Dame Judith Olivia
"Judi" Dench, CH, DBE, FRSA
(born 9 December 1934), is an English film, stage and television
actress.
She made
her professional debut in 1957 with the Old Vic Company
. Over the following few years she played in
several of
William Shakespeare's
plays in such roles as
Ophelia in
Hamlet,
Juliet
in
Romeo and Juliet and
Lady Macbeth in
Macbeth. She branched into film work, and won a
BAFTA Award as Most Promising Newcomer,
however most of her work during this period was in theatre. Not
generally known as a singer, she drew strong reviews for her
leading role in the musical
Cabaret in 1968.
During the
next two decades, she established herself as one of the most
significant British theatre performers, working for the National Theatre
Company
and the Royal
Shakespeare Company. In television, she achieved success
during this period, in the series
A Fine Romance from 1981
until 1984 and in 1992 began a continuing role in the television
romantic comedy series
As Time Goes By.
Her film appearances had been infrequent until she was cast as
M in
GoldenEye (1995), a role she has played in
each
James Bond film since. She received
several notable film awards for her role as
Queen Victoria in
Mrs. Brown (1997), and has since
been acclaimed for her work in such films as
Shakespeare in Love (1998),
Chocolat (2000),
Iris (2001),
Mrs Henderson Presents (2005)
and
Notes on a Scandal
(2006), and the television production
The Last of the Blonde
Bombshells (2001).
Regarded by critics as one of the greatest actresses of the
post-war period, and frequently named as the leading British
actress in polls, Dench has received many award nominations for her
acting in theatre, film and television; her awards include ten
BAFTAs, seven
Laurence Olivier Awards, two
Screen Actors Guild Awards, two
Golden Globe, an
Academy Award, and a
Tony Award.
She was married to the actor
Michael Williams from 1971 until
his death in 2001. They are the parents of the actress
Finty Williams.
Personal life
Dench was
born in Heworth, York
, North Riding of Yorkshire, the
daughter of Eleanora Olave 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 Methodist until, at age 13, she attended The Mount
School
, a Quaker Public Secondary school
in York, becoming a Quaker; she then lived in Tyldesley
, Greater Manchester
. Notable relatives include her older brother,
actor Jeffery Dench, and her niece,
Emma Dench, a Roman historian and
professor previously at Birkbeck, University of London
, and currently at Harvard University
, Cambridge, Massachusetts
.
In 1971, Dench married British actor
Michael Williams and they had their
only child, Tara Cressida Williams, known professionally as
Finty Williams, on 24 September
1972.
Dench and her husband starred together in several stage
productions, and the
Bob Larbey
British television sitcom,
A Fine Romance (1981–84).
Michael Williams died from lung cancer in 2001, aged 65.
Career
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.
Early years
Dench trained as a set designer, and was involved on a
non-professional basis 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 the 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. That same year she
made her film debut in
The
Third Secret.
Prominence
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 for nearly twenty years, 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", wrote
Michael Billington in
The Guardian. "It will astonish me if the performance is
matched by any in this actress's generation", commented
J C Trewin in
The Lady. The production
transferred to London, opening at the Donmar Warehouse in September
1977, and was adapted for television, later released on
VHS and
DVD. Dench won the
SWET Best Actress Award in
1977.
She had a romantic role in the BBC television film
Langrishe, Go Down (1978),
with
Jeremy Irons and a screenplay by
Harold Pinter from the
Aidan Higgins novel, 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 debut as a director 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.
Popular success
In 1995, she took over the role of
M
(
James Bond's boss) with the
James Bond film series,
starting with
GoldenEye. She is
the only actor from
Pierce Brosnan's
Bond films to remain in the franchise. She has appeared in
Casino Royale
(2006) and its direct sequel
Quantum of Solace (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. They co-starred in
the series
As Time Goes
By, where she played Jean Pargetter, becoming Jean
Hardcastle after she married Lionel Hardcastle. The program spanned
nine seasons. They also worked together on the films
Mrs. Brown and
Tomorrow Never Dies, both filmed in
1997. Dench has also lent her 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 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. In the U.S.,
As Time
Goes By has been repeated on
PBS and on
BBC America.
Recent years
Dench returned to the West End stage in April 2006 in
Hay Fever alongside
Peter Bowles,
Belinda
Lang and
Kim Medcalf. She finished
off 2006 with the role of Mistress Quickly in the RSC's new musical
The Merry Wives, a version of
The Merry Wives of
Windsor.
Dench's
more recent film career has 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.
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-starred 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 U.S.
producing partner station WGBH
(PBS Boston)
in spring 2008.
Dench
became the voice for the narration for the updated Walt Disney
World
Epcot
attraction
Spaceship
Earth
in February 2008.
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 culminated on 21 June with a day of
city centre performances in York.
She worked on the 22nd Bond adventure
Quantum Of Solace
and reprised her role as M.
She is interested in horse racing and in partnership with her
chauffeur Bryan Agar owns a four-year-old horse, "Smokey Oakey",
who won the 2008
Brigadier
Gerard Stakes.
She
returns 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
. In February 2010, she will play
Titania in
Peter Hall's
production of
A Midsummer
Night's Dream at the Rose Theatre Kingston Upon Thames,
with Titania being seen as a portrait of
Elizabeth I of England in her later
years.
Public life
Dench was awarded the
OBE in 1970, became a
Dame Commander of
the British Empire in 1988, and a
Companion of Honour in 2005.
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. She is also patron of Ovingdean Hall
School, a special day and boarding school for the deaf and hard of
hearing in Brighton and Vice President of
The Little Foundation.
Dench is an Honorary Fellow of
Lucy Cavendish College, Cambridge.
In
2000-2001 she received an Honorary DLitt from Durham
University
. On 24 June 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.
Dench has worked with the non-governmental indigenous organization,
Survival International,
campaigning in the defense of the tribal people, the
Bushmen of Botswana and the
Arhuaco of Colombia. She made a small supporting
video saying the Bushmen are victims of tyranny, greed and
racism.
Filmography
She has also lent her likeness and voice for the role of M in James
Bond video games:
Theatre work
Source: "Judi Dench: With a Crack in her Voice" by John
Miller
As an actress
St Mary's Abbey
- York Mystery Plays -
Virgin Mary
The Old Vic Company
- Hamlet - Ophelia
- Measure for Measure
- Juliet
- A Midsummer Night's
Dream - First Fairy
- Twelfth Night - Maria
(also USA tour)
- Henry V - Katharine
(also USA tour)
- The Double Dealer -
Cynthia
- As You Like It -
Phebe
- The Importance
of Being Earnest - Cecily
- The Merry Wives of
Windsor - Anne Page
- Richard II -
Queen
- Romeo and Juliet -
Juliet (also Venice Festival)
- She Stoops to
Conquer - Kate Hardcastle
- A Midsummer Night's
Dream - Hermia
- :Also walk-on roles in King
Lear and Henry VI )
The Royal
Shakespeare Company
- The Cherry Orchard -
Anya, Aldwych Theatre
- Measure for Measure
- Isabella, Stratford
- A Midsummer Night's
Dream - Titania, Stratford
- A Penny for a Song -
Dorcas Bellboys, Aldwych
The Nottingham Playhouse Company
- Macbeth - Lady Macbeth (also
West Africa tour)
- Twelfth Night - Viola
(also West Africa tour)
- A Shot in the Dark -
Josefa Lautenay, Lyric Theatre
The Oxford Playhouse Company
- Three Sisters -
Irina
- The Twelfth Hour -
Anna
- The Alchemist -
Dol Common
- Romeo and Jeannette
- Jeannette
- The Firescreen -
Jacqueline
The Nottingham Playhouse Company
- Measure for Measure
- Isabella
- Private Lives -
Amanda
- The Country Wife -
Margery Pinchwife
- The Astrakhan Coat -
Barbara
- St Joan - Joan
The Oxford Playhouse Company
- The Promise -
Lika
- The Rules of the
Game - Silia
- The Promise - Lika,
Fortune Theatre
Palace Theatre
- Cabaret - Sally
Bowles
The Royal Shakespeare Company
- The Winter's Tale -
Hermione and Perdita, Stratford
- Women Beware Women -
Bianca, Stratford
- Twelfth Night - Viola,
Stratford
- London Assurance -
Grace Harkaway, Aldwych
- Major Barbara - Barbara
Undershaft, Aldwych
- The Merchant of
Venice - Portia, Stratford
- The Duchess of
Malfi - Duchess, Stratford
- Toad of Toad Hall -
Fielfmouse, Stoat and Mother Rabbit, Stratford
No Company
- Context to Whisper -
Aurelia, Royal, York
- The Wolf - Vilma, Oxford
Playhouse (also at Apollo, Queen's & New London)
- The Good Companions
- Miss Trant, Her Majesty's
- The Gay Lord Quex -
Sophy Fullgarney, Albery
The Royal Shakespeare Company
- Too True to Be Good
- Sweetie Simpkins, Aldwych
- Much Ado About
Nothing - Beatrice, Stratford
- Macbeth -
Lady Macbeth, Stratford (also Donmar Warehouse
and Young
Vic
)
- The Comedy
of Errors - Adriana, Stratford
- King Lear - Regan,
Stratford
- Pillars of the
Community - Lona Hessel, Aldwych
- The Way of the
World - Millamant, Aldwych
- Cymbeline - Imogen,
Stratford
- Juno and the
Paycock - Juno Boyle, Aldwych
No Company
- A Village Wooing -
Young Woman, New End
The National
Theatre Company
- The Importance of
Being Ernest - Lady Bracknell, Lyttleton
- A King of Alaska -
Deborah, Cottesloe
- Pack of Lies - Barbara
Jackson, Lyric
The Royal Shakespeare Company
- Mother Courage - Mother
Courage, Barbican
- Waste 0 Amy O'Connell, Barbican and
Lyric
No Company
- Mr and Mrs Nobody -
Carrie Pooter, Garrick
The National Theatre Company
- Antony and
Cleopatra - Cleopatra, Olivier
- Entertaining
Strangers - Sarah Eldridge, Cottesloe
- Hamlet - Gertrude, Olivier
- The Cherry Orchard -
Ranevskaya, Aldwych
- The Plough and the
Stars - Bessie Burgess, Young Vic
The National Theatre Company
- The Sea - Mrs Rafi,
Lyttleton
- Coriolanus - Volumnia,
Chichester
The Royal Shakespeare Company
- The Gift of the
Gorgon - Helen Damson, Barbican and Wyndham's
The National Theatre Company
- The Seagull - Arkadina,
Olivier
- Absolute Hell - Christine
Foskett, Lyttleton
- A Little Night
Music - Desirée Armfeldt, Olivier
- Amy's View - Esmé,
Lyttleton
- Amy's View - Esmé,
Aldwych
No Company
- Filumena - Filumena, Piccadilly
- Amy's View - Esmé,
Barrymore, New York
- The Royal Family -
Fanny Cavendish, Theatre Royal Haymarket
- The Breath of Life - Frances, Theatre Royal
Haymarket
The Royal Shakespeare Company
- All's Well That Ends
Well - The Countess, Stratford and Gielgud
No Company
- Hay Fever - Judith Bliss,
Theatre Royal Haymarket
The Royal Shakespeare Company
- The Merry Wives - The Musical - Mistress Quickly,
Stratford
Donmar Warehouse
- Madame de Sade -
Wyndham's Theatre
As a director
Discography
Awards and nominations
Theatre
- Awards
Television
- Awards
- Nominations
References
Further reading
External links
Wikis
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