Judi Dench

Judi Dench
Dench at the 2007 BAFTAs
Born	Judith Olivia Dench
Spouse(s)	Michael Williams (1971-2001)

Dame Judith Olivia Dench, CH, DBE, FRSA, (born December 9, 1934), usually known as Dame Judi Dench, is an English actress. She has won nine BAFTAs, six Laurence Olivier Awards, two Screen Actors Guild Awards, an Academy Award, a Golden Globe and a Tony.

Personal life

Judi Dench was born in York, North Riding of Yorkshire, the daughter of Eleanora Olave (née Jones), a native of Dublin, and Reginald Arthur Dench, a doctor who met Judi's mother while studying medicine at Trinity College. Dench was raised a Quaker and lived in Tyldesley, Greater Manchester. Notable relatives include her older brother, actor Jeffery Dench, and her niece, Emma Dench, a Roman historian previously at Birkbeck, University of London, and currently at Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts.

When Dench was 13, she entered The Mount School, York. In 1971, Dench married British actor Michael Williams and they had their only child, Tara Cressida Williams (aka "Finty Williams"), on September 24, 1972. She has followed the family's theatrical tradition, becoming an accomplished actress in her own right.

Dench and her husband starred together in several stage productions, as well as separately, but then paired again to make television history with Bob Larbey's hit British sitcom, A Fine Romance (1981–84).

Michael Williams died from lung cancer in 2001, aged 65.

In Laurence Olivier's autobiography Confessions of an Actor (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1982) he describes her as 'the scrumptious Judi Dench'.

Public life

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 forte throughout her career. She has more than once been named number one in polls for Britain's best actress. Research to find "the perfect voice" has indicated that Dench's voice is one of the best.

Dench was awarded the OBE in 1970, became a Dame Commander of the British Empire in 1988, and a Companion of Honour in 2005. She gained worldwide popular fame after taking over the role of M in the James Bond film series in 1995, and subsequently through many acclaimed film appearances.

Dench is a patron of The Leaveners, Friends School Saffron Walden and the Archway Theatre, Horley, UK. She became president of Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts in London in 2006, taking over from Sir John Mills, and is also president of the Questors Theatre. In May 2006, she became an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.

Dench is an Honorary Fellow of Lucy Cavendish College, Cambridge. In 2000-2001 she received an Honorary DLitt from Durham University. On June 24, 2008, she was honoured by the University of St Andrews, receiving the honorary degree of Doctor of Letters (D.Litt) at the university's graduation ceremony.

Career

20^th Century

Before starting her professional career, Judi Dench trained for the stage at the Central School of Speech Training and Dramatic Art, and 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.

In September 1957, she made her first professional stage appearance with the Old Vic Company, at the Royal Court Theatre, Liverpool, as Ophelia in Hamlet, then her London debut in the same production at the Old Vic. She remained a member of the company for four seasons, 1957-1961, her roles including Katherine in Henry V in 1958 (which was also her New York debut) and as Juliet in Romeo and Juliet in October 1960, directed and designed by Franco Zeffirelli. During this period, she toured the United States and Canada, and appeared in Yugoslavia and at the Edinburgh Festival.

She joined the Royal Shakespeare Company in December 1961 playing Anya in The Cherry Orchard at the Aldwych Theatre in London, and made her Stratford-upon-Avon debut in April 1962 as Isabella in Measure for Measure. She subsequently spent seasons in repertory both with Nottingham Playhouse from January 1963 (including a West African tour as Lady Macbeth for the British Council), and with the Oxford Playhouse Company from April 1964.

In 1968, she was offered the role of Sally Bowles in the musical Cabaret. As Sheridan Morley later reported: "At first she thought they were joking. She had never done a musical and she has an unusual croaky voice which sounds as if she has a permanent cold. So frightened was she of singing in public that she auditioned from the wings, leaving the pianists alone on stage". But when it opened at the Palace Theatre in February 1968, Frank Marcus, reviewing for Plays and Players, commented that: "She sings well. The title song in particular is projected with great feeling."

After a long run in Cabaret, she rejoined the RSC making 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. In the Stratford 1976 season, and then at the Aldwych in 1977, she gave two comedy performances, first in Trevor Nunn's musical staging of The Comedy of Errors as Adriana, then partnered with Donald Sinden as Beatrice and Benedick in John Barton's "British Raj" revival of Much Ado About Nothing. As Bernard Levin wrote in the Sunday Times: "...demonstrating once more that she is a comic actress of consummate skill, perhaps the very best we have."

But one of her most notable achievements with the RSC was her performance as Lady Macbeth in 1976. Nunn's acclaimed production of Macbeth was first staged with a minimalist design at The Other Place theatre in Stratford. Its small round stage focused attention on the psychological dynamics of the characters, and both Ian McKellen in the title role, and Dench, received exceptionally favourable notices. "If this is not great acting I don't know what is.": Michael Billington, The Guardian. "It will astonish me if the performance is matched by any in this actress's generation.": J C Trewin, The Lady. The production transferred to London, opening at the Donmar Warehouse in September 1977, was filmed for television, and later released on VHS and finally DVD. She won the SWET Best Actress Award in 1977.

She enjoyed a romantic pairing with Jeremy Irons in 1978, in the BBC television film Langrishe, Go Down, with a screenplay by Harold Pinter, directed by David Jones, in which she played one of three spinster sisters living in a fading Irish mansion in the Waterford countryside.

Dench made her directing debut in 1988 with the Renaissance Theatre Company's touring season, Renaissance Shakespeare on the Road, co-produced with the Birmingham Rep, and ending with a three month repertory programme at the Phoenix Theatre in London. Dench's contribution was a staging of Much Ado About Nothing, set in the Napoleonic era, which starred Kenneth Branagh and Samantha Bond as Benedick and Beatrice. In the same season, Geraldine McEwan and Derek Jacobi also made their directorial debuts.

She has made numerous appearances in the West End including the role of Miss Trant in the 1974 musical version of The Good Companions at Her Majesty's Theatre. In 1981, Dench was due to play the title role of Grizabella in the original production of Cats, but was forced to pull out due to a torn Achilles tendon, leaving Elaine Paige to play the role. She has acted with the National Theatre in London where, in September 1995, she played Desiree Armfeldt in a major revival of Stephen Sondheim's A Little Night Music, for which she won an Olivier Award.

In 1995, she became known to an international audience after taking over the role of M (James Bond's boss) with the James Bond film series, starting with GoldenEye. She is one of the few actors from Pierce Brosnan's Bond films to remain in the rebooted franchise. She has appeared in 2006's Casino Royale and has been confirmed to be continuing the role in Quantum of Solace, which is scheduled to be released in November of 2008.

She has won multiple awards for performances on the London stage, including a record six Laurence Olivier Awards. She also won the Tony award for her 1999 Broadway performance in the role of Esme Allen in David Hare's Amy's View. Alongside her numerous award winning performances, she has also managed to take on the role of Director for a number of stage productions. Dench won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress as Elizabeth I in the film Shakespeare in Love.

Judi 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. Judi Dench has also lent her incredible voice to many animated characters, narrations, and various other voice work. She plays the role of "Miss Lilly" in the children's animated series Angelina Ballerina (alongside her daughter, Finty Williams, as the voice of Angelina) and of as Mrs. Calloway in the Disney animated film Home on the Range. She has narrated various classical music recordings (notably Mendelssohn's A Midsummer Night's Dream, and Britten's Canticles-The Heart of the Matter), and has appeared in numerous BBC radio broadcasts as well as commercials. Her many television appearances include lead roles in the series A Fine Romance and As Time Goes By.

21^st Century

Dench remains one of the biggest draws 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-role play Breath of Life (Haymarket, October 2002). 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. at Stratford-upon-Avon.

Dench's more recent film career has been extremely successful. She successfully garnered six Academy Award nominations in nine years for Mrs Brown in 1997; her Oscar-winning turn as Elizabeth I 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 (a romanticised history of the Windmill Theatre) in 2005; and for 2006's Notes on a Scandal, a film for which she received critical acclaim, including Golden Globe, Academy Award, BAFTA and Screen Actors Guild nominations. At the end of 2006 Dench worked pro bono to record information announcements for Tramlink.

In 2007 the BBC issued The Judi Dench Collection, DVDs of eight television dramas: Talking to a Stranger quartet (1966), Keep an Eye on Amélie (1973), The Cherry Orchard (1981), Going Gently (1981), Ghosts (with Kenneth Branagh and Michael Gambon, 1987), Make and Break (with Robert Hardy, 1987), Can You Hear Me Thinking? (co-starring with her husband, Michael Williams, 1990) and Absolute Hell (1991).

Dench, as Miss Matty Jenkins, co-stars with Eileen Atkins, Michael Gambon, Imelda Staunton and Francesca Annis, in the BBC One five-part series Cranford. The series began transmission in the UK in November 2007, and on the BBC's US producing partner station WGBH (PBS Boston) in spring 2008.

Dench narrated the updated Walt Disney World Epcot attraction Spaceship Earth.

In February 2008, she was named as the first official patron of the York Youth Mysteries 2008, a project to allow young people to explore the York Mystery Plays through dance, film-making and circus. This will culminate on 21st June with a day of city centre performances in York.

She is currently also working on the 22nd Bond adventure Quantum Of Solace and is reprising her role as M.

She is also interested in horse racing and in partnership with her chauffeur Bryan Agar owns a four-year-old horse "Smokey Oakey".

She will return to the West End from 13 March—23 May, 2009 in Yukio Mishima's Madame De Sade, directed by Michael Grandage as part of the Donmar season at Wyndham's Theatre.

Filmography

Year	Film	Role	Other notes
1964	The Third Secret	Miss Humphries
1965	Four in the Morning	Wife
	A Study in Terror	Sally
	He Who Rides a Tiger	Joanne
1968	A Midsummer Night's Dream	Titania
1973	Luther	Katherine
1974	Dead Cert	Laura Davidson
1978	Langrishe, Go Down	Imogen Langrishe	(BBC TV film)
1985	The Angelic Conversation	(narrator)
	Wetherby	Marcia Pilborough
	A Room with a View	Eleanor Lavish
1987	84 Charing Cross Road	Nora Doel
1988	A Handful of Dust	Mrs. Beaver
1989	Henry V	Mistress Quickly
	Behaving Badly	Bridget Mayor	Channel 4 television serial
1995	Jack and Sarah	Margaret
	GoldenEye	M
1996	Hamlet	Hecuba
1997	Mrs. Brown	Queen Victoria	Best Actress Oscar nomination Best Actress BAFTA Best Actress Drama Golden Globe
	Tomorrow Never Dies	M
1998	Shakespeare in Love	Queen Elizabeth	Best Supporting Actress Oscar
1999	Tea with Mussolini	Arabella
	The World Is Not Enough	M
2000	Into the Arms of Strangers: Stories of the Kindertransport	(narrator)	(documentary)
	The Last of the Blonde Bombshells	Elizabeth	(TV)
	Chocolat	Armande Voizin	Best Supporting Actress Oscar nomination
2001	Iris	Iris Murdoch	Best Actress Oscar nomination Best Actress BAFTA
	The Shipping News	Agnis Hamm
2002	The Importance of Being Earnest	Lady Augusta Bracknell
	Die Another Day	M
2003	Bugs!	(narrator)	(short subject)
2004	Home on the Range	Mrs. Caloway	(voice)
	The Chronicles of Riddick	Aereon
	Ladies in Lavender	Ursula
2005	Pride & Prejudice	Lady Catherine de Bourg
	Mrs Henderson Presents	Mrs. Laura Henderson	Best Actress Oscar nomination
2006	Doogal	(narrator)
	Casino Royale	M
	Notes on a Scandal	Barbara Covett	Best Actress Oscar nomination
2007	Go Inside to Greet the Light	(narrator)
2008	Quantum of Solace	M	filming
2009	Nine	TBA	pre-production
2010	Bond 23	M	announced

She has also lent her likeness, and sometimes her voice, for the role of M in four James Bond video games:

• Everything or Nothing
• GoldenEye: Rogue Agent

Selected discography

• Cabaret (1968), Original London cast album CBS (1973)
• The Good Companions (1974), Original London cast recording (1974)
• A Midsummer Night's Dream (1995); from Felix Mendelssohn as Recitant. Conducted by Seiji Ozawa
• A Little Night Music (1995) by Stephen Sondheim, Royal National Theatre Cast

Selected awards and recognition

Theatre

• 2004 - Laurence Olivier Award - Special Award for Outstanding Contributions to British Theatre
• 1999 - Tony Award for Best Actress for Amy's View
• 1997 - Critics' Circle Theatre Award for Best Actress for Amy's View
• 1996 - Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actress for Absolute Hell
• 1996 - Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actress in a Musical or Entertainment for A Little Night Music
• 1987 - Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actress Antony and Cleopatra
• 1987 - Evening Standard Award for Best Actress Antony and Cleopatra
• 1987 - Critics' Circle Theatre Award for Best Actress for Antony and Cleopatra
• 1984 - Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actress in a New Play for Pack of Lies
• 1982 - Critics' Circle Theatre Award for Best Actress for The Importance of Being Earnest and A Kind of Alaska
• 1982 - Evening Standard Award for Best Actress for The Importance of Being Earnest and A Kind of Alaska
• 1980 - Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actress in a Revival for Juno and the Paycock
• 1980 - Evening Standard Award for Best Actress for Juno and the Paycock
• 1977 - Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actress in a Revival for Macbeth

Film and television

• As of 2006, Judi Dench has been nominated for an Academy Award 6 times, winning once. No other artist over 60, in the history of the Academy Awards, has garnered as many Oscar nominations.

• 2008 - Nominated Emmy Award Outstanding Lead Actress in a mini-series/TV movie for Cranford
• 2006 - Won Evening Standard British Film Award for Best Actress for Notes on a Scandal
• 2006 - Nominated Academy Award for Best Actress for Notes on a Scandal
• 2006 - Nominated Golden Globe Award for Best Actress - Motion Picture Drama for Notes on a Scandal
• 2005 - Nominated Academy Award for Best Actress for Mrs Henderson Presents
• 2005 - Nominated Golden Globe Award for Best Actress - Motion Picture Musical or Comedy for Mrs Henderson Presents
• 2002 - Nominated Academy Award for Best Actress for Iris
• 2002 - Won BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role for Iris
• 2001 - Nominated Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for Chocolat
• 2001 - Won BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role for The Last of the Blonde Bombshells
• 2001 - Won Golden Globe Award for Best Performance by an Actress in a Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for TV for The Last of the Blonde Bombshells
• 2001 - Nominated Emmy Award Outstanding Lead Actress in a Miniseries or a Movie for The Last of the Blonde Bombshells
• 2001 - Nominated Screen Actors Guild Awards Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Television Movie or Miniseries for The Last of the Blonde Bombshells
• 2001 - Nominated American Comedy Awards Funniest Female Performer in a TV Special for The Last of the Blonde Bombshells
• 1999 - Won Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for Shakespeare in Love
• 1999 - Won BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role for Shakespeare in Love
• 1998 - Nominated Academy Award for Best Actress for Mrs. Brown
• 1998 - Won Golden Globe for Best Actress for Mrs. Brown
• 1998 - Won BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role for Mrs. Brown
• 1990 - Nominated for BAFTA Television Award for Best Actress for Behaving Badly
• 1987 - Won BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role for A Room with a View
• 1967 - Won BAFTA Television Award for Best Actress for Talking to a Stranger
• 1966 - Won BAFTA Award for Most Promising Newcomer for Four in the Morning

References

• Ian Herbert, Christine Baxter and Robert E. Finlay, ed. (1981), Who's Who in the Theatre (17th ed.), Detroit: Gale, ISBN 978-081030234-1
• Michael Billington (1993). One Night Stands: A critic's view of British theatre from 1971–1991. London: Nick Hern Books. ISBN 978-185459185-2.
• Theatre Record and its annual Indexes
• British Theatre Guide for reviews of Judi Dench DVDs

External links

• Judi Dench Biography
• Judi Dench at IMDb
• Judi Dench at the Internet Broadway Database
• Judi Dench at the Royal Shakespeare Company performance database
• As Time Goes By Central website
• Judi Dench on Acting Regal
• University of Bristol Theatre Collection, University of Bristol
• Judi Dench British Academy Awards, BAFTA Searchable Awards Database
• [2]

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