Judi Dench
Encyclopedia
Dame Judith Olivia "Judi" Dench, CH
, DBE
, FRSA
(born 9 December 1934) is an English film, stage and television actress.
Dench 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 were 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).
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 Globes, an Academy Award, and a Tony Award
. In June 2011, she received a fellowship
from the British Film Institute
(BFI).
She was married to actor Michael Williams from 1971 until his death in 2001. They are the parents of actress Finty Williams
.
, England, 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
, Dublin. Dench attended The Mount School
, a Quaker
Independent Secondary school in York, and became a Quaker. Her brothers, one of whom is actor Jeffery Dench
, were born in Tyldesley
, Lancashire
. Notable relatives also include 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 Frances 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.
in the 1950s. In 1957, in one of the last productions in which she appeared during this period, she played the role of the Virgin Mary
, performed on a fixed stage in the Museum Gardens
. 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, where she was a classmate of Vanessa Redgrave
, graduating with a first class degree in drama and four acting prizes, one being the Gold Medal as Outstanding Student.
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 Africa
n 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
.
. 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."
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.
In 1989, she was cast as Pru Forrest, the long-time silent wife of Tom Forrest, in the BBC
soap opera
The Archers
on its 10,000th edition.
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.
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.
(James Bond
's boss) with the James Bond film series
, starting with GoldenEye
replacing Robert Brown. She has appeared in six James Bond films, including Casino Royale
(2006) and its direct sequel Quantum of Solace (2008), making her the longest-running current cast member of the series.
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
. She has taken 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 distinctive 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 United States, As Time Goes By has been repeated on PBS
and on BBC America
.
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 returned to the West End from 13 March – 23 May 2009, playing Madame de Merteuil in Yukio Mishima
's Madame De Sade
, directed by Michael Grandage
as part of the Donmar season at Wyndham's Theatre
. A year later, Dench renewed her collaboration with Sir Peter Hall at the Rose Theatre in Kingston upon Thames in A Midsummer Night's Dream which opened in February 2010, when she played Titania as Elizabeth I of England
in her later years: Queen of the Forest of Arden. On 31 July 2010, Dame Judi performed Send in the Clowns at a special celebratory Promenade Concert from The Royal Albert Hall as part of the Proms Season, in honour of composer Stephen Sondheim's 80th Birthday, the entire concert in honour of his music.
She is currently filming her seventh Bond film titled "Skyfall" in the role of "M"
in 1970 and promoted to Dame Commander of the order in 1988. She was appointed a Member of the Order of the Companions of Honour
in 2005. In June 2011, she became a fellow of the British Film Institute
(BFI).
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 was also patron of Ovingdean Hall School, a special day and boarding school for the deaf and hard of hearing in Brighton, which closed in 2010, and Vice President of The Little Foundation
.
Dench is an Honorary Fellow of Lucy Cavendish College, Cambridge. In 1996, she was awarded an Honorary Doctorate
(D.Univ) from Surrey University and in 2000-2001 she received an Honorary DLitt from Durham University
. In July 2000, she was awarded a Doctor of Letters (D.Litt) by Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh, where she actively supported their Drama School at the Gateway Theatre on Elm Row. 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 organisation, Survival International
, campaigning in the defence 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.
On 22 July 2010, Dench was awarded an honorary degree of Doctor of Letters (DLitt) by Nottingham Trent University
.
Dr Hadwen Trust
announced on 15 January 2011 that Dench had become a patron of the trust joining existing high profile personalities, Joanna Lumley
and David Shepherd
.
She has also lent her likeness and voice for the role of M in James Bond video games:
Old Vic Company
Royal Shakespeare Company
RSC
Nottingham Playhouse Company
The Oxford Playhouse Company
Nottingham Playhouse Company
Oxford Playhouse Company
Palace Theatre
RSC
No Company
West End
RSC
No Company
National Theatre
RSC
West End
National Theatre
RSC
National Theatre
Royal Shakespeare Company
National Theatre
West End and Broadway
RSC
West End
RSC
Donmar Warehouse
Rose Theatre, Kingston
Open Air Theatre, Regent's Park
Nominations
Order of the Companions of Honour
The Order of the Companions of Honour is an order of the Commonwealth realms. It was founded by King George V in June 1917, as a reward for outstanding achievements in the arts, literature, music, science, politics, industry or religion....
, DBE
Order of the British Empire
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order comprises five classes in civil and military divisions...
, FRSA
Royal Society of Arts
The Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufacturers and Commerce is a British multi-disciplinary institution, based in London. The name Royal Society of Arts is frequently used for brevity...
(born 9 December 1934) is an English film, stage and television actress.
Dench made her professional debut in 1957 with the Old Vic Company
Old Vic
The Old Vic is a theatre located just south-east of Waterloo Station in London on the corner of The Cut and Waterloo Road. Established in 1818 as the Royal Coburg Theatre, it was taken over by Emma Cons in 1880 when it was known formally as the Royal Victoria Hall. In 1898, a niece of Cons, Lilian...
. Over the following few years she played in several of William Shakespeare's plays
Shakespeare's plays
William Shakespeare's plays have the reputation of being among the greatest in the English language and in Western literature. Traditionally, the 37 plays are divided into the genres of tragedy, history, and comedy; they have been translated into every major living language, in addition to being...
in such roles as Ophelia
Ophelia
Ophelia is a fictional character in the play Hamlet by William Shakespeare. She is a young noblewoman of Denmark, the daughter of Polonius, sister of Laertes, and potential wife of Prince Hamlet.-Plot:...
in Hamlet
Hamlet
The Tragical History of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, or more simply Hamlet, is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1599 and 1601...
, Juliet
Juliet Capulet
Juliet is one of the title characters in William Shakespeare's tragedy Romeo and Juliet, the other being Romeo. She is the daughter of old Capulet, head of the house of Capulet. The story has a long history that precedes Shakespeare himself....
in Romeo and Juliet
Romeo and Juliet
Romeo and Juliet is a tragedy written early in the career of playwright William Shakespeare about two young star-crossed lovers whose deaths ultimately unite their feuding families. It was among Shakespeare's most popular archetypal stories of young, teenage lovers.Romeo and Juliet belongs to a...
and Lady Macbeth
Lady Macbeth
Lady Macbeth may refer to:*Lady Macbeth, from William Shakespeare's play Macbeth**Queen Gruoch of Scotland, the real-life Queen on whom Shakespeare based the character...
in Macbeth
Macbeth
The Tragedy of Macbeth is a play by William Shakespeare about a regicide and its aftermath. It is Shakespeare's shortest tragedy and is believed to have been written sometime between 1603 and 1607...
. 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
Cabaret (musical)
Cabaret is a musical based on a book written by Christopher Isherwood, music by John Kander and lyrics by Fred Ebb. The 1966 Broadway production became a hit and spawned a 1972 film as well as numerous subsequent productions....
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
Royal National Theatre
The Royal National Theatre in London is one of the United Kingdom's two most prominent publicly funded theatre companies, alongside the Royal Shakespeare Company...
and the Royal Shakespeare Company
Royal Shakespeare Company
The Royal Shakespeare Company is a major British theatre company, based in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England. The company employs 700 staff and produces around 20 productions a year from its home in Stratford-upon-Avon and plays regularly in London, Newcastle-upon-Tyne and on tour across...
. In television, she achieved success during this period, in the series A Fine Romance
A Fine Romance (TV series)
A Fine Romance was a British situation comedy starring husband-and-wife team Judi Dench and Michael Williams. Dench's sister was played by Susan Penhaligon. It was produced by London Weekend Television and written by Bob Larbey. It was first broadcast on 8 November 1981. It lasted for 26 episodes...
from 1981 until 1984 and in 1992 began a continuing role in the television romantic comedy series As Time Goes By
As Time Goes By (TV series)
As Time Goes By is a British sitcom that aired on BBC One from 1992 to 2005. Starring Judi Dench and Geoffrey Palmer, it follows the relationship between two former lovers who meet unexpectedly after not having been in contact for 38 years....
.
Her film appearances were infrequent until she was cast as M
M (James Bond)
M is a fictional character in Ian Fleming's James Bond series, as well as the films in the Bond franchise. The head of MI6 and Bond's superior, M has been portrayed by three actors in the official Bond film series: Bernard Lee, Robert Brown and since 1995 by Judi Dench. Background =Ian Fleming...
in GoldenEye
GoldenEye
GoldenEye is the seventeenth spy film in the James Bond series, and the first to star Pierce Brosnan as the fictional MI6 agent James Bond. The film was directed by Martin Campbell and is the first film in the series not to take story elements from the works of novelist Ian Fleming...
(1995), a role she has played in each James Bond
James Bond (film series)
The James Bond film series is a British series of motion pictures based on the fictional character of MI6 agent James Bond , who originally appeared in a series of books by Ian Fleming. Earlier films were based on Fleming's novels and short stories, followed later by films with original storylines...
film since. She received several notable film awards for her role as Queen Victoria
Victoria of the United Kingdom
Victoria was the monarch of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until her death. From 1 May 1876, she used the additional title of Empress of India....
in Mrs. Brown
Mrs. Brown
Mrs. Brown is a 1997 British drama film starring Judi Dench, Billy Connolly, Geoffrey Palmer, Antony Sher and Gerard Butler...
(1997), and has since been acclaimed for her work in such films as Shakespeare in Love
Shakespeare in Love
Shakespeare in Love is a 1998 British-American comedy film directed by John Madden and written by Marc Norman and playwright Tom Stoppard....
(1998), Chocolat
Chocolat
Chocolat is a 1999 novel by Joanne Harris. It tells the story of Vianne Rocher, a young mother, who arrives at a fictional insular French village of Lansquenet-sous-Tannes with her six-year-old daughter, Anouk...
(2000), Iris (2001), Mrs Henderson Presents (2005) and Notes on a Scandal
Notes on a Scandal (film)
Notes on a Scandal is a 2006 British psychological thriller film, adapted from the 2003 novel of the same name by Zoë Heller. The screenplay was written by Patrick Marber and the film was directed by Richard Eyre. Many parts of the film were shot in Islington Arts and Media School...
(2006), and the television production The Last of the Blonde Bombshells
The Last of the Blonde Bombshells
The Last of the Blonde Bombshells is a 2000 British-American television film directed by Gillies MacKinnon. The script by Alan Plater focuses on the efforts of a recently widowed woman to reunite the members of the World War II-era swing band with which she played saxophone.It features Carry On...
(2001).
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
Screen Actors Guild Awards
A Screen Actors Guild Award is an accolade given by the Screen Actors Guild to recognize outstanding performances by its members. The statuette given, a nude male figure holding both a mask of comedy and a mask of tragedy, is called "The Actor"...
, two Golden Globes, an Academy Award, and a Tony Award
Tony Award
The Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Theatre, more commonly known as a Tony Award, recognizes achievement in live Broadway theatre. The awards are presented by the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League at an annual ceremony in New York City. The awards are given for Broadway...
. In June 2011, she received a fellowship
British Film Institute Fellowship
The British Film Institute is a charitable organisation established in 1933, based in the United Kingdom. It has awarded its Fellowship title to individuals in "recognition of their outstanding contribution to film or television culture" and is considered the highest accolade presented by the...
from the British Film Institute
British Film Institute
The British Film Institute is a charitable organisation established by Royal Charter to:-Cinemas:The BFI runs the BFI Southbank and IMAX theatre, both located on the south bank of the River Thames in London...
(BFI).
She was married to actor Michael Williams from 1971 until his death in 2001. They are the parents of actress Finty Williams
Finty Williams
Tara Cressida Frances Williams is an English actress who performs under the name Finty Williams....
.
Personal life
Dench was born in Heworth, YorkYork
York is a walled city, situated at the confluence of the Rivers Ouse and Foss in North Yorkshire, England. The city has a rich heritage and has provided the backdrop to major political events throughout much of its two millennia of existence...
, England, 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
Trinity College, Dublin
Trinity College, Dublin , formally known as the College of the Holy and Undivided Trinity of Queen Elizabeth near Dublin, was founded in 1592 by letters patent from Queen Elizabeth I as the "mother of a university", Extracts from Letters Patent of Elizabeth I, 1592: "...we...found and...
, Dublin. Dench attended The Mount School
The Mount School, York
The Mount School is a Quaker independent day and boarding school in York, England, for girls aged 11–18. It was founded in 1831. Its preparatory school is called Tregelles, and it accepts only girls from 2012 onwards and has a nursery department. There are two or three forms in Year 7 to 11 and...
, a Quaker
Religious Society of Friends
The Religious Society of Friends, or Friends Church, is a Christian movement which stresses the doctrine of the priesthood of all believers. Members are known as Friends, or popularly as Quakers. It is made of independent organisations, which have split from one another due to doctrinal differences...
Independent Secondary school in York, and became a Quaker. Her brothers, one of whom is actor Jeffery Dench
Jeffery Dench
Jeffery Dench , is an actor who lives in Clifford Chambers near Stratford-upon-Avon. He is the older brother of actress Judi Dench.-Personal life:...
, were born in Tyldesley
Tyldesley
Tyldesley is a town within the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan, in Greater Manchester, England. It occupies an area north of Chat Moss near the foothills of the West Pennine Moors, east-southeast of Wigan and west-northwest of the city of Manchester...
, Lancashire
Lancashire
Lancashire is a non-metropolitan county of historic origin in the North West of England. It takes its name from the city of Lancaster, and is sometimes known as the County of Lancaster. Although Lancaster is still considered to be the county town, Lancashire County Council is based in Preston...
. Notable relatives also include her niece, Emma Dench, a Roman
Ancient Rome
Ancient Rome was a thriving civilization that grew on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 8th century BC. Located along the Mediterranean Sea and centered on the city of Rome, it expanded to one of the largest empires in the ancient world....
historian and professor previously at Birkbeck, University of London
Birkbeck, University of London
Birkbeck, University of London is a public research university located in London, United Kingdom and a constituent college of the federal University of London. It offers many Master's and Bachelor's degree programmes that can be studied either part-time or full-time, though nearly all teaching is...
, and currently at Harvard University
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
, Cambridge, Massachusetts
Cambridge, Massachusetts
Cambridge is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States, in the Greater Boston area. It was named in honor of the University of Cambridge in England, an important center of the Puritan theology embraced by the town's founders. Cambridge is home to two of the world's most prominent...
.
In 1971, Dench married British actor Michael Williams and they had their only child, Tara Cressida Frances Williams, known professionally as Finty Williams
Finty Williams
Tara Cressida Frances Williams is an English actress who performs under the name Finty Williams....
, on 24 September 1972.
Dench and her husband starred together in several stage productions, and the Bob Larbey
Esmonde and Larbey
John Gilbert Esmonde and Bob Larbey were a British television comedy scriptwriting duo from the 1960s to the 1990s, creating popular situation comedies such as Please Sir! and The Good Life.-Larbey's life:Larbey was born in Clapham, South London in 1934 and made his writing debut for...
British television sitcom, A Fine Romance
A Fine Romance (TV series)
A Fine Romance was a British situation comedy starring husband-and-wife team Judi Dench and Michael Williams. Dench's sister was played by Susan Penhaligon. It was produced by London Weekend Television and written by Bob Larbey. It was first broadcast on 8 November 1981. It lasted for 26 episodes...
(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.Early years
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. During these years, Judi was involved on a non-professional basis in the first three productions of the modern revival of the York Mystery PlaysYork Mystery Plays
The York Mystery Plays, more properly called the York Corpus Christi Plays, are a Middle English cycle of forty-eight mystery plays, or pageants, which cover sacred history from the creation to the Last Judgement. These were traditionally presented on the feast day of Corpus Christi...
in the 1950s. In 1957, in one of the last productions in which she appeared during this period, she played the role of the Virgin Mary
Mary (mother of Jesus)
Mary , commonly referred to as "Saint Mary", "Mother Mary", the "Virgin Mary", the "Blessed Virgin Mary", or "Mary, Mother of God", was a Jewish woman of Nazareth in Galilee...
, performed on a fixed stage in the Museum Gardens
York Museum Gardens
The York Museum Gardens are botanic gardens in the centre of York, England, beside the River Ouse. They cover an area of of the former grounds of St Mary's Abbey, and were created in the 1830s by the Yorkshire Philosophical Society along with the Yorkshire Museum which they contain.The gardens are...
. 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
Central School of Speech and Drama
The Central School of Speech and Drama was founded in London in 1906 by Elsie Fogerty to offer a new form of training in speech and drama for young actors and other students...
. She applied and was accepted, where she was a classmate of Vanessa Redgrave
Vanessa Redgrave
Vanessa Redgrave, CBE is an English actress of stage, screen and television, as well as a political activist.She rose to prominence in 1961 playing Rosalind in As You Like It with the Royal Shakespeare Company and has since made more than 35 appearances on London's West End and Broadway, winning...
, graduating with a first class degree in drama and four acting prizes, one being the Gold Medal as Outstanding Student.
In September 1957, she made her first professional stage appearance with the Old Vic Company
Old Vic
The Old Vic is a theatre located just south-east of Waterloo Station in London on the corner of The Cut and Waterloo Road. Established in 1818 as the Royal Coburg Theatre, it was taken over by Emma Cons in 1880 when it was known formally as the Royal Victoria Hall. In 1898, a niece of Cons, Lilian...
, at the Royal Court Theatre, Liverpool
Royal Court Theatre, Liverpool
The Royal Court Theatre is a theatre at 1 Roe Street, Liverpool, England. It was built in 1938 in an Art Deco style.-History:Built in the 12th Century, the site of the current Royal Court Theatre was originally a water well...
, as Ophelia in Hamlet
Hamlet
The Tragical History of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, or more simply Hamlet, is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1599 and 1601...
, then her London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
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
Henry V (play)
Henry V is a history play by William Shakespeare, believed to be written in approximately 1599. Its full titles are The Cronicle History of Henry the Fifth and The Life of Henry the Fifth...
in 1958 (which was also her New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
debut), and as Juliet
Juliet Capulet
Juliet is one of the title characters in William Shakespeare's tragedy Romeo and Juliet, the other being Romeo. She is the daughter of old Capulet, head of the house of Capulet. The story has a long history that precedes Shakespeare himself....
in Romeo and Juliet
Romeo and Juliet
Romeo and Juliet is a tragedy written early in the career of playwright William Shakespeare about two young star-crossed lovers whose deaths ultimately unite their feuding families. It was among Shakespeare's most popular archetypal stories of young, teenage lovers.Romeo and Juliet belongs to a...
in October 1960, directed and designed by Franco Zeffirelli
Franco Zeffirelli
Franco Zeffirelli KBE is an Italian director and producer of films and television. He is also a director and designer of operas and a former senator for the Italian center-right Forza Italia party....
. During this period, she toured the United States and Canada, and appeared in Yugoslavia
Yugoslavia
Yugoslavia refers to three political entities that existed successively on the western part of the Balkans during most of the 20th century....
and at the Edinburgh Festival
Edinburgh Festival
The Edinburgh Festival is a collective term for many arts and cultural festivals that take place in Edinburgh, Scotland each summer, mostly in August...
.
She joined the Royal Shakespeare Company
Royal Shakespeare Company
The Royal Shakespeare Company is a major British theatre company, based in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England. The company employs 700 staff and produces around 20 productions a year from its home in Stratford-upon-Avon and plays regularly in London, Newcastle-upon-Tyne and on tour across...
in December 1961 playing Anya in The Cherry Orchard
The Cherry Orchard
The Cherry Orchard is Russian playwright Anton Chekhov's last play. It premiered at the Moscow Art Theatre 17 January 1904 in a production directed by Constantin Stanislavski. Chekhov intended this play as a comedy and it does contain some elements of farce; however, Stanislavski insisted on...
at the Aldwych Theatre
Aldwych Theatre
The Aldwych Theatre is a West End theatre, located on Aldwych in the City of Westminster. The theatre was listed Grade II on 20 July 1971. Its seating capacity is 1,200.-Origins:...
in London, and made her Stratford-upon-Avon
Stratford-upon-Avon
Stratford-upon-Avon is a market town and civil parish in south Warwickshire, England. It lies on the River Avon, south east of Birmingham and south west of Warwick. It is the largest and most populous town of the District of Stratford-on-Avon, which uses the term "on" to indicate that it covers...
debut in April 1962 as Isabella in Measure for Measure
Measure for Measure
Measure for Measure is a play by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written in 1603 or 1604. It was classified as comedy, but its mood defies those expectations. As a result and for a variety of reasons, some critics have labelled it as one of Shakespeare's problem plays...
. She subsequently spent seasons in repertory both with the Nottingham Playhouse
Nottingham Playhouse
The Nottingham Playhouse is a theatre in Nottingham, England. It was first established as a repertory theatre in the 1950s when it operated from a former cinema. Directors during this period included Val May and Frank Dunlop.-The building:...
from January 1963 (including a West Africa
West Africa
West Africa or Western Africa is the westernmost region of the African continent. Geopolitically, the UN definition of Western Africa includes the following 16 countries and an area of approximately 5 million square km:-Flags of West Africa:...
n tour as Lady Macbeth
Lady Macbeth
Lady Macbeth may refer to:*Lady Macbeth, from William Shakespeare's play Macbeth**Queen Gruoch of Scotland, the real-life Queen on whom Shakespeare based the character...
for the British Council
British Council
The British Council is a United Kingdom-based organisation specialising in international educational and cultural opportunities. It is registered as a charity both in England and Wales, and in Scotland...
), and with the Oxford Playhouse Company from April 1964. That same year, she made her film debut in The Third Secret
The Third Secret (film)
The Third Secret is a 1964 British drama film directed by Charles Crichton. The screenplay by Robert L. Joseph focuses on an American newscaster who investigates the mysterious death of his psychoanalyst...
.
Prominence
In 1968, she was offered the role of Sally Bowles in the musical CabaretCabaret (musical)
Cabaret is a musical based on a book written by Christopher Isherwood, music by John Kander and lyrics by Fred Ebb. The 1966 Broadway production became a hit and spawned a 1972 film as well as numerous subsequent productions....
. As Sheridan Morley
Sheridan Morley
Sheridan Morley was an English author, biographer, critic, director, actor and broadcaster. He was the eldest son of actor Robert Morley and grandson of actress Dame Gladys Cooper, and wrote biographies of both...
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
Frank Marcus
Frank Marcus was a British playwright, best known for The Killing of Sister George.-Life:Frank Ulrich Marcus was born 30 June 1928 into a Jewish family in Breslau . They came to England as refugees in 1939...
, 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
Royal Shakespeare Company
The Royal Shakespeare Company is a major British theatre company, based in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England. The company employs 700 staff and produces around 20 productions a year from its home in Stratford-upon-Avon and plays regularly in London, Newcastle-upon-Tyne and on tour across...
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
John Webster
John Webster was an English Jacobean dramatist best known for his tragedies The White Devil and The Duchess of Malfi, which are often regarded as masterpieces of the early 17th-century English stage. He was a contemporary of William Shakespeare.- Biography :Webster's life is obscure, and the dates...
's The Duchess of Malfi
The Duchess of Malfi
The Duchess of Malfi is a macabre, tragic play written by the English dramatist John Webster in 1612–13. It was first performed privately at the Blackfriars Theatre, then before a more general audience at The Globe, in 1613-14...
in 1971. In the Stratford 1976 season, and then at the Aldwych in 1977, she gave two comedy performances, first in Trevor Nunn
Trevor Nunn
Sir Trevor Robert Nunn, CBE is an English theatre, film and television director. Nunn has been the Artistic Director for the Royal Shakespeare Company, the Royal National Theatre, and, currently, the Theatre Royal, Haymarket. He has directed musicals and dramas for the stage, as well as opera...
's musical staging of The Comedy of Errors
The Comedy of Errors
The Comedy of Errors is one of William Shakespeare's earliest plays. It is his shortest and one of his most farcical comedies, with a major part of the humour coming from slapstick and mistaken identity, in addition to puns and word play. The Comedy of Errors is one of only two of Shakespeare's...
as Adriana, then partnered with Donald Sinden
Donald Sinden
Sir Donald Alfred Sinden CBE is an English actor of theatre, film and television.-Personal life:Sinden was born in Plymouth, Devon, England, on 9 October 1923. The son of Alfred Edward Sinden and his wife Mabel Agnes , he grew up in the Sussex village of Ditchling, where their home doubled as the...
as Beatrice and Benedick in John Barton
John Barton (director)
John Bernard Adie Barton CBE is a theatrical director. He is the son of Sir Harold Montagu and Lady Joyce Barton. He married Anne Righter, a university lecturer, in 1968....
's "British Raj" revival of Much Ado About Nothing
Much Ado About Nothing
Much Ado About Nothing is a comedy written by William Shakespeare about two pairs of lovers, Benedick and Beatrice, and Claudio and Hero....
. As Bernard Levin
Bernard Levin
Henry Bernard Levin CBE was an English journalist, author and broadcaster, described by The Times as "the most famous journalist of his day". The son of a poor Jewish family in London, he won a scholarship to the independent school Christ's Hospital and went on to the London School of Economics,...
wrote in The Sunday Times
The Sunday Times
The Sunday Times is a British Sunday newspaper.The Sunday Times may also refer to:*The Sunday Times *The Sunday Times *The Sunday Times *The Sunday Times...
: "...demonstrating once more that she is a comic actress of consummate skill, perhaps the very best we have."
One of her most notable achievements with the RSC was her performance as Lady Macbeth in 1976. Nunn's acclaimed production of Macbeth
Macbeth
The Tragedy of Macbeth is a play by William Shakespeare about a regicide and its aftermath. It is Shakespeare's shortest tragedy and is believed to have been written sometime between 1603 and 1607...
was first staged with a minimalist
Minimalism
Minimalism describes movements in various forms of art and design, especially visual art and music, where the work is set out to expose the essence, essentials or identity of a subject through eliminating all non-essential forms, features or concepts...
design at The Other Place
The Other Place (theatre)
The Other Place was a black box theatre on Southern Lane, near to the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon, England. It was owned and operated by the Royal Shakespeare Company....
theatre in Stratford. Its small round stage focused attention on the psychological
Psychology
Psychology is the study of the mind and behavior. Its immediate goal is to understand individuals and groups by both establishing general principles and researching specific cases. For many, the ultimate goal of psychology is to benefit society...
dynamics of the characters, and both Ian McKellen
Ian McKellen
Sir Ian Murray McKellen, CH, CBE is an English actor. He has received a Tony Award, two Academy Award nominations, and five Emmy Award nominations. His work has spanned genres from Shakespearean and modern theatre to popular fantasy and science fiction...
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
Michael Billington (critic)
Michael Keith Billington is a British author and arts critic. Drama critic of The Guardian since October 1971, he is "Britain's longest-serving theatre critic" and the author of biographical and critical studies relating to British theatre and the arts; most notably, he is the authorised...
in The Guardian. "It will astonish me if the performance is matched by any in this actress's generation", commented J C Trewin
John Courtenay Trewin
John Courtenay Trewin OBE was a British journalist, writer and drama critic. Since 2000, an award has been given by the Critics' Circle for the best Shakespearean performance of the Year: "The John And Wendy Trewin Award For Best Shakespearian Performance".Trewin was born in Plymouth, although...
in The Lady
The Lady (magazine)
The Lady is Britain's oldest weekly women's magazine. It has been in continuous publication since 1885 and is based in London. It is particularly notable for its classified advertisements for domestic service and child care; it also has extensive listings of holiday properties.The magazine was...
. The production transferred to London, opening at the Donmar Warehouse in September 1977, and was adapted for television, later released on VHS
VHS
The Video Home System is a consumer-level analog recording videocassette standard developed by Victor Company of Japan ....
and DVD
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
. Dench won the SWET Best Actress Award in 1977.
In 1989, she was cast as Pru Forrest, the long-time silent wife of Tom Forrest, in the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
soap opera
Soap opera
A soap opera, sometimes called "soap" for short, is an ongoing, episodic work of dramatic fiction presented in serial format on radio or as television programming. The name soap opera stems from the original dramatic serials broadcast on radio that had soap manufacturers, such as Procter & Gamble,...
The Archers
The Archers
The Archers is a long-running British soap opera broadcast on the BBC's main spoken-word channel, Radio 4. It was originally billed as "an everyday story of country folk", but is now described on its Radio 4 web site as "contemporary drama in a rural setting"...
on its 10,000th edition.
She had a romantic role in the BBC television film Langrishe, Go Down
Langrishe, Go Down (film)
Langrishe, Go Down, the novel by Aidan Higgins , was adapted for the screen by Harold Pinter, directed by David Jones, filmed for BBC Television in association with Raidió Teilifís Éireann, and first broadcast in September 1978 as a 90-minute BBC2 Play of the Week...
(1978), with Jeremy Irons
Jeremy Irons
Jeremy John Irons is an English actor. After receiving classical training at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, Irons began his acting career on stage in 1969, and has since appeared in many London theatre productions including The Winter's Tale, Macbeth, Much Ado About Nothing, The Taming of the...
and a screenplay by Harold Pinter
Harold Pinter
Harold Pinter, CH, CBE was a Nobel Prize–winning English playwright and screenwriter. One of the most influential modern British dramatists, his writing career spanned more than 50 years. His best-known plays include The Birthday Party , The Homecoming , and Betrayal , each of which he adapted to...
from the Aidan Higgins
Aidan Higgins
-Life:His upbringing in a landed Catholic family in Celbridge, County Kildare, Ireland, provided material for his first experimental novel, Langrishe, Go Down...
novel, directed by David Jones
David Jones (director)
David Hugh Jones was a British stage, television, and film director.-Personal history:Jones was born in Poole, Dorset, the son of John David Jones and his wife Gwendolen Agnes Langworthy...
, 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
Renaissance Theatre Company
The Renaissance Theatre Company was founded in 1987 by Kenneth Branagh and David Parfitt as a development of the work they had been doing periodically on the London 'Fringe', producing and appearing in lunchtime shows, leading up to Branagh's full-scale production of Romeo and Juliet, at the Lyric...
'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
Phoenix Theatre (London)
The Phoenix Theatre is a West End theatre in the London Borough of Camden, located on Charing Cross Road . The entrance is in Phoenix Street....
in London. Dench's contribution was a staging of Much Ado About Nothing
Much Ado About Nothing
Much Ado About Nothing is a comedy written by William Shakespeare about two pairs of lovers, Benedick and Beatrice, and Claudio and Hero....
, set in the Napoleonic era
Napoleonic Era
The Napoleonic Era is a period in the history of France and Europe. It is generally classified as including the fourth and final stage of the French Revolution, the first being the National Assembly, the second being the Legislative Assembly, and the third being the Directory...
, which starred Kenneth Branagh
Kenneth Branagh
Kenneth Charles Branagh is an actor and film director from Northern Ireland. He is best known for directing and starring in several film adaptations of William Shakespeare's plays including Henry V , Much Ado About Nothing , Hamlet Kenneth Charles Branagh is an actor and film director from...
and Samantha Bond as Benedick and Beatrice.
She has made numerous appearances in the West End
West End theatre
West End theatre is a popular term for mainstream professional theatre staged in the large theatres of London's 'Theatreland', the West End. Along with New York's Broadway theatre, West End theatre is usually considered to represent the highest level of commercial theatre in the English speaking...
including the role of Miss Trant in the 1974 musical version of The Good Companions
The Good Companions
The Good Companions is a novel by the English author J. B. Priestley.Written in 1929 , it focuses on the trials and tribulations of a concert party in England between World War I and World War II. It is arguably Priestley's most famous novel, and the work which established him as a national figure...
at Her Majesty's Theatre
Her Majesty's Theatre
Her Majesty's Theatre is a West End theatre, in Haymarket, City of Westminster, London. The present building was designed by Charles J. Phipps and was constructed in 1897 for actor-manager Herbert Beerbohm Tree, who established the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art at the theatre...
. In 1981, Dench was due to play the title role of Grizabella
Grizabella
Grizabella is the "Glamour Cat" in the musical production Cats. She does not appear in T. S. Eliot's work Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats, but she is a prominent character in the stageplay. It appears that she is the feline version of the woman mentioned in T.S...
in the original production of Cats
Cats (musical)
Cats is a musical composed by Andrew Lloyd Webber, based on Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats by T. S. Eliot...
, but was forced to pull out due to a torn Achilles tendon, leaving Elaine Paige
Elaine Paige
Elaine Paige OBE is an English singer and actress best known for her work in musical theatre. Raised in Barnet, North London, Paige attended the Aida Foster stage school, making her first professional appearance on stage in 1964, at the age of 16...
to play the role. She has acted with the National Theatre
Royal National Theatre
The Royal National Theatre in London is one of the United Kingdom's two most prominent publicly funded theatre companies, alongside the Royal Shakespeare Company...
in London where, in September 1995, she played Desiree Armfeldt in a major revival of Stephen Sondheim
Stephen Sondheim
Stephen Joshua Sondheim is an American composer and lyricist for stage and film. He is the winner of an Academy Award, multiple Tony Awards including the Special Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Theatre, multiple Grammy Awards, a Pulitzer Prize and the Laurence Olivier Award...
's A Little Night Music
A Little Night Music
A Little Night Music is a musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and book by Hugh Wheeler. Inspired by the Ingmar Bergman film Smiles of a Summer Night, it involves the romantic lives of several couples. Its title is a literal English translation of the German name for Mozart's Serenade...
, for which she won an Olivier Award.
Popular success
In 1995, she took over the role of MM (James Bond)
M is a fictional character in Ian Fleming's James Bond series, as well as the films in the Bond franchise. The head of MI6 and Bond's superior, M has been portrayed by three actors in the official Bond film series: Bernard Lee, Robert Brown and since 1995 by Judi Dench. Background =Ian Fleming...
(James Bond
James Bond (character)
Royal Navy Commander James Bond, CMG, RNVR is a fictional character created by journalist and novelist Ian Fleming in 1953. He is the main protagonist of the James Bond series of novels, films, comics and video games...
's boss) with the James Bond film series
James Bond (film series)
The James Bond film series is a British series of motion pictures based on the fictional character of MI6 agent James Bond , who originally appeared in a series of books by Ian Fleming. Earlier films were based on Fleming's novels and short stories, followed later by films with original storylines...
, starting with GoldenEye
GoldenEye
GoldenEye is the seventeenth spy film in the James Bond series, and the first to star Pierce Brosnan as the fictional MI6 agent James Bond. The film was directed by Martin Campbell and is the first film in the series not to take story elements from the works of novelist Ian Fleming...
replacing Robert Brown. She has appeared in six James Bond films, including Casino Royale
Casino Royale (2006 film)
Casino Royale is the twenty-first film in the James Bond film series and the first to star Daniel Craig as fictional MI6 agent James Bond...
(2006) and its direct sequel Quantum of Solace (2008), making her the longest-running current cast member of the series.
She has won multiple awards for performances on the London stage, including a record six Laurence Olivier Awards. She also won the Tony Award
Tony Award
The Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Theatre, more commonly known as a Tony Award, recognizes achievement in live Broadway theatre. The awards are presented by the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League at an annual ceremony in New York City. The awards are given for Broadway...
for her 1999 Broadway performance in the role of Esme Allen in David Hare's
David Hare (dramatist)
Sir David Hare is an English playwright and theatre and film director.-Early life:Hare was born in St Leonards-on-Sea, Hastings, East Sussex, the son of Agnes and Clifford Hare, a sailor. He was educated at Lancing, an independent school in West Sussex, and at Jesus College, Cambridge...
Amy's View
Amy's View
Amy's View was written by British playwright David Hare, and originally premiered in London at the Royal National Theatre's Lyttelton Theatre on June 13, 1997. It was directed by Richard Eyre and starred Judi Dench, Ronald Pickup and Samantha Bond in the title role. It was then performed on...
. She has taken on the role of Director for a number of stage productions. Dench won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress as Elizabeth I
Elizabeth I of England
Elizabeth I was queen regnant of England and Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death. Sometimes called The Virgin Queen, Gloriana, or Good Queen Bess, Elizabeth was the fifth and last monarch of the Tudor dynasty...
in the film Shakespeare in Love
Shakespeare in Love
Shakespeare in Love is a 1998 British-American comedy film directed by John Madden and written by Marc Norman and playwright Tom Stoppard....
.
Judi Dench has frequently appeared with her close friend Geoffrey Palmer
Geoffrey Palmer (actor)
Geoffrey Dyson Palmer, OBE is an English actor, best known for his roles in sitcoms such as Butterflies and As Time Goes By.-Career:...
. They co-starred in the series As Time Goes By
As Time Goes By (TV series)
As Time Goes By is a British sitcom that aired on BBC One from 1992 to 2005. Starring Judi Dench and Geoffrey Palmer, it follows the relationship between two former lovers who meet unexpectedly after not having been in contact for 38 years....
, 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
Mrs. Brown
Mrs. Brown is a 1997 British drama film starring Judi Dench, Billy Connolly, Geoffrey Palmer, Antony Sher and Gerard Butler...
and Tomorrow Never Dies
Tomorrow Never Dies
Tomorrow Never Dies is the eighteenth spy film in the James Bond series, and the second to star Pierce Brosnan as the fictional MI6 agent James Bond. Bruce Feirstein wrote the screenplay, and it was directed by Roger Spottiswoode. It follows Bond as he tries to stop a media mogul from engineering...
, both filmed in 1997. Dench has also lent her distinctive 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
Felix Mendelssohn
Jakob Ludwig Felix Mendelssohn Barthóldy , use the form 'Mendelssohn' and not 'Mendelssohn Bartholdy'. The Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians gives ' Felix Mendelssohn' as the entry, with 'Mendelssohn' used in the body text...
's A Midsummer Night's Dream, and Britten's Canticles-The Heart of the Matter), and has appeared in numerous BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
radio broadcasts as well as commercials. Her many television appearances include lead roles in the series A Fine Romance
A Fine Romance (TV series)
A Fine Romance was a British situation comedy starring husband-and-wife team Judi Dench and Michael Williams. Dench's sister was played by Susan Penhaligon. It was produced by London Weekend Television and written by Bob Larbey. It was first broadcast on 8 November 1981. It lasted for 26 episodes...
and As Time Goes By. In the United States, As Time Goes By has been repeated on PBS
Public Broadcasting Service
The Public Broadcasting Service is an American non-profit public broadcasting television network with 354 member TV stations in the United States which hold collective ownership. Its headquarters is in Arlington, Virginia....
and on BBC America
BBC America
BBC America is an American television network, owned and operated by BBC Worldwide, and available on both cable and satellite.-History:The channel launched on March 29, 1998, broadcasting comedy, drama and lifestyle programs from BBC Television and other British television broadcasters like ITV and...
.
Recent years
Dench returned to the West End stage in April 2006 in Hay FeverHay Fever
Hay Fever is a comic play written by Noël Coward in 1924 and first produced in 1925 with Marie Tempest as the first Judith Bliss. Laura Hope Crews played the role in New York...
alongside Peter Bowles
Peter Bowles
-Early life:Bowles was born in London, England, the son of Sarah Jane and Herbert Reginald Bowles. His father was a chauffeur and butler at a stately home in Warwickshire; but, upon the outbreak of World War II, he was seconded to work as an engineer at Rolls-Royce and moved the family to Nottingham...
, Belinda Lang
Belinda Lang
Belinda Lang is an English actress, best known in the United Kingdom for her role as Bill Porter in the long running BBC sitcom 2point4 children .-Television:...
and Kim Medcalf
Kim Medcalf
Kim Louise Medcalf is an English actress and occasional singer.She has made occasional appearances as a singer and is best known for playing the character Sam Mitchell in the long running BBC Soap Opera EastEnders from 2002 to 2005....
. 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
The Merry Wives of Windsor
The Merry Wives of Windsor is a comedy by William Shakespeare, first published in 1602, though believed to have been written prior to 1597. It features the fat knight Sir John Falstaff, and is Shakespeare's only play to deal exclusively with contemporary Elizabethan era English middle class life...
.
Dench's more recent film career has garnered six Academy Award nominations in nine years for Mrs. Brown
Mrs. Brown
Mrs. Brown is a 1997 British drama film starring Judi Dench, Billy Connolly, Geoffrey Palmer, Antony Sher and Gerard Butler...
in 1997; her Oscar-winning turn as Elizabeth I
Elizabeth I of England
Elizabeth I was queen regnant of England and Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death. Sometimes called The Virgin Queen, Gloriana, or Good Queen Bess, Elizabeth was the fifth and last monarch of the Tudor dynasty...
in Shakespeare in Love
Shakespeare in Love
Shakespeare in Love is a 1998 British-American comedy film directed by John Madden and written by Marc Norman and playwright Tom Stoppard....
in 1998; for Chocolat in 2000; for the lead role of writer Iris Murdoch
Iris Murdoch
Dame Iris Murdoch DBE was an Irish-born British author and philosopher, best known for her novels about political and social questions of good and evil, sexual relationships, morality, and the power of the unconscious...
in Iris in 2001 (with Kate Winslet
Kate Winslet
Kate Elizabeth Winslet is an English actress and occasional singer. She has received multiple awards and nominations. She was the youngest person to accrue six Academy Award nominations, and won the Academy Award for Best Actress for The Reader...
playing her as a younger woman); for Mrs Henderson Presents (a romanticised history of the Windmill Theatre
Windmill Theatre
The Windmill Theatre, later The Windmill International, was a variety and revue theatre in Great Windmill Street, London. The theatre was famous for its nude tableaux vivants...
) in 2005; and for 2006's Notes on a Scandal
Notes on a Scandal (film)
Notes on a Scandal is a 2006 British psychological thriller film, adapted from the 2003 novel of the same name by Zoë Heller. The screenplay was written by Patrick Marber and the film was directed by Richard Eyre. Many parts of the film were shot in Islington Arts and Media School...
, a film for which she received critical acclaim, including Golden Globe, Academy Award, BAFTA and Screen Actors Guild
Screen Actors Guild
The Screen Actors Guild is an American labor union representing over 200,000 film and television principal performers and background performers worldwide...
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
Michael Gambon
Sir Michael John Gambon, CBE is an Irish actor who has worked in theatre, television and film. A highly respected theatre actor, Gambon is recognised for his roles as Philip Marlowe in the BBC television serial The Singing Detective, as Jules Maigret in the 1990s ITV serial Maigret, and as...
, 1987), Make and Break (with Robert Hardy
Robert Hardy
Timothy Sydney Robert Hardy, CBE, FSA is an English actor with a long career in the theatre, film and television. He is also an acknowledged expert on the longbow.-Early life:...
, 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
Eileen Atkins
Dame Eileen June Atkins, DBE is an English actress and occasional screenwriter.- Early life :Atkins was born in the Mothers' Hospital in Clapton, a Salvation Army women's hostel in East London...
, Michael Gambon, Imelda Staunton
Imelda Staunton
Imelda Mary Philomena Bernadette Staunton, OBE is an English actress. She is perhaps best known for her performances in the British comedy television series Up the Garden Path, the Harry Potter film series and Vera Drake...
and Francesca Annis
Francesca Annis
Francesca Annis is an English actress, known for her film and television appearances, most recently in the BBC series Wives and Daughters, Cranford, and Deceit.-Early life and education:...
, in the BBC One
BBC One
BBC One is the flagship television channel of the British Broadcasting Corporation in the United Kingdom. It was launched on 2 November 1936 as the BBC Television Service, and was the world's first regular television service with a high level of image resolution...
five-part series Cranford
Cranford (TV series)
Cranford is a British television series directed by Simon Curtis and Steve Hudson. The teleplay by Heidi Thomas was adapted from three novellas by Elizabeth Gaskell published between 1849 and 1858: Cranford, My Lady Ludlow, and Mr Harrison's Confessions...
. The series began transmission in the UK in November 2007, and on the BBC's U.S. producing partner station WGBH
WGBH-TV
WGBH-TV, channel 2, is a non-commercial educational public television station located in Boston, Massachusetts, USA. WGBH-TV is a member station of the Public Broadcasting Service , and produces more than two-thirds of PBS's national prime time television programming...
(PBS Boston) in spring 2008.
Dench became the voice for the narration for the updated Walt Disney World Epcot
Epcot
Epcot is a theme park in the Walt Disney World Resort, located near Orlando, Florida. The park is dedicated to the celebration of human achievement, namely international culture and technological innovation. The second park built at the resort, it opened on October 1, 1982 and was initially named...
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
York
York is a walled city, situated at the confluence of the Rivers Ouse and Foss in North Yorkshire, England. The city has a rich heritage and has provided the backdrop to major political events throughout much of its two millennia of existence...
.
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
Brigadier Gerard Stakes
The Brigadier Gerard Stakes is a Group 3 flat horse race in Great Britain open to thoroughbreds aged four years or older. It is run at Sandown Park over a distance of 1 mile, 2 furlongs and 7 yards , and it is scheduled to take place each year in late May or early June.The event was established in...
.
She returned to the West End from 13 March – 23 May 2009, playing Madame de Merteuil in Yukio Mishima
Yukio Mishima
was the pen name of , a Japanese author, poet, playwright, actor and film director, also remembered for his ritual suicide by seppuku after a failed coup d'état...
's Madame De Sade
Madame de Sade
Madame de Sade is a 1965 play written by Yukio Mishima. It was first published in English, translated by Donald Keene by Grove Press and is currently out of print....
, directed by Michael Grandage
Michael Grandage
Michael Grandage CBE is a British theatre director and producer, and current Artistic Director at the Donmar Warehouse, London. Grandage won the 2010 Tony Award for Best Direction of a Play for Red.-Early years:...
as part of the Donmar season at Wyndham's Theatre
Wyndham's Theatre
Wyndham's Theatre is a West End theatre, one of two opened by the actor/manager Charles Wyndham . Located on Charing Cross Road, in the City of Westminster, it was designed by W.G.R. Sprague about 1898, the architect of six other London theatres between then and 1916...
. A year later, Dench renewed her collaboration with Sir Peter Hall at the Rose Theatre in Kingston upon Thames in A Midsummer Night's Dream which opened in February 2010, when she played Titania as Elizabeth I of England
Elizabeth I of England
Elizabeth I was queen regnant of England and Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death. Sometimes called The Virgin Queen, Gloriana, or Good Queen Bess, Elizabeth was the fifth and last monarch of the Tudor dynasty...
in her later years: Queen of the Forest of Arden. On 31 July 2010, Dame Judi performed Send in the Clowns at a special celebratory Promenade Concert from The Royal Albert Hall as part of the Proms Season, in honour of composer Stephen Sondheim's 80th Birthday, the entire concert in honour of his music.
She is currently filming her seventh Bond film titled "Skyfall" in the role of "M"
Public life
Dench was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British EmpireOrder of the British Empire
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order comprises five classes in civil and military divisions...
in 1970 and promoted to Dame Commander of the order in 1988. She was appointed a Member of the Order of the Companions of Honour
Order of the Companions of Honour
The Order of the Companions of Honour is an order of the Commonwealth realms. It was founded by King George V in June 1917, as a reward for outstanding achievements in the arts, literature, music, science, politics, industry or religion....
in 2005. In June 2011, she became a fellow of the British Film Institute
British Film Institute
The British Film Institute is a charitable organisation established by Royal Charter to:-Cinemas:The BFI runs the BFI Southbank and IMAX theatre, both located on the south bank of the River Thames in London...
(BFI).
Dench is a patron of The Leaveners
The Leaveners
The Leaveners are a performing arts organisation consisting of members of the Religious Society of Friends .They started at Britain Yearly Meeting in 1978 and have been growing ever since. They run a number of projects, most specifically for young people, some resulting in a performance but most...
, Friends School Saffron Walden
Friends School Saffron Walden
Friends' School is an Quaker independent school located in Saffron Walden, Essex, situated approximately 12 miles south of the city of Cambridge...
and the Archway Theatre, Horley
Horley
Horley is a town in Surrey, England, situated south of the twin towns of Reigate and Redhill, and north of Gatwick Airport and Crawley.With fast links by train to London from Horley railway station, it has grown popular with commuters in recent years...
, UK. She became president of Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts
Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts
Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts is an independent drama school situated in the Wood Green area of North London. It was founded in 1945 by Peter Coxhead and Ralph Nossek as 'The Mountview Theatre Club', an amateur repertory company staging a new production for a six-day run every second week...
in London in 2006, taking over from Sir John Mills, and is also president of the Questors Theatre
Questors Theatre
The Questors Theatre is a theatre venue located in the London Borough of Ealing, west London. It is home of The Questors, a non-professional theatre company and is a member of The Little Theatre Guild of Great Britain.-Activities:...
. In May 2006, she became an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts
Royal Society of Arts
The Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufacturers and Commerce is a British multi-disciplinary institution, based in London. The name Royal Society of Arts is frequently used for brevity...
. She was also patron of Ovingdean Hall School, a special day and boarding school for the deaf and hard of hearing in Brighton, which closed in 2010, and Vice President of The Little Foundation
The Little Foundation
The Little Foundation is a London based charity operating internationally.Named in honour of William Little, the English surgeon who described what became known as 'Little's disease', a spastic paralysis of both lower limbs which then became known as infantile cerebral palsy...
.
Dench is an Honorary Fellow of Lucy Cavendish College, Cambridge. In 1996, she was awarded an Honorary Doctorate
Honorary degree
An honorary degree or a degree honoris causa is an academic degree for which a university has waived the usual requirements, such as matriculation, residence, study, and the passing of examinations...
(D.Univ) from Surrey University and in 2000-2001 she received an Honorary DLitt from Durham University
Durham University
The University of Durham, commonly known as Durham University, is a university in Durham, England. It was founded by Act of Parliament in 1832 and granted a Royal Charter in 1837...
. In July 2000, she was awarded a Doctor of Letters (D.Litt) by Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh, where she actively supported their Drama School at the Gateway Theatre on Elm Row. On 24 June 2008, she was honoured by the University of St Andrews
University of St Andrews
The University of St Andrews, informally referred to as "St Andrews", is the oldest university in Scotland and the third oldest in the English-speaking world after Oxford and Cambridge. The university is situated in the town of St Andrews, Fife, on the east coast of Scotland. It was founded between...
, receiving the honorary degree of Doctor of Letters (D.Litt) at the university's graduation ceremony.
Dench has worked with the non-governmental indigenous organisation, Survival International
Survival International
Survival International is a human rights organisation formed in 1969 that campaigns for the rights of indigenous tribal peoples and uncontacted peoples, seeking to help them to determine their own future. Their campaigns generally focus on tribal peoples' fight to keep their ancestral lands,...
, campaigning in the defence of the tribal people, the Bushmen
Bushmen
The indigenous people of Southern Africa, whose territory spans most areas of South Africa, Zimbabwe, Lesotho, Mozambique, Swaziland, Botswana, Namibia, and Angola, are variously referred to as Bushmen, San, Sho, Barwa, Kung, or Khwe...
of Botswana
Botswana
Botswana, officially the Republic of Botswana , is a landlocked country located in Southern Africa. The citizens are referred to as "Batswana" . Formerly the British protectorate of Bechuanaland, Botswana adopted its new name after becoming independent within the Commonwealth on 30 September 1966...
and the Arhuaco of Colombia
Colombia
Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia , is a unitary constitutional republic comprising thirty-two departments. The country is located in northwestern South America, bordered to the east by Venezuela and Brazil; to the south by Ecuador and Peru; to the north by the Caribbean Sea; to the...
. She made a small supporting video saying the Bushmen are victims of tyranny, greed and racism.
On 22 July 2010, Dench was awarded an honorary degree of Doctor of Letters (DLitt) by Nottingham Trent University
Nottingham Trent University
Nottingham Trent University is a public teaching and research university in Nottingham, United Kingdom. It was founded as a new university in 1992 from the existing Trent Polytechnic , however it can trace its roots back to 1843 with the establishment of the Nottingham Government School of Design...
.
Dr Hadwen Trust
Dr Hadwen Trust
The Dr Hadwen Trust is the UK's leading medical research charity that funds and promotes exclusively non-animal techniques to replace animal experiments...
announced on 15 January 2011 that Dench had become a patron of the trust joining existing high profile personalities, Joanna Lumley
Joanna Lumley
Joanna Lamond Lumley, OBE, FRGS is a British actress, voice-over artist, former-model and author, best known for her roles in British television series Absolutely Fabulous portraying Edina Monsoon's best friend, Patsy Stone, as well as parts in The New Avengers, Sapphire & Steel, and Sensitive...
and David Shepherd
David Shepherd (artist)
Richard David Shepherd CBE FRSA FGRA is a British artist and one of the world's most outspoken conservationists. He is most famous for his paintings of wildlife, although he also often paints steam railways, aircraft and landscapes...
.
Filmography
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1964 | Miss Humphries | ||
| 1965 | Four in the Morning Four in the Morning (film) Four in the Morning is a 1965 British film directed by Anthony Simmons.-External links:... |
Wife | BAFTA Award British Academy Film Awards The British Academy Film Awards are presented in an annual award show hosted by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts . It is the British counterpart of the Oscars. As of 2008, it has taken place in the Royal Opera House, having taken over from the flagship Odeon cinema on Leicester Square... for Most Promising Newcomer to Leading Film Roles |
| 1965 | Sally | ||
| 1965 | He Who Rides a Tiger He Who Rides a Tiger He Who Rides a Tiger is a 1965 British crime drama directed by Charles Crichton, and starring Tom Bell and Judi Dench.-Cast:* Tom Bell as Peter Rayston* Judi Dench as Joanne* Paul Rogers as Superintendent Taylor* Kay Walsh as Mrs... |
Joanne | |
| 1968 | Titania | ||
| 1973 | Luther Luther (1973 film) Luther is the 1973 film of John Osborne's biographical play, presenting the life of Martin Luther. It was one of eight in the first season of the American Film Theater's series of plays made into films. It was produced by Ely Landau, directed by British director Guy Green, and filmed at Shepperton... |
Katherine | |
| 1974 | Dead Cert | Laura Davidson | |
| 1978 | Langrishe, Go Down Langrishe, Go Down (film) Langrishe, Go Down, the novel by Aidan Higgins , was adapted for the screen by Harold Pinter, directed by David Jones, filmed for BBC Television in association with Raidió Teilifís Éireann, and first broadcast in September 1978 as a 90-minute BBC2 Play of the Week... |
Imogen Langrishe | BBC television film |
| 1985 | Narrator | ||
| 1985 | Wetherby Wetherby (film) Wetherby is a 1985 British drama film written and directed by playwright David Hare.-Plot synopsis:Set in the town of Wetherby in West Yorkshire, the film focuses on Jean Travers, a middle-aged spinster schoolteacher... |
Marcia Pilborough | Nominated — BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role Best Actress in a Supporting Role is a British Academy Film award presented annually by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts to recognize an actress who has delivered an outstanding supporting performance in a film... |
| 1985 | Eleanor Lavish | BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role Best Actress in a Supporting Role is a British Academy Film award presented annually by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts to recognize an actress who has delivered an outstanding supporting performance in a film... |
|
| 1987 | 84 Charing Cross Road 84 Charing Cross Road (film) 84 Charing Cross Road is a 1987 British/American drama film directed by David Hugh Jones. The screenplay by Hugh Whitemore is based on a play by James Roose-Evans, which itself was an adaptation of the 1970 epistolary memoir of the same name by Helene Hanff, a compilation of letters between herself... |
Nora Doel | Nominated — BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role Best Actress in a Supporting Role is a British Academy Film award presented annually by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts to recognize an actress who has delivered an outstanding supporting performance in a film... |
| 1988 | Mrs. Beaver | BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role Best Actress in a Supporting Role is a British Academy Film award presented annually by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts to recognize an actress who has delivered an outstanding supporting performance in a film... |
|
| 1989 | Henry V Henry V (1989 film) Henry V is a 1989 film directed by Kenneth Branagh, based on William Shakespeare's play The Life of Henry the Fifth about the famous English king. Branagh stars in the title role, and wrote the screenplay. The film was highly acclaimed on its release.... |
Mistress Quickly | |
| 1989 | Behaving Badly Behaving Badly (TV serial) Behaving Badly is a 1989 British television serial directed by David Tucker. The teleplay by Catherine Heath and Moira Williams is based on Heath's novel of the same name. It was initially broadcast by Channel 4... |
Bridget Mayor | Channel 4 Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British public-service television broadcaster which began working on 2 November 1982. Although largely commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station is now owned and operated by the Channel... television serial Nominated — British Academy Television Award for Best Actress British Academy Television Award for Best Actress - 1950s :*1955 Googie Withers*1956 Virginia McKenna*1957 Rosalie Crutchley*1958 Gwen Watford*1959 Catherine Lacey- 1960s :*1960 Catherine Lacey*1961 Billie Whitelaw*1962 Ruth Dunning*1963 Brenda Bruce*1964 Vivien Merchant*1965 Katherine Blake... |
| 1995 | Jack and Sarah Jack and Sarah Jack and Sarah is a 1995 British romantic comedy film written and directed by Tim Sullivan. The film was originally released in the UK on 2 June 1995.The theme song in this film is Stars by British pop group Simply Red.- Plot :... |
Margaret | |
| 1995 | GoldenEye GoldenEye GoldenEye is the seventeenth spy film in the James Bond series, and the first to star Pierce Brosnan as the fictional MI6 agent James Bond. The film was directed by Martin Campbell and is the first film in the series not to take story elements from the works of novelist Ian Fleming... |
M M (James Bond) M is a fictional character in Ian Fleming's James Bond series, as well as the films in the Bond franchise. The head of MI6 and Bond's superior, M has been portrayed by three actors in the official Bond film series: Bernard Lee, Robert Brown and since 1995 by Judi Dench. Background =Ian Fleming... |
|
| 1996 | Hamlet Hamlet (1996 film) Hamlet is a 1996 film version of William Shakespeare's classic play of the same name, adapted and directed by Kenneth Branagh, who also stars in the title role as Prince Hamlet... |
Hecuba Hecuba Hecuba was a queen in Greek mythology, the wife of King Priam of Troy during the Trojan War, with whom she had 19 children. These children included several major characters of Homer's Iliad such as the warriors Hector and Paris, and the prophetess Cassandra... |
|
| 1997 | Mrs. Brown Mrs. Brown Mrs. Brown is a 1997 British drama film starring Judi Dench, Billy Connolly, Geoffrey Palmer, Antony Sher and Gerard Butler... |
Queen Victoria | BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role Best Actress in a Leading Role is a British Academy Film award presented annually by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts to recognise an actress who has delivered an outstanding leading performance in a film.- Winners and nominees :... BAFTA Scotland BAFTA Scotland BAFTA in Scotland is the Scottish branch of the British Academy of Film and Television Arts. Formed in 1997, the branch holds an annual awards ceremony, the British Academy Scotland Awards , to recognise achievement by performers and production staff in Scottish film, television and video games... Award for Best Actress in a Film Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Drama Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Best Actress Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Best Actress The Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Best Actress is an annual award given by the Chicago Film Critics Association.-1980s:-1990s:-2000s:-2010s:-References:... London Film Critics' Circle Award for British Actress of the Year Online Film Critics Society Award for Best Actress Online Film Critics Society Award for Best Actress The Online Film Critics Society Award for Best Actress is an annual film award given by the Online Film Critics Society to honor the best lead actress of the year.Reese Witherspoon and Naomi Watts have each won this award twice.-1990s:-2000s:-2010s:... Satellite Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Drama Nominated — Academy Award for Best Actress Academy Award for Best Actress Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role is one of the Academy Awards of merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize an actress who has delivered an outstanding performance while working within the film industry... Nominated — Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role |
| 1997 | Tomorrow Never Dies Tomorrow Never Dies Tomorrow Never Dies is the eighteenth spy film in the James Bond series, and the second to star Pierce Brosnan as the fictional MI6 agent James Bond. Bruce Feirstein wrote the screenplay, and it was directed by Roger Spottiswoode. It follows Bond as he tries to stop a media mogul from engineering... |
M | |
| 1998 | Shakespeare in Love Shakespeare in Love Shakespeare in Love is a 1998 British-American comedy film directed by John Madden and written by Marc Norman and playwright Tom Stoppard.... |
Queen Elizabeth I Elizabeth I of England Elizabeth I was queen regnant of England and Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death. Sometimes called The Virgin Queen, Gloriana, or Good Queen Bess, Elizabeth was the fifth and last monarch of the Tudor dynasty... |
Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role is one of the Academy Awards of Merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize an actress who has delivered an outstanding performance while working within the film industry. Since its inception, however, the... BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role Best Actress in a Supporting Role is a British Academy Film award presented annually by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts to recognize an actress who has delivered an outstanding supporting performance in a film... Kansas City Film Critics Circle Award for Best Supporting Actress Kansas City Film Critics Circle Award for Best Supporting Actress The Kansas City Film Critics Circle Award for Best Supporting Actress is an award given by the Kansas City Film Critics Circle to honor the best achievements in acting.-1960s:-1970s:-1980s:-1990s:-2000s:-2010s:-References:*... National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Supporting Actress National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Supporting Actress The National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Supporting Actress is one of the annual awards given by the National Society of Film Critics.This awards was given for the first time in 1967 to Marjorie Rhodes for her role in The Family Way.... Nominated — Chlotrudis Award Chlotrudis Awards 1999 The 5th Annual Chlotrudis Awards were presented in 1999 by the Chlotrudis Society for Independent Film.-Best Movie:Gods and Monsters* Elizabeth* Happiness* High Art* Life Is Beautiful* The Opposite of Sex-Best Director:... for Best Supporting Actress Nominated — Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress – Motion Picture Nominated — Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role |
| 1999 | Tea with Mussolini Tea with Mussolini Tea with Mussolini is a 1999 British-Italian semi-autobiographical film directed by Franco Zeffirelli, telling the story of young Italian boy Luca's upbringing by a circle of English and American women, before and during World War II.-Plot:... |
Arabella | |
| 1999 | M | ||
| 2000 | Into the Arms of Strangers: Stories of the Kindertransport Into the Arms of Strangers: Stories of the Kindertransport Into the Arms of Strangers: Stories of the Kindertransport is a 2000 documentary film directed by Mark Jonathan Harris and narrated by Judi Dench. It tells the story of the kindertransport, an underground railroad that saved the lives of over 10,000 Jewish children... |
Narrator | Documentary |
| 2000 | Elizabeth | British Academy Television Award for Best Actress British Academy Television Award for Best Actress - 1950s :*1955 Googie Withers*1956 Virginia McKenna*1957 Rosalie Crutchley*1958 Gwen Watford*1959 Catherine Lacey- 1960s :*1960 Catherine Lacey*1961 Billie Whitelaw*1962 Ruth Dunning*1963 Brenda Bruce*1964 Vivien Merchant*1965 Katherine Blake... Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Miniseries or Television Film Nominated — Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress – Miniseries or a Movie Nominated — Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Miniseries or Television Movie |
|
| 2000 | Chocolat | Armande Voizin | Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role Nominated — Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role is one of the Academy Awards of Merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize an actress who has delivered an outstanding performance while working within the film industry. Since its inception, however, the... Nominated — BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role Best Actress in a Supporting Role is a British Academy Film award presented annually by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts to recognize an actress who has delivered an outstanding supporting performance in a film... Nominated — Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress – Motion Picture Nominated — Satellite Award for Best Supporting Actress – Motion Picture |
| 2001 | Iris | Iris Murdoch Iris Murdoch Dame Iris Murdoch DBE was an Irish-born British author and philosopher, best known for her novels about political and social questions of good and evil, sexual relationships, morality, and the power of the unconscious... |
BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role Best Actress in a Leading Role is a British Academy Film award presented annually by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts to recognise an actress who has delivered an outstanding leading performance in a film.- Winners and nominees :... London Film Critics' Circle Award for British Actress of the Year Nominated — Academy Award for Best Actress Academy Award for Best Actress Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role is one of the Academy Awards of merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize an actress who has delivered an outstanding performance while working within the film industry... Nominated — Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Drama Nominated — Phoenix Film Critics Society Award for Best Actress Phoenix Film Critics Society Award for Best Actress The Phoenix Film Critics Society Award for Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role is an award given by the Phoenix Film Critics Society to honor the finest achievements in filmmaking.-2000s:-2010s:... Nominated — Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role Nominated — Satellite Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Drama |
| 2001 | Agnis Hamm | Nominated — BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role Best Actress in a Supporting Role is a British Academy Film award presented annually by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts to recognize an actress who has delivered an outstanding supporting performance in a film... Nominated — Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role |
|
| 2002 | The Importance of Being Earnest The Importance of Being Earnest (2002 film) The Importance of Being Earnest is a 2002 British-American romantic comedy-drama film directed by Oliver Parker, based on Oscar Wilde's classic comedy of manners play of the same name. The original music score is composed by Charlie Mole... |
Lady Bracknell | |
| 2002 | Die Another Day Die Another Day Die Another Day is the 20th spy film in the James Bond series, and the fourth and last film to star Pierce Brosnan as the fictional MI6 agent James Bond; it is also the last Bond film of the original timeline with the series being rebooted with Casino Royale... |
M | |
| 2002–05 | Angelina Ballerina Angelina Ballerina Angelina Ballerina is a fictional mouse, created by author Katharine Holabird and illustrator Helen Craig, who is featured in a popular series of children's books... |
Miss Lilly | Voice role |
| 2003 | Bugs! | Narrator | Short subject |
| 2004 | Home on the Range | Mrs. Caloway | Voice role |
| 2004 | Aereon | ||
| 2004 | Ladies in Lavender Ladies in Lavender The film's original music was written by Nigel Hess and performed by Joshua Bell and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. Hess received a Classical BRIT Awards nomination for Best Soundtrack Composer.... |
Ursula Widdington | |
| 2005 | Pride & Prejudice Pride & Prejudice (2005 film) Pride & Prejudice is a 2005 British romance film directed by Joe Wright. It is a film adaptation of the 1813 novel of the same name by Jane Austen and the second adaption produced by Working Title Films. It was released on September 16, 2005, in the UK and on November 11, 2005, in the... |
Lady Catherine de Bourgh | |
| 2005 | Mrs Henderson Presents | Mrs. Laura Henderson | St. Louis Gateway Film Critics Association Award for Best Actress St. Louis Gateway Film Critics Association Award for Best Actress The St. Louis Gateway Film Critics Association Award for Best Actress is one of the annual awards given by the St. Louis Gateway Film Critics Association.-2000s:-2010s:... Nominated — Academy Award for Best Actress Academy Award for Best Actress Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role is one of the Academy Awards of merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize an actress who has delivered an outstanding performance while working within the film industry... Nominated — BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role Best Actress in a Leading Role is a British Academy Film award presented annually by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts to recognise an actress who has delivered an outstanding leading performance in a film.- Winners and nominees :... Nominated — British Independent Film Award British Independent Film Awards 2005 The 8th British Independent Film Awards, given on 30 November 2005 at the Hammersmith Palais, London, honoured the best British independent films of 2005.-Winners:*Best Actor:**Ralph Fiennes - The Constant Gardener*Best Actress:... for Best Actress Nominated — Broadcast Film Critics Association Award for Best Actress Nominated — Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy Nominated — London Film Critics' Circle Award for British Actress of the Year Nominated — Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role Nominated — Satellite Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy |
| 2006 | Narrator | ||
| 2006 | Casino Royale Casino Royale (2006 film) Casino Royale is the twenty-first film in the James Bond film series and the first to star Daniel Craig as fictional MI6 agent James Bond... |
M | Nominated — National Movie Award for Best Actress |
| 2006 | Notes on a Scandal Notes on a Scandal (film) Notes on a Scandal is a 2006 British psychological thriller film, adapted from the 2003 novel of the same name by Zoë Heller. The screenplay was written by Patrick Marber and the film was directed by Richard Eyre. Many parts of the film were shot in Islington Arts and Media School... |
Barbara Covett | British Independent Film Award British Independent Film Awards 2007 The 10th British Independent Film Awards, held in November 2007 at the Roundhouse in Camden, London, honoured the best British independent films of 2007.-Winners:*Best British Independent Film:**Control*Best Director:**Anton Corbijn - Control... for Best Actress Evening Standard British Film Award for Best Actress Nominated — Academy Award for Best Actress Academy Award for Best Actress Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role is one of the Academy Awards of merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize an actress who has delivered an outstanding performance while working within the film industry... Nominated — BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role Best Actress in a Leading Role is a British Academy Film award presented annually by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts to recognise an actress who has delivered an outstanding leading performance in a film.- Winners and nominees :... Nominated — Broadcast Film Critics Association Award for Best Actress Nominated — Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Best Actress Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Best Actress The Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Best Actress is an annual award given by the Chicago Film Critics Association.-1980s:-1990s:-2000s:-2010s:-References:... Nominated — Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Drama Nominated — London Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actress London Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actress The London Film Critics Circle Award for Actress of the Year in an annual award given by the London Film Critics Circle.-1990s:-2000s:-2010s:... Nominated — London Film Critics' Circle for British Actress of the Year Nominated — Online Film Critics Society Award for Best Actress Online Film Critics Society Award for Best Actress The Online Film Critics Society Award for Best Actress is an annual film award given by the Online Film Critics Society to honor the best lead actress of the year.Reese Witherspoon and Naomi Watts have each won this award twice.-1990s:-2000s:-2010s:... Nominated — Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role Nominated — Satellite Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Drama |
| 2007 | Go Inside to Greet the Light Go Inside to Greet the Light Go Inside to Greet the Light is a film sponsored by Quaker Outreach in Yorkshire and the Yorkshire Sculpture Park. Narrated by Judi Dench, this film gives a flavour of the spiritual experience of Quaker meetings for worship in James Turrell's Deershelter Skyspace... |
Narrator | |
| 2007, 2009 | Cranford Cranford (TV series) Cranford is a British television series directed by Simon Curtis and Steve Hudson. The teleplay by Heidi Thomas was adapted from three novellas by Elizabeth Gaskell published between 1849 and 1858: Cranford, My Lady Ludlow, and Mr Harrison's Confessions... |
Miss Matty | Nominated — British Academy Television Award for Best Actress British Academy Television Award for Best Actress - 1950s :*1955 Googie Withers*1956 Virginia McKenna*1957 Rosalie Crutchley*1958 Gwen Watford*1959 Catherine Lacey- 1960s :*1960 Catherine Lacey*1961 Billie Whitelaw*1962 Ruth Dunning*1963 Brenda Bruce*1964 Vivien Merchant*1965 Katherine Blake... Nominated — Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Miniseries or Television Film Nominated — Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress – Miniseries or a Movie Satellite Award for Best Actress – Miniseries or Television Film Satellite Award for Best Actress – Miniseries or Television Film -1990s:*1996: Helen Mirren - Prime Suspect 5: Errors of Judgment**Kirstie Alley - Suddenly**Lolita Davidovich - Harvest on Fire**Laura Dern - The Siege of Ruby Ridge**Jena Malone - Hidden in America... |
| 2008 | Quantum of Solace | M | |
| 2009 | Rage Rage (2009 film) Rage is a 2009 film written and directed by Sally Potter starring Jude Law and Judi Dench. The filmmakers said that the film created a new genre in filmmaking, called naked cinema.-Press releases:... |
Mona Carvell | |
| 2009 | Nine Nine (film) Nine is a 2009 musical-romantic film directed and produced by Rob Marshall. The screenplay, written by Michael Tolkin and Anthony Minghella, is based on Arthur Kopit's book for the 1982 musical of the same name, which was itself suggested by Federico Fellini's semi-autobiographical film 8½... |
Liliane La Fleur | Satellite Award for Best Cast – Motion Picture Nominated — Broadcast Film Critics Association Award for Best Cast Nominated — Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture Nominated — Washington D.C. Area Film Critics Association Washington D.C. Area Film Critics Association The Washington D.C. Area Film Critics Association is a group of film critics based out of Washington, D.C., United States that was founded in 2003. WAFCA is composed of 34 DC-based film critics from television, radio, print and the internet... Award for Best Ensemble |
| 2011 | Jane Eyre Jane Eyre (2011 film) Jane Eyre is a 2011 British romantic drama film directed by Cary Joji Fukunaga and starring Mia Wasikowska and Michael Fassbender. The screenplay is written by Moira Buffini based on the 1847 novel of the same name by Charlotte Brontë... |
Mrs. Fairfax | |
| 2011 | Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides is a 2011 adventure fantasy film and the fourth installment in the Pirates of the Caribbean series... |
Noblewoman | Cameo |
| 2011 | My Week with Marilyn My Week with Marilyn My Week with Marilyn is a British drama film directed by Simon Curtis and written by Adrian Hodges. It stars Michelle Williams, Kenneth Branagh, Eddie Redmayne, Dougray Scott, Judi Dench and Emma Watson. Based on two books by Colin Clark, it depicts the making of the 1957 film The Prince and the... |
Dame Sybil Thorndike Sybil Thorndike Dame Agnes Sybil Thorndike CH DBE was a British actress.-Early life:She was born in Gainsborough, Lincolnshire to Arthur Thorndike and Agnes Macdonald. Her father was a Canon of Rochester Cathedral... |
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| 2011 | J. Edgar J. Edgar J. Edgar is a 2011 biographical drama film directed by Clint Eastwood, from a script by Dustin Lance Black. The film focuses on the career of FBI director J... |
Anna Marie | |
| 2012 | The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel is an upcoming British comedy-drama film directed by John Madden and written by Ol Parker. The film stars Judi Dench, Bill Nighy, Dev Patel, Tom Wilkinson and Maggie Smith. The plot follows the life of a group of British retirees staying in an elderly home in... |
Evelyn | Filming |
| 2012 | Skyfall | M | Filming |
She has also lent her likeness and voice for the role of M in James Bond video games:
- Everything or Nothing
- GoldenEye: Rogue AgentGoldenEye: Rogue AgentGoldenEye: Rogue Agent is a 2004 action-adventure Science-Fiction First-Person Shooter video game, developed and published by Electronic Arts. Despite it is set in an alternate timeline of James Bond universe, the player takes the role of an ex-MI6 agent who is recruited by Auric Goldfinger, a...
- Quantum of SolaceQuantum of Solace (video game)007: Quantum of Solace is a first-person shooter video game based on the films Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace. The game was released for Microsoft Windows, Nintendo DS, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, Wii and Xbox 360...
- GoldenEye 007GoldenEye 007 (2010 video game)GoldenEye 007 is a 2010 first-person shooter video game developed by Eurocom and published by Activision for the Wii video game console, and the Nintendo DS handheld game console. It is a reimagining of the 1995 James Bond film GoldenEye, and the 1997 Nintendo 64 video game GoldenEye 007...
- Blood Stone
Theatre work
Source: "Judi Dench: With a Crack in her Voice" by John MillerAs an actress
St Mary's Abbey- 1957
- York Mystery PlaysYork Mystery PlaysThe York Mystery Plays, more properly called the York Corpus Christi Plays, are a Middle English cycle of forty-eight mystery plays, or pageants, which cover sacred history from the creation to the Last Judgement. These were traditionally presented on the feast day of Corpus Christi...
- Virgin Mary
Old Vic Company
Old Vic
The Old Vic is a theatre located just south-east of Waterloo Station in London on the corner of The Cut and Waterloo Road. Established in 1818 as the Royal Coburg Theatre, it was taken over by Emma Cons in 1880 when it was known formally as the Royal Victoria Hall. In 1898, a niece of Cons, Lilian...
- 1957
- HamletHamletThe Tragical History of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, or more simply Hamlet, is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1599 and 1601...
- Ophelia - Measure for MeasureMeasure for MeasureMeasure for Measure is a play by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written in 1603 or 1604. It was classified as comedy, but its mood defies those expectations. As a result and for a variety of reasons, some critics have labelled it as one of Shakespeare's problem plays...
- Juliet - A Midsummer Night's DreamA Midsummer Night's DreamA Midsummer Night's Dream is a play that was written by William Shakespeare. It is believed to have been written between 1590 and 1596. It portrays the events surrounding the marriage of the Duke of Athens, Theseus, and the Queen of the Amazons, Hippolyta...
- First Fairy- 1958
- Twelfth Night - Maria (also USA tour)
- Henry VHenry V (play)Henry V is a history play by William Shakespeare, believed to be written in approximately 1599. Its full titles are The Cronicle History of Henry the Fifth and The Life of Henry the Fifth...
- Katharine (also USA tour)- 1959
- The Double Dealer - Cynthia
- As You Like ItAs You Like ItAs You Like It is a pastoral comedy by William Shakespeare believed to have been written in 1599 or early 1600 and first published in the folio of 1623. The play's first performance is uncertain, though a performance at Wilton House in 1603 has been suggested as a possibility...
- Phebe - The Importance of Being EarnestThe Importance of Being EarnestThe Importance of Being Earnest, A Trivial Comedy for Serious People is a play by Oscar Wilde. First performed on 14 February 1895 at St. James's Theatre in London, it is a farcical comedy in which the protagonists maintain fictitious personae in order to escape burdensome social obligations...
- Cecily - The Merry Wives of WindsorThe Merry Wives of WindsorThe Merry Wives of Windsor is a comedy by William Shakespeare, first published in 1602, though believed to have been written prior to 1597. It features the fat knight Sir John Falstaff, and is Shakespeare's only play to deal exclusively with contemporary Elizabethan era English middle class life...
- Anne Page- 1960
- Richard IIRichard II (play)King Richard the Second is a history play by William Shakespeare believed to be written in approximately 1595. It is based on the life of King Richard II of England and is the first part of a tetralogy, referred to by some scholars as the Henriad, followed by three plays concerning Richard's...
- Queen - Romeo and JulietRomeo and JulietRomeo and Juliet is a tragedy written early in the career of playwright William Shakespeare about two young star-crossed lovers whose deaths ultimately unite their feuding families. It was among Shakespeare's most popular archetypal stories of young, teenage lovers.Romeo and Juliet belongs to a...
- Juliet (also Venice Festival) - She Stoops to ConquerShe Stoops to ConquerShe Stoops to Conquer is a comedy by the Irish author Oliver Goldsmith, son of an Anglo-Irish vicar, first performed in London in 1773. The play is a great favourite for study by English literature and theatre classes in Britain and the United States. It is one of the few plays from the 18th...
- Kate Hardcastle - A Midsummer Night's DreamA Midsummer Night's DreamA Midsummer Night's Dream is a play that was written by William Shakespeare. It is believed to have been written between 1590 and 1596. It portrays the events surrounding the marriage of the Duke of Athens, Theseus, and the Queen of the Amazons, Hippolyta...
- Hermia- Also walk-on roles in King LearKing LearKing Lear is a tragedy by William Shakespeare. The title character descends into madness after foolishly disposing of his estate between two of his three daughters based on their flattery, bringing tragic consequences for all. The play is based on the legend of Leir of Britain, a mythological...
and Henry VI (Parts 1 and 2)Henry VI, part 1Henry VI, Part 1 or The First Part of Henry the Sixt is a history play by William Shakespeare, and possibly Thomas Nashe, believed to have been written in 1591, and set during the lifetime of King Henry VI of England...
- Also walk-on roles in King Lear
Royal Shakespeare Company
Royal Shakespeare Company
The Royal Shakespeare Company is a major British theatre company, based in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England. The company employs 700 staff and produces around 20 productions a year from its home in Stratford-upon-Avon and plays regularly in London, Newcastle-upon-Tyne and on tour across...
RSC
- 1961
- The Cherry OrchardThe Cherry OrchardThe Cherry Orchard is Russian playwright Anton Chekhov's last play. It premiered at the Moscow Art Theatre 17 January 1904 in a production directed by Constantin Stanislavski. Chekhov intended this play as a comedy and it does contain some elements of farce; however, Stanislavski insisted on...
- Anya, Aldwych Theatre- 1962
- Measure for MeasureMeasure for MeasureMeasure for Measure is a play by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written in 1603 or 1604. It was classified as comedy, but its mood defies those expectations. As a result and for a variety of reasons, some critics have labelled it as one of Shakespeare's problem plays...
- Isabella, Stratford - A Midsummer Night's DreamA Midsummer Night's DreamA Midsummer Night's Dream is a play that was written by William Shakespeare. It is believed to have been written between 1590 and 1596. It portrays the events surrounding the marriage of the Duke of Athens, Theseus, and the Queen of the Amazons, Hippolyta...
- Titania, Stratford - A Penny for a Song - Dorcas Bellboys, Aldwych
Nottingham Playhouse Company
- 1963
- MacbethMacbethThe Tragedy of Macbeth is a play by William Shakespeare about a regicide and its aftermath. It is Shakespeare's shortest tragedy and is believed to have been written sometime between 1603 and 1607...
- Lady Macbeth (also West Africa tour) - Twelfth Night - Viola (also West Africa tour)
- A Shot in the DarkL'IdioteL'Idiote is a comic mystery play by Marcel Achard. It is best known in the United States as A Shot in the Dark and was adapted into a film under that title. The English adaptation by Harry Kurnitz had a 1961-1962 Broadway run, directed by Harold Clurman. Its cast included Julie Harris, Walter...
- Josefa Lautenay, Lyric Theatre
The Oxford Playhouse Company
- 1964
- Three SistersThree Sisters (play)Three Sisters is a play by Russian author and playwright Anton Chekhov, perhaps partially inspired by the situation of the three Brontë sisters, but most probably by the three Zimmermann sisters in Perm...
- Irina - The Twelfth Hour - Anna
- 1965
- The AlchemistThe Alchemist (play)The Alchemist is a comedy by English playwright Ben Jonson. First performed in 1610 by the King's Men, it is generally considered Jonson's best and most characteristic comedy; Samuel Taylor Coleridge claimed that it had one of the three most perfect plots in literature...
- Dol Common - Romeo and Jeannette - Jeannette
- The Firescreen - Jacqueline
Nottingham Playhouse Company
- 1965
- Measure for MeasureMeasure for MeasureMeasure for Measure is a play by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written in 1603 or 1604. It was classified as comedy, but its mood defies those expectations. As a result and for a variety of reasons, some critics have labelled it as one of Shakespeare's problem plays...
- Isabella - Private LivesPrivate LivesPrivate Lives is a 1930 comedy of manners in three acts by Noël Coward. It focuses on a divorced couple who discover that they are honeymooning with their new spouses in neighbouring rooms at the same hotel. Despite a perpetually stormy relationship, they realise that they still have feelings for...
- Amanda- 1966
- The Country WifeThe Country WifeThe Country Wife is a Restoration comedy written in 1675 by William Wycherley. A product of the tolerant early Restoration period, the play reflects an aristocratic and anti-Puritan ideology, and was controversial for its sexual explicitness even in its own time. The title itself contains a lewd pun...
- Margery Pinchwife - The Astrakhan Coat - Barbara
- St JoanSaint Joan (play)Saint Joan is a play by George Bernard Shaw, based on the life and trial of Joan of Arc. Published not long after the canonization of Joan of Arc by the Roman Catholic Church, the play dramatises what is known of her life based on the substantial records of her trial. Shaw studied the transcripts...
- Joan
Oxford Playhouse Company
- 1966
- The Promise - Lika
- The Rules of the GameThe Rules of the GameThe Rules of the Game is a 1939 French film directed by Jean Renoir about upper-class French society just before the start of World War II...
- Silia- 1967
- The Promise - Lika, Fortune Theatre
Palace Theatre
Palace Theatre, London
The Palace Theatre is a West End theatre in the City of Westminster in London. It is an imposing red-brick building that dominates the west side of Cambridge Circus and is located near the intersection of Shaftesbury Avenue and Charing Cross Road...
- 1968
- Cabaret - Sally Bowles
RSC
- 1969
- The Winter's TaleThe Winter's TaleThe Winter's Tale is a play by William Shakespeare, originally published in the First Folio of 1623. Although it was grouped among the comedies, some modern editors have relabelled the play as one of Shakespeare's late romances. Some critics, among them W. W...
- Hermione and Perdita, Stratford - Women Beware WomenWomen Beware WomenWomen Beware Women is a Jacobean tragedy written by Thomas Middleton, and first published in 1657.-Date:The date of authorship of the play is deeply uncertain. Scholars have estimated its origin anywhere from 1612 to 1627; 1623–24 has been plausibly suggested...
- Bianca, Stratford - Twelfth Night - Viola, Stratford
- 1970
- London AssuranceLondon AssuranceLondon Assurance is a five-act comedy by Dion Boucicault. It was the second play that he wrote, but his first to be produced. Its first production, from March 4, 1841 at the Theatre Royal, Covent Garden was Boucicault's first major success...
- Grace Harkaway, Aldwych - Major Barbara - Barbara Undershaft, Aldwych
- 1971
- The Merchant of VeniceThe Merchant of VeniceThe Merchant of Venice is a tragic comedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1596 and 1598. Though classified as a comedy in the First Folio and sharing certain aspects with Shakespeare's other romantic comedies, the play is perhaps most remembered for its dramatic...
- Portia, Stratford - The Duchess of MalfiThe Duchess of MalfiThe Duchess of Malfi is a macabre, tragic play written by the English dramatist John Webster in 1612–13. It was first performed privately at the Blackfriars Theatre, then before a more general audience at The Globe, in 1613-14...
- Duchess, Stratford - Toad of Toad HallToad of Toad HallToad of Toad Hall is the first of several dramatisations of Kenneth Grahame's 1908 novel The Wind in the Willows. It was written by A. A. Milne, with incidental music by Harold Fraser-Simson....
- Fielfmouse, Stoat and Mother Rabbit, Stratford
No Company
- 1973
- Context to Whisper - Aurelia, Royal, York
- FanfareFanfareA Fanfare is a relatively short piece of music that is typically played by trumpets and other brass instruments often accompanied by percussion...
- Royal Opera House (with Laurence OlivierLaurence OlivierLaurence Kerr Olivier, Baron Olivier, OM was an English actor, director, and producer. He was one of the most famous and revered actors of the 20th century. He married three times, to fellow actors Jill Esmond, Vivien Leigh, and Joan Plowright...
) - The Wolf - Vilma, Oxford Playhouse (also at Apollo, Queen's & New London)
West End
- 1974
- The Good CompanionsThe Good CompanionsThe Good Companions is a novel by the English author J. B. Priestley.Written in 1929 , it focuses on the trials and tribulations of a concert party in England between World War I and World War II. It is arguably Priestley's most famous novel, and the work which established him as a national figure...
- Miss Trant, Her Majesty's- 1975
- The Gay Lord Quex - Sophy Fullgarney, Albery
RSC
- 1975
- Too True to Be GoodToo True to Be GoodToo True to Be Good is a comedy written by playwright George Bernard Shaw at the age of 76. The play was first staged at the Guild Theatre, New York, followed in the same year by a production in Malvern, Worcestershire. It has been shown at the Shaw Festival 3 times : 1982, 1994, 2006, see Shaw...
- Sweetie Simpkins, Aldwych- 1976
- Much Ado About NothingMuch Ado About NothingMuch Ado About Nothing is a comedy written by William Shakespeare about two pairs of lovers, Benedick and Beatrice, and Claudio and Hero....
- Beatrice, Stratford - MacbethMacbethThe Tragedy of Macbeth is a play by William Shakespeare about a regicide and its aftermath. It is Shakespeare's shortest tragedy and is believed to have been written sometime between 1603 and 1607...
- Lady Macbeth, Stratford (also Donmar WarehouseDonmar WarehouseDonmar Warehouse is a small not-for-profit theatre in the Covent Garden area of London, with a capacity of 251.-About:Under the artistic leadership of Michael Grandage, the theatre has presented some of London’s most memorable award-winning theatrical experiences, as well as garnered critical...
and Young Vic) - The Comedy of ErrorsThe Comedy of Errors (1976 musical)The Comedy of Errors is a musical with a book and lyrics by Trevor Nunn and music by Guy Woolfenden. It is based on the William Shakespeare play of the same title, which previously was adapted for the musical stage as The Boys from Syracuse by Richard Rodgers, Lorenz Hart, and George Abbott in 1938...
- Adriana, Stratford - King LearKing LearKing Lear is a tragedy by William Shakespeare. The title character descends into madness after foolishly disposing of his estate between two of his three daughters based on their flattery, bringing tragic consequences for all. The play is based on the legend of Leir of Britain, a mythological...
- Regan, Stratford- 1977
- Pillars of the Community - Lona Hessel, Aldwych
- 1978
- The Way of the WorldThe Way of the WorldThe Way of the World is a play written by British playwright William Congreve. It premiered in 1700 in the theatre in Lincoln's Inn Fields in London...
- Millamant, Aldwych- 1979
- CymbelineCymbelineCymbeline , also known as Cymbeline, King of Britain or The Tragedy of Cymbeline, is a play by William Shakespeare, based on legends concerning the early Celtic British King Cunobelinus. Although listed as a tragedy in the First Folio, modern critics often classify Cymbeline as a romance...
- Imogen, Stratford- 1980
- Juno and the PaycockJuno and the PaycockJuno and the Paycock is a play by Sean O'Casey, and one of the most highly regarded and oft-performed plays in Ireland. It was first staged at the Abbey Theatre in Dublin in 1924...
- Juno Boyle, Aldwych
No Company
- 1981
- A Village Wooing - Young Woman, New End
National Theatre
Royal National Theatre
The Royal National Theatre in London is one of the United Kingdom's two most prominent publicly funded theatre companies, alongside the Royal Shakespeare Company...
- 1982
- The Importance of Being EarnestThe Importance of Being EarnestThe Importance of Being Earnest, A Trivial Comedy for Serious People is a play by Oscar Wilde. First performed on 14 February 1895 at St. James's Theatre in London, it is a farcical comedy in which the protagonists maintain fictitious personae in order to escape burdensome social obligations...
- Lady Bracknell, Lyttelton
- A Kind of AlaskaA Kind of AlaskaA Kind of Alaska is a one-act play written in 1982 by Harold Pinter , the 2005 Nobel Laureate in Literature.-Summary:A middle-aged woman named Deborah, who has been in a comatose state for thirty years as a result of contracting sleeping sickness, awakes with a mind still that of a sixteen-year-old...
- Deborah, Cottesloe- 1983
- Pack of LiesPack of LiesPack of Lies is a 1983 play by English writer Hugh Whitemore.Based on a true story, the plot centres on Bob and Barbara Jackson and their teenage daughter Julie The Jacksons are friendly with their neighbours, Peter and Helen Kroger, until the couple is...
- Barbara Jackson, Lyric
RSC
- 1984
- Mother CourageMother CourageMother Courage is a character from a Grimmelshausen novel Lebensbeschreibung der Ertzbetrügerin und Landstörtzerin Courasche dating from around 1670...
- Mother Courage, Barbican - WasteWasteWaste is unwanted or useless materials. In biology, waste is any of the many unwanted substances or toxins that are expelled from living organisms, metabolic waste; such as urea, sweat or feces. Litter is waste which has been disposed of improperly...
Amy O'Connell, Barbican and Lyric
West End
- 1986
- Mr and Mrs Nobody - Carrie Pooter, Garrick
National Theatre
- 1987
- Antony and CleopatraAntony and CleopatraAntony and Cleopatra is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written sometime between 1603 and 1607. It was first printed in the First Folio of 1623. The plot is based on Thomas North's translation of Plutarch's Lives and follows the relationship between Cleopatra and Mark Antony...
- Cleopatra, Olivier - Entertaining Strangers - Sarah Eldridge, Cottesloe
- 1989
- HamletHamletThe Tragical History of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, or more simply Hamlet, is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1599 and 1601...
- Gertrude, Olivier
RSC
- The Cherry OrchardThe Cherry OrchardThe Cherry Orchard is Russian playwright Anton Chekhov's last play. It premiered at the Moscow Art Theatre 17 January 1904 in a production directed by Constantin Stanislavski. Chekhov intended this play as a comedy and it does contain some elements of farce; however, Stanislavski insisted on...
- Ranevskaya, Aldwych- 1991
- The Plough and the Stars - Bessie Burgess, Young Vic
National Theatre
- 1991
- The SeaThe Sea (play)The Sea is a play written by the English dramatist Edward Bond in 1973. It is a comedy set in a small village in rural East Anglia in the Edwardian period. The play draws on some of the themes of Shakespeare's The Tempest....
- Mrs Rafi, Lyttelton
- 1992
- CoriolanusCoriolanusGaius Marcius Coriolanus was a Roman general who is said to have lived in the 5th century BC. He received his toponymic cognomen "Coriolanus" because of his exceptional valor in a Roman siege of the Volscian city of Corioli. He was then promoted to a general...
- Volumnia, Chichester
Royal Shakespeare Company
- 1992
- The Gift of the Gorgon - Helen Damson, Barbican and Wyndham's
National Theatre
- 1994
- The SeagullThe SeagullThe Seagull is the first of what are generally considered to be the four major plays by the Russian dramatist Anton Chekhov. The Seagull was written in 1895 and first produced in 1896...
- Arkadina, Olivier- 1995
- Absolute Hell - Christine Foskett, Lyttelton
- A Little Night MusicA Little Night MusicA Little Night Music is a musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and book by Hugh Wheeler. Inspired by the Ingmar Bergman film Smiles of a Summer Night, it involves the romantic lives of several couples. Its title is a literal English translation of the German name for Mozart's Serenade...
- Desirée Armfeldt, Olivier- 1997
- Amy's ViewAmy's ViewAmy's View was written by British playwright David Hare, and originally premiered in London at the Royal National Theatre's Lyttelton Theatre on June 13, 1997. It was directed by Richard Eyre and starred Judi Dench, Ronald Pickup and Samantha Bond in the title role. It was then performed on...
- Esmé, Lyttelton
- 1998
- Amy's ViewAmy's ViewAmy's View was written by British playwright David Hare, and originally premiered in London at the Royal National Theatre's Lyttelton Theatre on June 13, 1997. It was directed by Richard Eyre and starred Judi Dench, Ronald Pickup and Samantha Bond in the title role. It was then performed on...
- Esmé, Aldwych
West End and Broadway
- 1998
- Filumena - Filumena, Piccadilly
- 1999
- Amy's ViewAmy's ViewAmy's View was written by British playwright David Hare, and originally premiered in London at the Royal National Theatre's Lyttelton Theatre on June 13, 1997. It was directed by Richard Eyre and starred Judi Dench, Ronald Pickup and Samantha Bond in the title role. It was then performed on...
- Esmé, Barrymore, New York- 2001
- The Royal FamilyThe Royal FamilyThe Royal Family is a play written by George S. Kaufman and Edna Ferber. Its premiere on Broadway was at the Selwyn Theatre on 28 December 1927, where it ran for 345 performances to close in October 1928.-Plot summary:Characters...
- Fanny Cavendish, Theatre Royal Haymarket- 2002
- The Breath of Life - Frances, Theatre Royal Haymarket
RSC
- 2003
- All's Well That Ends WellAll's Well That Ends WellAll's Well That Ends Well is a play by William Shakespeare. It is believed to have been written between 1604 and 1605, and was originally published in the First Folio in 1623....
- The Countess, Stratford and Gielgud
West End
- 2006
- Hay FeverHay FeverHay Fever is a comic play written by Noël Coward in 1924 and first produced in 1925 with Marie Tempest as the first Judith Bliss. Laura Hope Crews played the role in New York...
- Judith Bliss, Theatre Royal Haymarket
RSC
- 2006
- The Merry Wives - The Musical - Mistress Quickly, Stratford
Donmar Warehouse
- 2009
- Madame de SadeMadame de SadeMadame de Sade is a 1965 play written by Yukio Mishima. It was first published in English, translated by Donald Keene by Grove Press and is currently out of print....
- Madame de Montreuil, Donmar at Wyndham's
Rose Theatre, Kingston
- 2010 A Midsummer Night's DreamA Midsummer Night's DreamA Midsummer Night's Dream is a play that was written by William Shakespeare. It is believed to have been written between 1590 and 1596. It portrays the events surrounding the marriage of the Duke of Athens, Theseus, and the Queen of the Amazons, Hippolyta...
- Titania (as Elizabeth I, Queen of the Forest of Arden)
Open Air Theatre, Regent's Park
- 2010 Into The Woods - Stephen Sondheim - Voice of The Giant
As a director
- 1988 - Much Ado About Nothing, Renaissance Theatre CompanyRenaissance Theatre CompanyThe Renaissance Theatre Company was founded in 1987 by Kenneth Branagh and David Parfitt as a development of the work they had been doing periodically on the London 'Fringe', producing and appearing in lunchtime shows, leading up to Branagh's full-scale production of Romeo and Juliet, at the Lyric...
- 1989 - Look Back in AngerLook Back in AngerLook Back in Anger is a John Osborne play—made into films in 1959, 1980, and 1989 -- about a love triangle involving an intelligent but disaffected young man , his upper-middle-class, impassive wife , and her haughty best friend . Cliff, an amiable Welsh lodger, attempts to keep the peace...
- Renaissance Theatre CompanyRenaissance Theatre CompanyThe Renaissance Theatre Company was founded in 1987 by Kenneth Branagh and David Parfitt as a development of the work they had been doing periodically on the London 'Fringe', producing and appearing in lunchtime shows, leading up to Branagh's full-scale production of Romeo and Juliet, at the Lyric... - 1989 - Macbeth - Central School of Speech and DramaCentral School of Speech and DramaThe Central School of Speech and Drama was founded in London in 1906 by Elsie Fogerty to offer a new form of training in speech and drama for young actors and other students...
- 1991 - The Boy from Syracuse, Regent's Park Open Air Theatre
- 1993 - Romeo and Juliet, Regent's Park Open Air Theatre
Discography
- CabaretCabaret (musical)Cabaret is a musical based on a book written by Christopher Isherwood, music by John Kander and lyrics by Fred Ebb. The 1966 Broadway production became a hit and spawned a 1972 film as well as numerous subsequent productions....
(1968), Original London cast album CBS (1973) - The Good CompanionsThe Good Companions (musical)The Good Companions is a musical with a book by Ronald Harwood, music by André Previn, and lyrics by Johnny Mercer. It is based on the 1929 novel of the same title by J. B...
(1974), Original London cast recording (1974) - A Midsummer Night's DreamA Midsummer Night's DreamA Midsummer Night's Dream is a play that was written by William Shakespeare. It is believed to have been written between 1590 and 1596. It portrays the events surrounding the marriage of the Duke of Athens, Theseus, and the Queen of the Amazons, Hippolyta...
(1995); from Felix MendelssohnFelix MendelssohnJakob Ludwig Felix Mendelssohn Barthóldy , use the form 'Mendelssohn' and not 'Mendelssohn Bartholdy'. The Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians gives ' Felix Mendelssohn' as the entry, with 'Mendelssohn' used in the body text...
as Recitant. Conducted by Seiji OzawaSeiji Ozawais a Japanese conductor, particularly noted for his interpretations of large-scale late Romantic works. He is most known for his work as music director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra and principal conductor of the Vienna State Opera.-Early years:... - A Little Night MusicA Little Night MusicA Little Night Music is a musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and book by Hugh Wheeler. Inspired by the Ingmar Bergman film Smiles of a Summer Night, it involves the romantic lives of several couples. Its title is a literal English translation of the German name for Mozart's Serenade...
(1995) by Stephen SondheimStephen SondheimStephen Joshua Sondheim is an American composer and lyricist for stage and film. He is the winner of an Academy Award, multiple Tony Awards including the Special Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Theatre, multiple Grammy Awards, a Pulitzer Prize and the Laurence Olivier Award...
, Royal National Theatre CastRoyal National TheatreThe Royal National Theatre in London is one of the United Kingdom's two most prominent publicly funded theatre companies, alongside the Royal Shakespeare Company... - NineNine (film)Nine is a 2009 musical-romantic film directed and produced by Rob Marshall. The screenplay, written by Michael Tolkin and Anthony Minghella, is based on Arthur Kopit's book for the 1982 musical of the same name, which was itself suggested by Federico Fellini's semi-autobiographical film 8½...
(2009) Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
Theatre
Awards- 1977: Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actress in a Revival – MacbethMacbethThe Tragedy of Macbeth is a play by William Shakespeare about a regicide and its aftermath. It is Shakespeare's shortest tragedy and is believed to have been written sometime between 1603 and 1607...
- 1980: Evening Standard Award for Best Actress – Juno and the PaycockJuno and the PaycockJuno and the Paycock is a play by Sean O'Casey, and one of the most highly regarded and oft-performed plays in Ireland. It was first staged at the Abbey Theatre in Dublin in 1924...
- 1980: Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actress in a Revival – Juno and the PaycockJuno and the PaycockJuno and the Paycock is a play by Sean O'Casey, and one of the most highly regarded and oft-performed plays in Ireland. It was first staged at the Abbey Theatre in Dublin in 1924...
- 1982: Critics' Circle Theatre Award for Best Actress – The Importance of Being EarnestThe Importance of Being EarnestThe Importance of Being Earnest, A Trivial Comedy for Serious People is a play by Oscar Wilde. First performed on 14 February 1895 at St. James's Theatre in London, it is a farcical comedy in which the protagonists maintain fictitious personae in order to escape burdensome social obligations...
and A Kind of AlaskaA Kind of AlaskaA Kind of Alaska is a one-act play written in 1982 by Harold Pinter , the 2005 Nobel Laureate in Literature.-Summary:A middle-aged woman named Deborah, who has been in a comatose state for thirty years as a result of contracting sleeping sickness, awakes with a mind still that of a sixteen-year-old... - 1982: Evening Standard Award for Best Actress – The Importance of Being EarnestThe Importance of Being EarnestThe Importance of Being Earnest, A Trivial Comedy for Serious People is a play by Oscar Wilde. First performed on 14 February 1895 at St. James's Theatre in London, it is a farcical comedy in which the protagonists maintain fictitious personae in order to escape burdensome social obligations...
and A Kind of AlaskaA Kind of AlaskaA Kind of Alaska is a one-act play written in 1982 by Harold Pinter , the 2005 Nobel Laureate in Literature.-Summary:A middle-aged woman named Deborah, who has been in a comatose state for thirty years as a result of contracting sleeping sickness, awakes with a mind still that of a sixteen-year-old... - 1984: Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actress in a New Play – Pack of LiesPack of LiesPack of Lies is a 1983 play by English writer Hugh Whitemore.Based on a true story, the plot centres on Bob and Barbara Jackson and their teenage daughter Julie The Jacksons are friendly with their neighbours, Peter and Helen Kroger, until the couple is...
- 1987: Critics' Circle Theatre Award for Best Actress – Antony and CleopatraAntony and CleopatraAntony and Cleopatra is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written sometime between 1603 and 1607. It was first printed in the First Folio of 1623. The plot is based on Thomas North's translation of Plutarch's Lives and follows the relationship between Cleopatra and Mark Antony...
- 1987: Evening Standard Award for Best Actress – Antony and CleopatraAntony and CleopatraAntony and Cleopatra is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written sometime between 1603 and 1607. It was first printed in the First Folio of 1623. The plot is based on Thomas North's translation of Plutarch's Lives and follows the relationship between Cleopatra and Mark Antony...
- 1987: Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actress – Antony and CleopatraAntony and CleopatraAntony and Cleopatra is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written sometime between 1603 and 1607. It was first printed in the First Folio of 1623. The plot is based on Thomas North's translation of Plutarch's Lives and follows the relationship between Cleopatra and Mark Antony...
- 1996: Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actress – Absolute Hell
- 1996: Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actress in a Musical or Entertainment – A Little Night MusicA Little Night MusicA Little Night Music is a musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and book by Hugh Wheeler. Inspired by the Ingmar Bergman film Smiles of a Summer Night, it involves the romantic lives of several couples. Its title is a literal English translation of the German name for Mozart's Serenade...
- 1997: Critics' Circle Theatre Award for Best Actress – Amy's ViewAmy's ViewAmy's View was written by British playwright David Hare, and originally premiered in London at the Royal National Theatre's Lyttelton Theatre on June 13, 1997. It was directed by Richard Eyre and starred Judi Dench, Ronald Pickup and Samantha Bond in the title role. It was then performed on...
- 1999: Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a PlayTony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a PlayThis is a list of the winners and nominations of Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play. The award has been presented since 1947, and is for performance in new productions or revivals.-1940s:...
– Amy's ViewAmy's ViewAmy's View was written by British playwright David Hare, and originally premiered in London at the Royal National Theatre's Lyttelton Theatre on June 13, 1997. It was directed by Richard Eyre and starred Judi Dench, Ronald Pickup and Samantha Bond in the title role. It was then performed on... - 2004: Laurence Olivier Award: Special Award for Outstanding Contributions to British Theatre
Television
Awards- 1967: BAFTA Television Award for Best Actress - Talking to a StrangerTalking to a StrangerTalking to a Stranger is a British television drama, produced by the BBC and made up of four separate plays telling the story of one weekend from the viewpoints of four different members of the same family. Originally transmitted on BBC2 as part of the Theatre 625 anthology strand, the four...
- 1982: British Television Academy Award for Best Light Entertainment Performance - A Fine RomanceA Fine Romance (TV series)A Fine Romance was a British situation comedy starring husband-and-wife team Judi Dench and Michael Williams. Dench's sister was played by Susan Penhaligon. It was produced by London Weekend Television and written by Bob Larbey. It was first broadcast on 8 November 1981. It lasted for 26 episodes...
, Going Gently and The Cherry Orchard - 1982: Broadcast Press Guild Award for Best Actress - A Fine RomanceA Fine Romance (TV series)A Fine Romance was a British situation comedy starring husband-and-wife team Judi Dench and Michael Williams. Dench's sister was played by Susan Penhaligon. It was produced by London Weekend Television and written by Bob Larbey. It was first broadcast on 8 November 1981. It lasted for 26 episodes...
- 1985: British Television Academy Award for Best Light Entertainment Performance - A Fine RomanceA Fine Romance (TV series)A Fine Romance was a British situation comedy starring husband-and-wife team Judi Dench and Michael Williams. Dench's sister was played by Susan Penhaligon. It was produced by London Weekend Television and written by Bob Larbey. It was first broadcast on 8 November 1981. It lasted for 26 episodes...
- 2001: British Academy Television Award for Best ActressBritish Academy Television Award for Best Actress- 1950s :*1955 Googie Withers*1956 Virginia McKenna*1957 Rosalie Crutchley*1958 Gwen Watford*1959 Catherine Lacey- 1960s :*1960 Catherine Lacey*1961 Billie Whitelaw*1962 Ruth Dunning*1963 Brenda Bruce*1964 Vivien Merchant*1965 Katherine Blake...
- The Last of the Blonde BombshellsThe Last of the Blonde BombshellsThe Last of the Blonde Bombshells is a 2000 British-American television film directed by Gillies MacKinnon. The script by Alan Plater focuses on the efforts of a recently widowed woman to reunite the members of the World War II-era swing band with which she played saxophone.It features Carry On... - 2001: Golden Globe Award for Best Actress - Miniseries or Television Film - The Last of the Blonde BombshellsThe Last of the Blonde BombshellsThe Last of the Blonde Bombshells is a 2000 British-American television film directed by Gillies MacKinnon. The script by Alan Plater focuses on the efforts of a recently widowed woman to reunite the members of the World War II-era swing band with which she played saxophone.It features Carry On...
Nominations
- 1983: British Television Academy Award for Best Light Entertainment Performance - A Fine RomanceA Fine Romance (TV series)A Fine Romance was a British situation comedy starring husband-and-wife team Judi Dench and Michael Williams. Dench's sister was played by Susan Penhaligon. It was produced by London Weekend Television and written by Bob Larbey. It was first broadcast on 8 November 1981. It lasted for 26 episodes...
- 1984: British Academy Television Award for Best ActressBritish Academy Television Award for Best Actress- 1950s :*1955 Googie Withers*1956 Virginia McKenna*1957 Rosalie Crutchley*1958 Gwen Watford*1959 Catherine Lacey- 1960s :*1960 Catherine Lacey*1961 Billie Whitelaw*1962 Ruth Dunning*1963 Brenda Bruce*1964 Vivien Merchant*1965 Katherine Blake...
- Saigon: Year of the Cat - 1984: British Television Academy Award for Best Light Entertainment Performance - A Fine RomanceA Fine Romance (TV series)A Fine Romance was a British situation comedy starring husband-and-wife team Judi Dench and Michael Williams. Dench's sister was played by Susan Penhaligon. It was produced by London Weekend Television and written by Bob Larbey. It was first broadcast on 8 November 1981. It lasted for 26 episodes...
- 1990: British Academy Television Award for Best ActressBritish Academy Television Award for Best Actress- 1950s :*1955 Googie Withers*1956 Virginia McKenna*1957 Rosalie Crutchley*1958 Gwen Watford*1959 Catherine Lacey- 1960s :*1960 Catherine Lacey*1961 Billie Whitelaw*1962 Ruth Dunning*1963 Brenda Bruce*1964 Vivien Merchant*1965 Katherine Blake...
- Behaving BadlyBehaving Badly (TV serial)Behaving Badly is a 1989 British television serial directed by David Tucker. The teleplay by Catherine Heath and Moira Williams is based on Heath's novel of the same name. It was initially broadcast by Channel 4... - 1998: British Television Academy Award for Best Comedy Performance - As Time Goes ByAs Time Goes By (TV series)As Time Goes By is a British sitcom that aired on BBC One from 1992 to 2005. Starring Judi Dench and Geoffrey Palmer, it follows the relationship between two former lovers who meet unexpectedly after not having been in contact for 38 years....
- 2001: American Comedy Award for Funniest Female Performer in a TV Special - The Last of the Blonde BombshellsThe Last of the Blonde BombshellsThe Last of the Blonde Bombshells is a 2000 British-American television film directed by Gillies MacKinnon. The script by Alan Plater focuses on the efforts of a recently widowed woman to reunite the members of the World War II-era swing band with which she played saxophone.It features Carry On...
- 2001: Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress - Miniseries or a MoviePrimetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress - Miniseries or a MovieThis is a list of winners of the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Miniseries or a Movie.From 1973 to 1978, the category was divided into two separate categories .Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, guest performances in regular television series were...
- The Last of the Blonde BombshellsThe Last of the Blonde BombshellsThe Last of the Blonde Bombshells is a 2000 British-American television film directed by Gillies MacKinnon. The script by Alan Plater focuses on the efforts of a recently widowed woman to reunite the members of the World War II-era swing band with which she played saxophone.It features Carry On... - 2001: Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Miniseries or Television Movie - The Last of the Blonde BombshellsThe Last of the Blonde BombshellsThe Last of the Blonde Bombshells is a 2000 British-American television film directed by Gillies MacKinnon. The script by Alan Plater focuses on the efforts of a recently widowed woman to reunite the members of the World War II-era swing band with which she played saxophone.It features Carry On...
- 2008: British Academy Television Award for Best ActressBritish Academy Television Award for Best Actress- 1950s :*1955 Googie Withers*1956 Virginia McKenna*1957 Rosalie Crutchley*1958 Gwen Watford*1959 Catherine Lacey- 1960s :*1960 Catherine Lacey*1961 Billie Whitelaw*1962 Ruth Dunning*1963 Brenda Bruce*1964 Vivien Merchant*1965 Katherine Blake...
- CranfordCranford (TV series)Cranford is a British television series directed by Simon Curtis and Steve Hudson. The teleplay by Heidi Thomas was adapted from three novellas by Elizabeth Gaskell published between 1849 and 1858: Cranford, My Lady Ludlow, and Mr Harrison's Confessions... - 2008: Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress - Miniseries or a MoviePrimetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress - Miniseries or a MovieThis is a list of winners of the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Miniseries or a Movie.From 1973 to 1978, the category was divided into two separate categories .Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, guest performances in regular television series were...
- CranfordCranford (TV series)Cranford is a British television series directed by Simon Curtis and Steve Hudson. The teleplay by Heidi Thomas was adapted from three novellas by Elizabeth Gaskell published between 1849 and 1858: Cranford, My Lady Ludlow, and Mr Harrison's Confessions... - 2008: Golden Globe Award for Best Actress - Miniseries or Television Film - CranfordCranford (TV series)Cranford is a British television series directed by Simon Curtis and Steve Hudson. The teleplay by Heidi Thomas was adapted from three novellas by Elizabeth Gaskell published between 1849 and 1858: Cranford, My Lady Ludlow, and Mr Harrison's Confessions...
- 2008: Satellite Award for Best Actress - Miniseries or Television Film - CranfordCranford (TV series)Cranford is a British television series directed by Simon Curtis and Steve Hudson. The teleplay by Heidi Thomas was adapted from three novellas by Elizabeth Gaskell published between 1849 and 1858: Cranford, My Lady Ludlow, and Mr Harrison's Confessions...
- 2010: Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress - Miniseries or a MoviePrimetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress - Miniseries or a MovieThis is a list of winners of the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Miniseries or a Movie.From 1973 to 1978, the category was divided into two separate categories .Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, guest performances in regular television series were...
- Return to CranfordCranford (TV series)Cranford is a British television series directed by Simon Curtis and Steve Hudson. The teleplay by Heidi Thomas was adapted from three novellas by Elizabeth Gaskell published between 1849 and 1858: Cranford, My Lady Ludlow, and Mr Harrison's Confessions...
Further reading
- Dench, Judi. And Furthermore. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2010. ISBN 9780297859673.
- Lavery, Alison (ed.). The Judi Dench Handbook. Emereo, 2010. ISBN 9781742446592.
- Miller, John (ed.). Darling Judi: A Celebration of Judi Dench. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2004. ISBN 0-297-84791-0.
- Trowbridge, Simon. The Company: A Biographical Dictionary of the Royal Shakespeare Company. Oxford: Editions Albert Creed, 2010. ISBN 9780955983023.
External links
- Judi Dench Biography
- 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 BristolUniversity of BristolThe University of Bristol is a public research university located in Bristol, United Kingdom. One of the so-called "red brick" universities, it received its Royal Charter in 1909, although its predecessor institution, University College, Bristol, had been in existence since 1876.The University is...
- The Company: A Biographical Dictionary of the RSC: Online database
- Dame Judi Dench at Emmys.com