In 1988, the late Queen Elizabeth II appeared in the popular American comedy film The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad! The film's storyline saw the monarch imperilled by an assassination plot during the Californian leg of her US tour. The queen was twice endangered, once when she was leapt on by an overzealous Los Angeles police detective at a state dinner and again when the very same detective, Lieutenant Frank Drebin (Leslie Nielsen), saved her from an armed baseball player who had been transformed into a potential assassin by hypnosis during the queen's visit to a baseball game.
Needless to say, the queen did not play the role herself. Indeed, much of the film would not have been possible without the performance of Jeannette Charles, a Briton who for 40 years took on the role of royal lookalike in a wide variety of films and television performances.
Jeannette's striking physical resemblance to the monarch provided the basis for her entire career.
By an interesting coincidence, the lives of Jeannette and Elizabeth II almost completely overlapped with both women living to the age of 96. Jeannette was born in October 1927, 18 months later than the future queen, and dying in June 2024, 21 months after our longest reigning monarch.
Jeannette was born in London. Her father Albert Cook had served as a personal cook to a field marshal while in the army and went on to become a restaurateur.
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Denne historien er fra September 2024-utgaven av Best of British.
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THE FEW ON SCREEN
Steven Taylor looks at the Battle of Britain across film and TV
Table Service
Rachel Toy looks at the history of Ridgway Homemaker tableware
Hever Forever
Claire Saul studies the newly refurbished Boleyn Apartment at Hever Castle & Gardens - a castle fit for a queen
Shining a Light
Tony O’Neil tunes into the history of the last manned lightvessel
The Man With the Goldeneye
Film stills photographer Keith Hamshere describes how he came to enter the world of James Bond
THE ORIGINAL GOLDEN BALLS
lan Wheeler looks back on 70 years of Tiger comic and Roy of the Rovers, and chats to the man who edited and oversaw both titles
To Play the Queen
Chris Hallam looks back on the life of one of the UK’s best known lookalikes
POOLING RESOURCES
Martin Handley looks at what life was like after the Vernons Girls
POSTCARD FROM= SUSSEX
Bob Barton indulges in pleasure piers and fairground delights, as well as fulfilling a long-held ambition to visit the home of Rudyard Kipling
Oh, Miss Jones
Chris Hallam looks back at the origins and legacy of Rising Damp, ITV's most successful sitcom