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Bikini queen Helen Mirren, 70, retires from film nudity: MailOnline celebrates star's 10 sexiest stripped-off screen shots ... and her best real-life moments

Published: 06:39 EST, 28 September 2015 | Updated: 08:37 EST, 28 September 2015

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She has appeared nude in no less than 10 of her films.

But after almost five decades of stripping off on screen, Dame Helen Mirren has revealed she plans to keep covered up in future and will no longer be baring her body for the sake of her art.

The 70-year-old Oscar-winning actress revealed in an interview with Alan Cumming on CBS America: 'That's the good thing about getting older, you don't have to do that sort of thing anymore.'

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Raunchy resumé: Helen Mirren, pictured in 1989's The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover, has announced she is officially retiring from taking her clothes off on screen

Young sex symbol: The actress earned a legion of fans thanks to her first major film role at the age of just 22, The Age Of Consent, which left little to the imagination

Beginning her career by treading the boards with the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1967, Helen is one of the few stars to have achieved the Triple Crown of Acting, with a Best Actress Academy Award (The Queen, 2007), a Tony Award and several Emmys under her belt for Prime Suspect.

While Helen is known for her incredible talent, appearing in over 80 films and countless plays over the course of her illustrious career, she is also an international sex symbol and has never shied away from disrobing for a role.

She explained: ‘I was doing nude scenes from the moment I first started doing movies. I never wanted to show much boobs, but I thought, “Does it really matter?” It seemed to be nothing to get your knickers in a twist over.'

‘When I did Caligula it was “shock horror”, “triple X”, “only in porn cinemas” – now Game Of Thrones is on at 8 o’clock at night, and it is exactly what I did in Caligula – basically every scene is sex – upfront.’

What a woman: Helen, pictured at the Golden Globe Awards in January 2015, has never been afraid of on-screen nudity of the course of her illustrious career

As Helen admits her days of appearing nude are over, MailOnline looks back at some of the screen icon’s sexiest moments – both on and off-screen.

1 – Age Of Consent

Helen’s first major screen role launched the 22-year-old to sex symbol status. The 1969 drama leaves little to the imagination as her young character poses nude for a passionate painter.

While the full version was aired in UK cinemas, overseas distributors were allegedly shocked by the amount of nudity in the film and cut six minutes from the final edit.

2 – Savage Messiah

The 1972 biopic about the fiery French sculptor Henri Gaudier-Brzeska features a memorable scene in which a topless Helen descends a staircase.

The actress has since confessed she considered throwing herself out of her trailer and breaking her leg so she didn’t have to go through with it.

Making a name for herself: Helen first disrobed for a role aged just 22, as a young painter's muse in 1969 romantic drama Age Of Consent

Iconic scene: One of Helen's first seductive screen moments was in 1972's Savage Messiah, in which she descends a staircase topless

3 – Oh Lucky Man!

The screen siren plays Malcolm McDowell’s love interest in the 1973 comedy-drama, which features plenty of seductive scenes.

Discussing nudity in a 2010 interview, she joked, ‘It's never comfortable. The best thing would be if all the crew took their clothes off too and then you'd feel fine but it's never comfortable to be the only one without clothes on.’

4 – Caligula

The 1979 film about the rise and fall of Roman Emperor Caligula was panned by critics at the time, who branded it ‘trash’ and ‘degraded’.

Produced by pornographic magazine Penthouse, the historical drama is Helen’s most sexually explicit film to date and contains X-rated sex scenes in which she appears fully nude. An uncut version of the cult movie was released in 2008.

X-rated: Caligula (1979) is Mirren's most explicit film to date and was branded ‘trash’ and ‘degraded’ by critics at the time

Screen siren: Helen earned legions of fans for her racy performance as a prostitute in 1979's Hussy

5 – Hussy

Helen portrays a prostitute who embarks upon a torrid and complicated affair in the steamy 1980 romantic drama. While she is perfectly comfortable with nudity on-screen, Helen has often discussed how her film roles affected the way the media perceived her in her youth.

Recalling an ‘enraging’ 1975 interview with Michael Parkinson in which she was quizzed about her ‘physical attributes’ hindering her career, she recently revealed, ‘That's a classic example of the prevalent attitude at that time.’

6 – Excalibur:

The following year, Mirren appeared in fantasy film Excalibur, a retelling of the legend of King Arthur and the knights of the Round Table. Helen goes topless in a memorable scene as villainous temptress Morgana, earning her a legion of fans.

'Enraging': The actress has often spoken about how reductive people's attitude towards women was in the early years of her career

Bedroom antics: Negligee-clad Helen puts on a passionate display in 1984 romantic drama Cal

7 – Cal

Helen gets passionate in between the sheets with John Lynch in 1984 romance Cal, playing a lonely widower who strikes up a doomed relationship with an Irish Republican Army member.

8 – The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover

In one of her most graphic roles, the iconic actress plays an adulterous wife who begins a torrid affair with the cook. Discussing the groundbreaking 1989 Peter Greenaway movie, Helen said at the time, ‘It is a dangerous film. It's deep and complex and we're not skating around any issues.’

Groundbreaking: The Oscar-winner plays an adulterous wife in 1989 Peter Greenaway film The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover

Feeling fruity: Helen reached a new generation when she went topless in popular 2003 comedy Calender Girls

9 – Calendar Girls

After a lengthy break, Helen gave a nod to her screen origins in the popular 2003 comedy about a group of Yorkshire women who produce a nude calendar for charity.

The film involves a classic scene in which she covers her modesty with nothing but a basket of fruit. Director Nigel Cole joked Helen was almost too comfortable on set, saying, ‘After one nude shoot, I recall having to tell Helen Mirren to put her robe back on three or four times'.

10 – Love Ranch

Love Ranch was the last time Helen, then 65, disrobed on screen. The steamy flick, directed by her husband Taylor Hackford, involved a racy sex scene with 35-year-old actor Sergio Peris-Mencheta.

She explained: ‘As you get older, naked stuff gets easier... more to do with the role than what men in the audience think. There’s a liberation about it.’

Fab at 63: Helen became a pin-up once again when photos were published of her looking incredible in a bright red bikini on holiday in 2008

11 – Iconic red bikini

Helen isn't just a sex symbol on the big screen. In 2008, the superstar graced the headlines when she emerged on the beach in Italy in a red bikini.

Fans labelled the actress, then 63, a timeless sex symbol and praised her for her amazing confidence and fabulous figure. She has since confessed the images will ‘haunt me forever’.

12 – Red carpet style

The Oscar-winning actress always keeps it classy on the red carpet, but has been known to update her sophisticated look with an occasional plunging neckline.

One thing that she never goes without, however, are her self confessed ‘stripper shoes’, describing the sexy footwear as her ‘secret weapon’.

Secret weapon: Helen, pictured at the Red 2 premiere in LA in July 2013, never hits the red carpet without her self-confessed 'stripper shoes'

13 – Twerking talent

Helen proved she was down with the youth of today when she showcased her impressive twerking skills on Live! With Kelly And Michael, giving Miley Cyrus a run for her money with her natural rhythm.

The down-to-earth actress’s danceathon has since racked up thousands of views on YouYube.

14 – Nude photoshoot in 2011

2011 officially marked Helen’s retirement from disrobing on camera, posing for one final hurrah in a racy New York magazine spread.

The actress appears topless in a bathtub in the arty Juergen Teller shoot, which naturally caused a stir online.

Helen - who was voted the World’s Sexiest Older Woman in 2007 and Body Of The Year in 2011 - has confirmed the shoot will be her last.

She joked: 'My pleasure pillows are purely for my husband'.