Jeannette Charles, the British actor best known for her striking resemblance of Queen Elizabeth II that landed her roles in Naked Gun and Austin Powers, has died at the age of 96.
On Wednesday the actor’s daughter, Carol Christophi, announced her mother died on 2 June in a care home in Great Beddow, Essex.
“Mum was a real character and a force of nature,” Christophi said in a statement. “She had an amazing life.”
Charles’s uncanny likeness to the late queen garnered attention from strangers when she was just a child, but most notably by the right people in the 1970s.
Speaking to the Guardian in 2022, the actor shared how she became a Queen Elizabeth II impersonator: when the artist Jane Thornhill submitted a portrait of Charles to the Royal Academy of Arts’ summer exhibition in 1972, Buckingham Palace was asked whether the Queen had given a sitting. They said she had not.
“After that, my phone didn’t stop ringing – I was interviewed for newspapers, magazines and radio, and an agent said my resemblance to the Queen could be a money-spinner,” Charles said.
Prior to this and before she had children, Charles had worked as an au pair and a typist but “had always wanted to act”.
“I’d been in amateur productions, had elocution lessons and even passed an audition for Rada. But the fees were too expensive, plus my looks counted against me – no matter what role I took on, I’d hear comments from the audience, and sometimes even laughter,” she said.
Over the next 50 years, Charles “appeared on TV chatshows, opened supermarkets, assisted magicians and shot adverts all over the world”; she played Queen Elizabeth II in music videos, appeared on Saturday Night Live, was hired to hand out gifts alongside Liberace and even presented a silver disc to the band Queen.
Her most notable roles were in National Lampoon’s European Vacation, Naked Gun, and opposite Mike Myers as Austin Powers in Goldmember.
Throughout her career, Charles remained a “staunch royalist” and never took on roles that “would reflect badly on the monarch or myself”.
By the time she retired in 2014, Charles was considered the most famous queen lookalike. “I don’t think anyone else had earned a living by resembling someone famous before – now there’s a whole industry,” she said.
Born on 15 October 1927 – only 18 months after the Queen – Charles lived to be the same age as Queen Elizabeth II, who died in 2022 aged 96.
“She was always respectful of the Queen and adored the royal family. We will miss her dearly,” her daughter told UK radio station LBC.
Charles is survived by her daughter Carol and sons David and Peter. Her husband died in 1997.