Queen Elizabeth II lookalike actor Jeannette Charles dies

Actor Jeannette Charles, who looks strikingly similar to Queen Elizabeth II and has portrayed the monarch on-screen, has died on June 2. Her daughter Carol Christophi confirmed the same The Mirror and The Standard. The actor was 96.

In her 2022 essay for The Guardian, she wrote that she wanted to act even when she was employed as an au pair and a typist. However, she said no matter what role she landed she would receive comments on her look.

Turning this disadvantage to her favour, Charles took up portrayals of the Queen in films. She played the Queen in the Secrets of a Superstud (1976), Queen Kong (1976), All You Need Is Cash (1978), National Lampoon's European Vacation (1985), The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad! (1988), and Austin Powers in Goldmember (2002).

Her portrayal of Queen Elizabeth extended to TV too in shows such as Rutland Weekend Television and in a Saturday Night Live episode hosted by Eric Idle and Neil Innes.

She had some minor credits before her retirement in 2002. She was married to Ken, who died in 1997.

Jeannette Charles is survived by her three children with Ken, two sons David and Peter, and a daughter Carol.