Exclusive Judi Dench: in childhood she loved to dance
Gallery of Judi Dench
College/University
Gallery of Judi Dench
1957
This is Judi Dench in 1957 when she was just 20 years old, and wow she has literally always been stunning.
Gallery of Judi Dench
Career
Gallery of Judi Dench
1968
British star of stage and screen
Gallery of Judi Dench
1968
British star of stage and screen
Gallery of Judi Dench
1972
At 37 Judi gave birth to a baby girl - Finty Williams at a London clinic.
Gallery of Judi Dench
1988
The much-loved actress became Dame Judi Dench in 1988 after being awarded a DBE from the queen.
Gallery of Judi Dench
1989
Dench played the part of Gertrude opposite Daniel Day-Lewis as Hamlet in the title role of the National Theatre's production of Hamlet in 1989.
Gallery of Judi Dench
1992
Dench famously played the part of Jean Hardcastle opposite Geoffrey Palmer as Lionel Hardcastle in the long-running TV comedy series, As Time Goes By.
Gallery of Judi Dench
2001
In 2001 film Iris, Judi played the lead role in the true story of the lifelong romance between novelist Iris Murdoch and her husband John Bayley, from their student days through her battle with Alzheimer's disease.
Gallery of Judi Dench
2010
London
Judi is seen here with her daughter Finty at the Globe Theatre in central London.
Gallery of Judi Dench
2010
She found new love in conservationist, David Mills and here the couple are seen with her daughter Finty and grandson Sammy Williams.
Gallery of Judi Dench
2012
Judi played the part of M from 1995 to 2012. Here she stands alongside James Bond played by Daniel Craig in 2012's Skyfall.
Gallery of Judi Dench
2012
In GoldenEye M is cold, blunt and initially dislikes Bond, whom she calls a "sexist, misogynist dinosaur, a relic of the Cold War."
Achievements
Membership
British Film Institute
2011
Royal Society of Arts
Awards
Academy Awards
Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences Awards
British Academy of Film and Television Arts Awards
In 2001 film Iris, Judi played the lead role in the true story of the lifelong romance between novelist Iris Murdoch and her husband John Bayley, from their student days through her battle with Alzheimer's disease.
Judi Dench, in full Dame Judith Olivia Dench is a British actress known for her numerous and varied stage roles and for her work in television and in a variety of films.
Background
Dench was born on December 9, 1934 in Heworth, North Riding of Yorkshire. Her mother, Eleanora Olive (née Jones), was born in Dublin, Ireland. Her father, Reginald Arthur Dench, a doctor, was born in Dorset, England, and later moved to Dublin, where he was brought up. He met Dench's mother while he was studying medicine at Trinity College, Dublin. Her brothers, one of whom was actor Jeffery Dench, were born in Tyldesley, Lancashire. Her niece, Emma Dench, is a historian of ancient Rome and professor previously at Birkbeck, University of London, and currently at Harvard University.
Through her parents, Dench had regular contact with the theatre. Her father, a physician, was also the GP for the York theatre, and her mother was its wardrobe mistress. Actors often stayed in the Dench household.
Education
Dench attended the Mount School, a Quaker independent secondary school in York.
Though she initially trained as a set designer, she became interested in drama school as her brother Jeff attended the Central School of Speech and Drama. She applied and was accepted by the School, then based at the Royal Albert Hall, London, where she was a classmate of Vanessa Redgrave, graduating and being awarded four acting prizes, including the Gold Medal as Outstanding Student.
In 1996, she was awarded a DUniv degree from Surrey University and in 2000–2001, she received an honorary DLitt degree from Durham University. On 24 June 2008, she was honoured by the University of St Andrews, receiving an honorary DLitt degree at the university's graduation ceremony. On 26 June 2013, she was honoured by the University of Stirling, receiving an honorary doctorate at the university's graduation ceremony in recognition of her outstanding contribution to the Arts, particularly to film. On 22 July 2010, Dench was awarded an honorary degree of Doctor of Letters (DLitt) by Nottingham Trent University.
In 1957 she gave her first important critically acclaimed performance, as Ophelia in the Old Vic production of Hamlet. The following year she made her Broadway debut in Twelfth Night. Her performance as Lady Macbeth in the Royal Shakespeare Company’s Macbeth (1977) earned her a Laurence Olivier Award from the Society of West End Theatre Managers (now the Society of London Theatre). It was her first of eight Olivier Awards; she also won for Juno and the Paycock (1980), Pack of Lies (1983), Antony and Cleopatra (1987), Absolute Hell (1996), A Little Night Music (1996), and The Winter’s Tale (2016), and in 2004 she received a special Olivier Award.
From the beginning of her career, Dench frequently acted on television, in adaptations of plays as well as in series. Among her notable credits were two romantic comedy series that aired on the BBC: A Fine Romance (1981–84), which she starred in with her husband, Michael Williams, whom she had married in 1971 and who died in 2001; and As Time Goes By (1992–2005). She later starred in the BBC miniseries Cranford (2007–09), based on works by Elizabeth Gaskell.
After making her big-screen debut in the crime drama The Third Secret (1964), Dench acted in such films as A Room with a View (1985) and A Handful of Dust (1988). She took the role of James Bond’s boss, M, in GoldenEye (1995)—the first of several Bond movies in which she appeared—and subsequently played two British queens, the recently widowed Queen Victoria in Mrs. Brown (1997) and Queen Elizabeth I in the comedy Shakespeare in Love (1998). For her role as Elizabeth I, she won an Academy Award for best supporting actress, and, for that of Queen Victoria, she won an Academy Award nomination and the Golden Globe Award for best actress in a drama. Additional Oscar nominations for best actress came for her portrayals of British writer Iris Murdoch in Iris (2001), an eccentric theatre owner in Mrs. Henderson Presents (2005), and the lonely teacher Barbara Covett in Notes on a Scandal (2006).
After appearing in the musical Nine (2009), Dench played Mrs. Fairfax in Jane Eyre (2011), an adaptation of the Charlotte Brontë novel. In Clint Eastwood’s biopic J. Edgar (2011), she portrayed the mother of J. Edgar Hoover (played by Leonardo DiCaprio), and, in the drama My Week with Marilyn (2011), she appeared as actress Sybil Thorndike. She was featured in The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (2011) and its 2015 sequel, both of which concern the comic hijinks of a group of British retirees in India. Dench also starred alongside Steve Coogan in Philomena (2013), based on the true story of a woman’s search for a child she had given up for adoption in her youth. She earned another Oscar nomination for best actress for her work on that film. In 2015 Dench paired with Dustin Hoffman in a BBC adaptation of Roald Dahl’s Esio Trot (1990), and the following year she had a cameo in Tim Burton’s Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children. Dench then reprised the role of Queen Victoria in Victoria and Abdul (2017), which follows the aging monarch’s unlikely friendship with a young servant from India named Abdul Karim. That year she also was part of an all-star cast in Murder on the Orient Express, an adaptation of Agatha Christie’s 1933 novel.
While attending a Quaker independent secondary school in York, she became a Quaker. In 2013, she spoke about her personal religious faith. Dench, a Quaker, said, "I think it informs everything I do ... I couldn't be without it."
Politics
Dench was one of 200 celebrities to sign an open letter to the people of Scotland asking them to vote No to independence, published in August 2014, a few weeks before the Scottish referendum.
Judi Dench went on BBC Radio 4's Today programme and sounded off against Brexit.
Views
Dench has worked with the non-governmental indigenous organisation, Survival International, campaigning in the defence of the tribal people - the San of Botswana and the Arhuaco of Colombia. She made a small supporting video saying the San are victims of tyranny, greed, and racism. Dench is also a patron of the Karuna Trust, a charity that supports work amongst some of India's poorest and most oppressed people, mainly, though not exclusively, Dalits.
Dench has been critical of prejudice in the movie industry against older actresses. She stated in 2014, "I'm tired of being told I'm too old to try something. I should be able to decide for myself if I can't do things and not have someone tell me I'll forget my lines or I'll trip and fall on the set"; and "Age is a number. It's something imposed on you ... It drives me absolutely spare when people say, 'Are you going to retire? Isn't it time you put your feet up?' Or tell me (my) age."
Quotations:
“I don't think anybody can be told how to act. I think you can give advice. But you have to find your own way through it.”
“I think you should take your job seriously, but not yourself - that is the best combination.”
“Most things don't work out as expected, but what happens instead often turns out to be the good stuff.”
“There's nothing good about being my age.”
“The need for a global structure of control in the form of a world environment court is now more urgent than ever before.”
“The more I do, the more frightened I get. But that is essential. Otherwise, why would I go on doing it?”
“The theater is the thing I love doing most.”
“In the theater you can change things ever so slightly; it's an organic thing. Whereas in film you only have that chance on the day, and you have no control over it at all.”
“It is not good to cross the bridge before you get to it.”
Membership
In June 2011, she became a fellow of the British Film Institute (BFI).
Dench is an Honorary Fellow of Lucy Cavendish College, Cambridge.
Dench is also a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts (FRSA).
British Film Institute
2011
Royal Society of Arts
Personality
Judi Dench has the soul of an artist. She is extremely sensitive, perceptive, and a bit shy. These qualities are both her strengths and weaknesses, for while Dench possesses enormous sensitivity to her feelings and those of others, that same sensitivity can cause her to hold back and repress her considerable talents. Sensitivity and perceptiveness are among Dench's many fine qualities.
Physical Characteristics:
In early 2012, Dench discussed her macular degeneration, with one eye "dry" and the other "wet", for which she has been treated with injections into the eye. She said that she needs someone to read scripts to her. She also underwent knee surgery in 2013, but stated that she recovered from the procedure well, and: "It's not an issue for me."
Height: 155 cm (5 feet 1 inch)
Weight: 53 kg (116 lbs)
Quotes from others about the person
According to the reviewer for London Evening Standard, Dench had "talent which will be shown to better advantage when she acquires some technique to go with it."
Connections
On 5 February 1971, Dench married British actor Michael Williams. They had their only child, Tara Cressida Frances Williams, an actress known professionally as Finty Williams, on 24 September 1972. Dench and her husband starred together in several stage productions and on the Bob Larbey British television sitcom, A Fine Romance (1981–84). Michael Williams died from lung cancer in 2001, aged 65. They have one grandchild, Finty's son Sam Williams (born in 1997).
Dench has been in a relationship with conservationist David Mills since 2010. During a 2014 interview with The Times magazine, she discussed how she never expected to find love again after her husband's death, "I wasn't even prepared to be ready for it. It was very, very gradual and grown up ... It's just wonderful."
1997, Mrs Brown - Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama
2000, The Last of the Blonde Bombshells - Best Performance by an Actress in a Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for TV
1997, Mrs Brown - Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama
2000, The Last of the Blonde Bombshells - Best Performance by an Actress in a Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for TV