Helen Mirren and Taylor Hackford are a sleeper Hollywood power couple. Married for 27 years and counting, both of them are Oscar winners and both of them have been attached to dozens upon dozens of some of the most recognizable TV and movie titles of the last few decades. They’ve also been attached at the hip on the red carpet for most of that time as well.
Curious to learn more about Helen Mirren’s husband? Here are five facts you need to know about Taylor Hackford:
1. He’s an Academy Award winner.
Kevin Winter//Getty Images
Hackford at the Academy Awards Nominee Luncheon in 2005.
Hackford won the Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film for Teenage Father in 1979. The movie was about a 17-year-old boy facing impending fatherhood with his 15-year-old girlfriend and the realities of teen pregnancy. Hackford went on to direct several acclaimed features, including An Officer and a Gentleman (1982), Dolores Claibourne (1995), The Devil’s Advocate (1997), Proof of Life (2000), and Ray (2004), earning Academy Award nominations for Best Director and Best Picture for Ray.
2. He was previously president of the Directors Guild of America.
Evan Agostini//Getty Images
Hackford with Mirren after she won the Oscar for Best Actress in 2007.
Hackford was elected president of the Directors Guild of America in 2009. He was re-elected to a second, two-year term as president in 2011. Per the Los Angeles Times in 2009, Hackford’s top legislative priority was pushing for further government action to combat Internet piracy.
3. He has been married three times.
Jamie McCarthy//Getty Images
The couple at the Met Gala in 2015.
Third time really was the charm for Hackford. He married his first wife, Georgie Lowres, in 1967, and they had one child, Rio, before divorcing in 1972. In 1977, he married Lynne Littman, and they had one son, Alexander, born in 1979. Their divorce was finalized in 1987. He has been married to Mirren since 1997.
Mirren has a guess about the secret to their longevity. “My theory has always been that this is why we’re still together: because we’ve spent so much time apart, we’re always pleased to see each other,” she said in an interview in 2022.
4. Hackford and Mirren had a not-so-great first meeting.
Ron Galella//Getty Images
Mirren and Hackford at the White Nights premiere in 1985.
The couple met in 1985 on the set of the film White Nights, where he was directing her. But it wasn’t the stuff of meet-cutes. Their initial meeting wasn’t smooth as he was late to her audition, and she was annoyed by being kept waiting. “It was a strange way to meet Helen, because she is a lovely person,” Hackford said later, “but she didn’t hold back her fury.”
Hackford clearly won Mirren over, considering she was previously not interested in marriage. “We got married in the end because we realized that we were going to be together forever,” she told AARP Magazine in 2016. “We got married, ultimately, for legal reasons more than anything else. Estate planning and other complicated things like that. And our families, we sensed, wanted us to be married. I always said I have nothing against marriage; it just wasn’t to my taste, like turnips. It took me a very long time to come round to acquiring the taste. I just had to meet the right turnip.”
5. He never watches his own movies.
Amy Sussman//Getty Images
The couple at the 2024 American Cinematheque Awards honoring Helen Mirren.
It’s common to hear actors say they don’t like seeing themselves on screen, but a little rarer to hear directors say they don’t watch their own movies. For Hackford, once editing is done and the film is complete, he moves on. “When I finish a film, I put it away and I never look at it again,” he said in 2005. “Occasionally I do now because of the DVDs and the commentary tracks. I usually put it aside and go onto the next.”
Rachel King (she/her) is a news writer at Town & Country. Before joining T&C, she spent nearly a decade as an editor at Fortune. Her work covering travel and lifestyle has appeared in Forbes, Observer, Robb Report, Cruise Critic, and Cool Hunting, among others. Originally from San Francisco, she lives in New York with her wife, their daughter, and a precocious labradoodle. Follow her on Instagram at @rk.passport.
