Actors who've played the Queen pay tribute from Claire Foy to Helen Mirren

Many actors have portrayed the Queen on screen throughout her 70-year reign, and a few have spoken out to pay tribute to Queen Elizabeth II.

Her rich life has proven to be fertile ground for television and movies, with many stories to be told about the longest-serving monarch.

Claire Foy - The Crown

Claire Foy, who played Queen Elizabeth II on the first two seasons of The Crown, has said she was "honoured" to play the late monarch.

Talking to the BBC, Foy said: "I think that she was an incredible monarch. She united people and she was a massive symbol of continuity and dignity and grace."

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Foy, who played the Queen between the years 1947 and 1955, also said: "My main feeling is just thinking about her as a mother and a grandmother and a great-grandmother, really, and I'm very honoured to have been a teeny tiny, small part of her story."

Olivia Colman - The Crown

Olivia Colman, who replaced Foy as the Queen for seasons three and four of The Crown, also praised the monarch, saying to Variety: "She made a promise as a young woman and she absolutely kept it with such dignity. We’re all incredibly impressed by what she did."

Colman also praised King Charles III's maiden speech: "From a British point of view, he did it so beautifully. He did it about love, tolerance and gentleness, and that is what she always wanted and she’s done."

Helen Mirren - The Queen

Helen Mirren, who famously played the Queen in a 2006 biopic for which she won an Oscar, paid tribute on Instagram.

Mirren wrote: "I am proud to be an Elizabethan. We mourn a woman, who, with or without the crown, was the epitome of nobility."

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The Queen has not been frequently depicted on screen until recent years, beginning with the Mirren starring biopic about the Royal Family in the aftermath of Princess Diana's death in 1997.

The Queen has been a main character on every season of Netflix's The Crown, a portrayal of the monarch from just after the Second World War to the present day.

As well as Foy and Colman, Imelda Staunton is set to play an older Queen on the upcoming fifth and sixth seasons of the show.

Watch below: The Crown to pause filming following death of Queen Elizabeth II