Helen Mirren Plays The Queen for Boy with Cancer

Helen Mirren is not only a top-notch actress, she's obviously a compassionate person as well.

According to the fw.com, when she heard that a little boy struggling with terminal cancer had asked the Queen if he could visit her at Buckingham Palace (the Queen declined), Mirren made his dream come true anyway.

She's currently playing Queen Elizabeth II on stage in London, so she invited 10-year-old Oliver Burton (who suffers from Down's sydndrome and spine and bone marrow cancer) and his family backstage after the show.

Mirren (as the Queen) had footmen serve tea and cakes. She even “knighted” the boy and introduced him to her Corgis.

“She stayed in character for the whole thing. Oliver thought she was the real Queen, and, well, that’s good enough for us,” said Burton’s father James Brown.

 A class act of kindness from a class act. :-)