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Dame Judith Olivia Dench, CH, DBE, FRSA, (born
9 December 1934), usually known as Dame Judi Dench, is an Academy Award, Golden Globe, Tony, three-time BAFTA, and six-time Laurence Olivier Award-winning English actress.
In Britain, Dench has developed a reputation as one of the greatest actresses
of the post-war period, primarily through her work in theatre, which has been
her main forte throughout her career. She has more than once been named number
one in polls for Britain's best actress.[1][2] Furthermore, she
gained worldwide popular fame through taking over the role of M in the James Bond film series in
1995, and subsequently through many acclaimed film appearances.
In 2006 Dench became president of Mountview Academy of Theatre
Arts in London, taking over from Sir John Mills; she is also president of the Questors Theatre.
In May 2006 she became an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society
of Arts.
Biography
Early life
Judi Dench was born in in Yorkshire, England to Olave (née Jones) and Reginald Arthur Dench
and was raised a Quaker. She also lived in Tyldesley,Greater
Manchester. Her notable relatives include Emma Dench, eminent Roman
historian previously at Birkbeck, University of
London.[3], and currently at Harvard University, Cambridge, MA. When Dench was thirteen, she
entered The Mount School, York.
Before starting her professional career, Judi Dench was involved in the first
three productions of the modern revival of the York Mystery Plays in the 1950s. Most
famously, she played the role of the Virgin Mary in the 1957 production, performed on a fixed stage in the Museum
Gardens.[4]
Career
She received her dramatic training at the Central School of Speech and
Drama in London and made her
professional debut as Ophelia in Hamlet in Liverpool in 1957. She subsequently spent
several seasons in repertory in Oxford
and Nottingham. In 1961, she
joined the Royal Shakespeare Company and made
numerous appearances with the company in Stratford and London over the next two
decades, winning several best actress awards. Among her roles with the RSC, she
was the Duchess in John
Webster's The Duchess of Malfi in 1971.
Dench has also made numerous appearances in the West End and with the National Theatre in
London. She is a multiple winner of the main awards for performances on the
London stage, including a record six Laurence Olivier Awards. She has also
appeared with success on Broadway in Amy's View, and has occasionally
directed plays.
In 1995 she became known to a worldwide audience after taking over the role
of 'M' (James Bond's boss) in the James Bond films. It could be argued that she
helped revigorate the franchise with her interpretation of the role.
As she enters her seventies, Dame Judi remains probably the biggest draw on
the London stage. She is often compared and contrasted with Dame Maggie Smith, another
British actress of the same generation, with whom she has appeared in several
movies, including the 2004 Ladies in Lavender, and on stage in David Hare's two-hander Breath
of Life. Dench returned to the West End stage in April 2006 in Hay Fever alongside Peter Bowles, Belinda Lang and Kim Medcalf. She finished off a
busy 2006 with the role of Mistress Quickly in the RSC's new musical The
Merry Wives, a version of The Merry Wives of Windsor.[5]
at Stratford-upon-Avon. Her many television appearances include lead roles in
the series As Time Goes By and A
Fine Romance.
Dench has frequently appeared with her close friend Geoffrey Palmer, in the series
As Time Goes By and in the
films Mrs. Brown and
Tomorrow
Never Dies, both filmed in 1997. Dench also voiced the character Miss
Lilly in the children's animated series Angelina Ballerina, where her
daughter, Finty Williams, voices the title character.
Dench won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for playing Elizabeth
I in the film Shakespeare in Love. Dench's Oscar win
is made notable with her performance time totaling just over eight minutes.
Dench's more recent film career has been remarkably successful. She has
racked up six Oscar
nominations in nine years for Mrs
Brown in 1997, her Oscar-winning turn in Shakespeare in Love in
1998, for Chocolat in 2000, for the lead
role of writer Iris
Murdoch in Iris in 2001 (with Kate Winslet playing her as a
younger woman), for Mrs Henderson Presents in 2005, and
for Notes on a Scandal in
2006.
In 2006, Dench received critical acclaim, including Golden Globe, Screen Actors Guild and Academy Award nominations,
for her fierce performance in Notes on a Scandal.
Dench stars in the forthcoming BBC One mini-series Cranford, and in 2009 she will
appear in the Donmar
Warehouse's production of Madame De Sade.
Personal life
In 1971 Dench married British actor Michael Williams and they had
their only child, Tara Cressida Williams (aka "Finty Williams"), on 24 September, 1972. Finty Williams has gone on to
sustain the family's artistic genius by becoming an accomplished actress in her
own right. Dame Judi starred with her husband in the 1980s British sitcom, A Fine
Romance. Michael Williams died of lung cancer, at age 65, in 2001. She is a patron of
The Leaveners, Friends School Saffron Walden and
the Archway Theatre, Horley, UK.
Dench was awarded the OBE in 1970, became a
Dame Commander of the British
Empire in 1988, and a Companion of Honour in 2005.
In 2000-2001 she received an Honorary DLitt from Durham University.
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