The Crown's talented cast and period-drama allures have made it one of Netflix's most successful shows in recent memory, with two more seasons on the way. Since The Crown's characters are based on real people, it was necessary from the start to find actors who could convincingly pull off the show's long lineup of famous historical figures. One of the most important ingredients in this is height, specifically how tall the actors are compared to their real-life counterparts.
In casting the series' principal characters across its four-season run, The Crown has ended up with a wide variety of actors both short and tall; these ones all lean favorably into one of those two sides. Unless otherwise stated, all heights for both actors and royalty are taken from their IMDb bios.
SHORTEST: Helena Bonham Carter (5'2")
Helena Bonham Carter plays Queen Elizabeth II's sister, Princess Margaret, in seasons three and four of The Crown (taking over the role from Vanessa Kirby). Bonham Carter stands at just 5'2", making her the shortest actor in the show's cast, but a perfect fit for the role of Princess Margaret, who was 5'1".
The Crown wasn't Bonham Carter's first time playing British royalty; her performance as Queen Elizabeth in Tom Hopper's The King's Speech netted her an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress.
SHORTEST: Gillian Anderson (5'3")
Gillian Anderson, who plays British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in the newest season of The Crown, is just 5'3" tall. Thatcher herself was slightly taller, standing at about 5' 5", but Anderson's excellent performance more than makes up for the insignificant height dissimilarity.
Anderson is best known for her role as Agent Dana Scully on Fox's The X-Files, but more recently she's earned critical praise for her appearances in American Gods and Netflix's Sex Education.
SHORTEST: Claire Foy (5'4")
Claire Foy, who played Queen Elizabeth II for The Crown's first two seasons, was thrust into the spotlight by the show's unexpected success. She stands at 5'4", the same height as the Queen herself.
Despite being a fairly new star, she's already earned critical praise for her roles in the films First Man and The Girl in the Spider's Web.
SHORTEST: Victoria Hamilton (5'4")
Victoria Hamilton played the role of Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother for two seasons of The Crown, although the actual Queen Elizabeth was somewhat shorter, coming in at 5'2" compared to Hamilton's 5'4".
Hamilton has stayed fairly under-the-radar for most of her career, but she did have a memorable role as Queen Victoria in the BBC's 2001 TV miniseries Victoria & Albert.
SHORTEST: Lia Williams (5'5")
The Crown cast English actress Lia Williams as Wallis Simpson, the Duchess of Windsor. Though Williams is 5'5" tall while the Duchess herself was only 5'2", the height difference isn't too noticeable, thanks to the show's incredible cinematography and Williams's captivating performance.
The actress has several previous theatre and television credits, including a 2016 adaptation of the play Mary Stuart that found her taking on the roles of both Mary, Queen of Scots and Queen Elizabeth I.
TALLEST: Alex Jennings (6'2")
Alex Jennings was cast as Edward VIII, The Duke of Windsor, on The Crown, though his height of 6'2" makes him noticeably taller than the former monarch he's portraying, who was only 5'7".
Jennings is more than fit to play royalty, however; his previous roles include parts as Prince Charles (in the 2006 Academy-Award-winner The Queen, which was written by The Crown's Peter Morgan) and as Leopold I of Belgium (in the PBS series Victoria).
TALLEST: Jeremy Northam (6'2")
Standing at 6'2", actor Jeremy Northam is about two inches taller than the historical figure he portrayed on The Crown, politician Anthony Eden.
Northam is probably most recognized for his performance as George Knightley opposite Gwyneth Paltrow's Emma Woodhouse in the 1996 Jane Austen adaptation Emma.
TALLEST: Matthew Goode (6'2")
The Crown's Matthew Goode earned a Primetime Emmy nom for his role as Princess Margaret's husband, 1st Earl of Snowdon Antony Armstrong-Jones. Goode, at 6'2", is nearly nine inches taller than the Earl was (according to the New York Times), but given the strength of his performance, he should be allowed to bend the rules of historical accuracy at least somewhat.
Though The Crown could be described as his biggest role yet, his other famous vehicles include the psychological thriller Stoker and the biographical drama The Imitation Game.
TALLEST: Charles Dance (6'3")
Charles Dance plays Lord Mountbatten on The Crown. Though Dance's 6'3" stature makes him taller than the 5'11" viceroy, he's a prolific-enough actor to be able to carry a role without fitting into the character's shoes, so to speak.
Most recently, Dance has been seen as Tywin Lannister on HBO's hit series Game of Thrones, and as Justice Wargrave on the BBC One adaptation of Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None.
TALLEST: John Lithgow (6'4")
John Lithgow has had a storied film career for nearly four decades. In the '80s, he earned two Academy Award nominations for his roles in The World According to Garp and Terms of Endearment.
More recently, the 6'4" actor has been seen in the television series Dexter, the Christopher Nolan film Insterstellar, and, of course, The Crown, in which he plays 5'6" British Prime Minister Winston Churchill (surprisingly, it works).