Academy Award-winning actress Olivia Colman was honored Friday by Queen Elizabeth II — the monarch she is about to play on television in “The Crown.”
Colman was named a Commander of the Order of the British Empire, or CBE, in the annual Queen’s Birthday Honors list.
The performer won a best-actress Oscar this year for playing 18th-century monarch Queen Anne in “The Favourite.” She plays the current queen in the third season of Netflix’s royal drama “The Crown,” which is currently in production.
Colman said she was “totally thrilled, delighted and humbled” by the honor.
Honors are awarded twice a year, at New Year and to mark the monarch’s official birthday in June, and reward hundreds of people for services to their community or national life. Most go to people who are not in the limelight, but there is also a sprinkling of famous faces.
Recipients are selected by committees of civil servants from nominations made by the government and the public, with the awards bestowed by the queen and other senior royals during Buckingham Palace ceremonies.
The list included a knighthood for Simon Russell Beale, one of Britain’s finest stage actors, who can now call himself Sir Simon.
A knighthood was also bestowed on Boyd Tunnock, inventor of the Tunnock’s Teacake, a chocolate-coated marshmallow treat.
“When you get to my age, very few things surprise you but this certainly did and I am deeply honored and grateful to Her Majesty the queen,” said Tunnock, whose family firm has been making sweets in Scotland since the 19th century.
Artist Rachel Whiteread, who won the Turner Prize in 1993 for her concrete cast of the inside of a condemned house, became a dame, the female equivalent of a knight.
Novelist Joanna Trollope and Lee Child, writer of the Jack Reacher thrillers, were made CBEs.
Feargal Sharkey, former lead singer of The Undertones — best known for punk classic “Teenage Kicks” — was named an Officer of the Order of the British Empire, or OBE. So were singer-songwriter Elvis Costello and actress Cush Jumbo, a star of TV legal series “The Good Fight.”
British-Sri Lankan rapper MIA, whose full name is Mathangi Arulpragasam, was made a Member of the Order of the British Empire, or MBE.
In descending order, the main honors are knighthoods, CBE, OBE and MBE. Knights are addressed as “sir” or “dame,” followed by their name. Recipients of the other honors have no title, but can put the letters after their names.
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