50 ‘The Crown’ Characters With Their Real-Life Counterparts

Claire Foy plays Queen Elizabeth II in the first two seasons of The Crown. From perfecting the queen’s accent to mirroring veritable fashion and political moments (like this dance with Ghanaian president Kwame Nkrumah during a royal visit in 1961), Foy has captured the essence of the monarch with grace and strength.

Golden-Globe winner Olivia Colman will be taking over the anticipated role of Queen Elizabeth II starting in season 3, which will follow the queen as she ages into her 50s. The British actress is best known for her roles in The Favourite and Broadchurch.

When it comes to playing Prince Philip, Matt Smith (of Doctor Who fame) can thank his stature: Both he and Queen Elizabeth’s husband stand at a regal six feet tall. And while he has met Prince Harry twice in real life, Smith has yet to get the Duke of Edinburgh’s opinion of his onscreen performance firsthand. Why? According to Smith, it’s because Prince Philip is “too cool. He’s too cool for school.”

As the show moves on to a new era, English actor Tobias Menzies will take over the role of Prince Philip. After news of the casting broke, Menzies said in a statement, “I’m thrilled to be joining the new cast of The Crown and to be working with Olivia Colman again. I look forward to becoming ‘liege man of life and limb.’”

Played by English actress Victoria Hamilton, whose résumé includes episodes of Pride & Prejudice (the BBC one with Colin Firth) and Call the Midwife, the Queen Mother was a constant rock for Elizabeth at Buckingham Palace and beyond. In real life, the Queen Mother, who was the longest-lived member of the British royal family (and always one of the more popular royals), lived until the age of 101. She died in her sleep on March 30, 2002, just weeks after Princess Margaret passed away.

As the characters age in The Crown, Marion Bailey will be taking over for Victoria Hamilton as the Queen Mother. Bailey’s résumé includes a movie adaptation of Jane Austen’s Persuasion, as well as Allied, which stars Brad Pitt and Marion Cotillard.

Perhaps best known for playing Lane Pryce on Mad Men, British actor Jared Harris was the face of Elizabeth’s father, King George VI, on season 1 of The Crown (along with a flashback episode in season 2). George VI’s reign famously began in 1936 when his brother Edward abdicated the throne and married American socialite Wallis Simpson. In 1952, following the stresses of World War I and a long battle with lung cancer and other illnesses, the king died in his sleep at the age of 56 while the future Queen Elizabeth was on an official royal tour of Australia and Kenya.

Vanessa Kirby plays Princess Margaret, whose love life provided two key story lines on both seasons of The Crown. Following her doomed relationship with Group Captain Peter Townsend, which was forbidden by the Church of England given Townsend’s status as a divorcé, Margaret fell in love with photographer Tony Armstrong-Jones. Their wedding at Westminster Abbey in 1960 was the first royal wedding to be televised.

Helena Bonham Carter will be taking over the role of rebellious Princess Margaret in the next couple seasons. Once the news was released, the actress stated, “I’m not sure which I’m more terrified about—doing justice to the real Princess Margaret or following in the shoes of Vanessa Kirby’s Princess Margaret.” Which … fair.

Played by English actor Ben Miles, Peter Townsend led a rather impressive professional life as an officer with the Royal Air Force. For nearly 10 years, he was also an equerry (which is pretty much a fancy way of saying "personal attendant") for the British royal family, serving under both King George VI and the Queen Mother. His personal life was rather dramatic. As shown on season 1, Townsend divorced his first wife, proposed to Princess Margaret, and shortly thereafter, he was sent to serve as an air attaché in Brussels. (BTW, an air attaché just means an Air Force officer who is part of a diplomatic mission.) On season 2, Townsend is shown writing a letter to Margaret to announce his engagement to a young Belgian woman. That woman would be Marie-Luce Jamagne, with whom Townsend would have one daughter.

Where does actor Matthew Goode end and the real Tony Armstrong-Jones begin? The photographer who won Princess Margaret’s heart made history when he became the first commoner in 400 years to marry into the royal family. During their nearly 20 years of marriage, Margaret and Armstrong-Jones (who later became the 1st Earl of Snowdon) raised their two children and endured endless headlines about their infidelities (on both sides), all while attempting to live their best lives in the most unconventional of settings. Following their divorce, Armstrong-Jones continued to maintain a professional relationship with the royal family, photographing Queen Elizabeth, Princess Grace of Monaco, and Princess Diana over the years. His nonroyal subjects were just as impressive—Elizabeth Taylor, David Bowie, Laurence Olivier, and J.R.R. Tolkien all posed for Snowdon at one point or another.

Ben Daniels, most known for his roles in Jesus Christ Superstar Live, House of Cards, and Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, will be playing the 1st Earl of Snowdon in the next two seasons. Season 3 will continue to follow the complicated relationship between him and Princess Margaret.

As the show moves into the later years of Queen Elizabeth’s life, new royal drama will play out—such as the much-examined relationship between Elizabeth’s son Prince Charles and Princess Diana. While Lady Di won’t appear on The Crown until season 4, Netflix has already cast newcomer Emma Corrin in the role. Corrin said of the part, “Princess Diana was an icon and her effect on the world remains profound and inspiring. To explore her through Peter Morgan’s writing is the most exceptional opportunity and I will strive to do her justice.”

On season 2 of The Crown, Alice Hewkin plays Jacqui Chan, an actress and dancer who dated Tony Armstrong-Jones for years. According to Armstrong-Jones’s biographer, Anne de Courcy, Chan was “Tony’s first real love” and was even invited to his and Princess Margaret’s wedding. The scene of Chan getting ready for the wedding while staring at an old photograph of her and Armstrong-Jones in episode 7, “Matrimonium,” is both chilling and emotional, a far cry from the steamier, intense moments she shares with Armstrong-Jones earlier in the episode.

If The Crown’s Louis Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma, looks familiar, it’s probably because the actor Greg Wise played Willoughby in Sense and Sensibility. (Fun fact: Sense and Sansibility also starred the great Emma Thompson, who happens to be Wise’s wife of nearly 15 years.) In real life (and as shown on The Crown), Prince Philip’s Uncle “Dickie” became a great mentor to Philip and Queen Elizabeth’s son, Prince Charles. Tragically, though, the mentorship ended in 1979 when Mountbatten and members of his family were assassinated by the Provisional IRA while the group was fishing in Ireland. Mountbatten received a ceremonial funeral at Westminster Abbey, which included a reading from Prince Charles.

German actress Leonie Beseech plays Prince Philip’s older sister, Princess Cecilie of Greece and Denmark. As shown in “Paterfamilias” (season 2, episode 9), Cecilie, her husband, their two children, and her mother-in-law were killed in a plane crash in 1937 when the group set off from Germany to attend a family wedding in London. Cecilie was eight months pregnant at the time of the crash.

In case you thought this was Alex Jennings’ first time channeling the royal fam, you are mistaken. The English actor played Prince Charles in the 2006 film The Queen, which starred Dame Helen Mirren as the eponymous role. On The Crown, Jennings is equally excellent as David, Duke of Windsor, who famously abdicated the throne in 1936 to marry his American lover, Wallis Simpson. It was a risky and scandalous move but one that was probably worth it: The Duke and Duchess of Windsor were married for 35 years, until the Duke’s death in 1972.

“I thought [King Edward VIII] was ahead of his time. I thought he had pep. I thought he wanted to establish things that the world was not ready for,” Wallis Simpon, the Duchess of Windsor, told the BBC in a 1970 interview. Thirty-two years prior, the American socialite’s relationship with King Edward VIII changed the British royal family forever. Edward abdicated the throne to be with Wallis, which paved the way for King George VI and later Queen Elizabeth II. It was also pretty controversial because Wallis had been married previously. Together, the Duke and Duchess of Windsor (played by English actress Lia Williams on The Crown) lived a life of leisure, hanging with their many pugs (see next slide) and hosting dinner parties all over the world. Wallis died in 1986, some 14 years after the Duke of Windsor’s death.

Between the many pug pillows and the pugs themselves, The Crown has been diligent in its portrayal of one particularly cuddly aspect of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor’s life of luxury. Over the years, the couple’s grumble of pugs included Disraeli, Davey Crockett, Black Diamond, Imp, Ginseng, and arguably the cutest one of them all, Trooper, whose birthday is featured in “Vergangenheit” (season 2, episode 6). [Editor’s note: A group of pugs is called a “grumble.” Cutely ironic, eh?] The episode technically focuses on the Duke of Windsor allegedly being a Nazi sympathizer, but also … pug faces!

Lyla Barrett-Rye plays Princess Anne (the daughter of Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip) from age 7 through 13. Princess Anne is one of the more philanthropic members of the royal family, serving as patron for more than 200 organizations, including Save the Children, St. Andrew’s First Aid, and the Royal National Children’s Foundation.