth II on two American productions in a row,Charles returned to her comfort zone of British television comedy. Her next appearance on the small screen was three episodes ofCarrott Confidential, which starred comedian and television presenter Jasper Carrott, who would go on to host the late 2000s game showGolden Balls.
Charles' portrayal of Queen Elizabeth II on the show markedher second-longest stint playing the character on a single television program. After her final appearance onCarrott Confidential, in the show’s third and final season, her subsequent television appearances would only include one episode apiece.
10The Big Gag
Release Date: July 19, 2025
After returning to British soil, Charleswent international yet again for the feature comedyThe Big Gag, which was the brainchild of a troupe led by co-director Yehuda Barkan. The Hebrew-language project was a documentary prank movie and an early example of the comedy format popularized byCandid Camerawhich would eventually lead into projects includingPunk’dandBorat.
Charlesbrought her performance as Queen Elizabeth II to the much looser comedy stylingsof theJackass-esque movie. That same year, she appeared in Barkan’sNipagesh Bachof, also known asThe Big Bag, a similarly styled feature in which she was not credited as specifically playing Queen Elizabeth.
