|
|
|
|
Judi Dench
|
| |
|
| |
Dame Judith Olivia Dench, CH, DBE, FRSA (born 9 December 1934) is an English actress. She has won nine BAFTAs, seven Laurence Olivier Awards, two Screen Actors Guild Awards, an Oscar, two Golden Globe's and a Tony Award.
h was born in York, North Riding of Yorkshire, the daughter of Eleanora Olave Jones, a native of Dublin, and Reginald Arthur Dench, a doctor who met Judi's mother while studying medicine at Trinity College. Dench was raised a Methodist, attended The Mount School a Quaker Public Secondary school in York and lived in Tyldesley, Greater Manchester.
Discussion
Ask a question about 'Judi Dench' Start a new discussion about 'Judi Dench' Answer questions from other users |
Encyclopedia
Dame Judith Olivia Dench, CH, DBE, FRSA (born 9 December 1934) is an English actress. She has won nine BAFTAs, seven Laurence Olivier Awards, two Screen Actors Guild Awards, an Oscar, two Golden Globe's and a Tony Award.
Biography
Dench was born in York, North Riding of Yorkshire, the daughter of Eleanora Olave Jones, a native of Dublin, and Reginald Arthur Dench, a doctor who met Judi's mother while studying medicine at Trinity College. Dench was raised a Methodist, attended The Mount School a Quaker Public Secondary school in York and lived in Tyldesley, Greater Manchester. Notable relatives include her older brother, actor Jeffery Dench, and her niece, Emma Dench, a Roman historian previously at Birkbeck, University of London, and currently at Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts.
When Dench was 13, she entered The Mount School, York. In 1971, Dench married British actor Michael Williams and they had their only child, Tara Cressida Williams (aka "Finty Williams"), on 24 September, 1972. She has followed the family's theatrical tradition, becoming a highly accomplished actress in her own right.
Dench and her husband starred together in several stage productions, as well as separately, but then paired again to make television history with Bob Larbey's hit British sitcom, A Fine Romance (1981–84).
Michael Williams died from lung cancer in 2001, aged 65.
Public life
In Britain, Dench has developed a reputation as one of the greatest actresses of the post-war period, primarily through her work in theatre, which has been her forte throughout her career. She has more than once been named number one in polls for Britain's best actress. Research to find "the perfect voice" has indicated that Dench's voice is one of the best.
Dench was awarded the OBE in 1970, became a Dame Commander of the British Empire in 1988, and a Companion of Honour in 2005. She gained worldwide popular fame after taking over the role of M in the James Bond film series in 1995, and subsequently through many acclaimed film appearances.
Dench is a patron of The Leaveners, Friends School Saffron Walden and the Archway Theatre, Horley, UK. She became president of Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts in London in 2006, taking over from Sir John Mills, and is also president of the Questors Theatre. In May 2006, she became an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. She is also patron of Ovingdean Hall School, a special day and boarding school for the deaf and hard of hearing in Brighton.
Dench is an Honorary Fellow of Lucy Cavendish College, Cambridge. In 2000-2001 she received an Honorary DLitt from Durham University. On 24 June 2008, she was honoured by the University of St Andrews, receiving the honorary degree of Doctor of Letters (D.Litt) at the university's graduation ceremony.
Career
20th Century
Judi Dench trained as a set designer before taking up acting at the Central School of Speech Training and Dramatic Art. Subsequently, she was involved on a non-professional basis in the first three productions of the modern revival of the York Mystery Plays in the 1950s. Most famously, she played the role of the Virgin Mary in the 1957 production, performed on a fixed stage in the Museum Gardens.
In September 1957, she made her first professional stage appearance with the Old Vic Company, at the Royal Court Theatre, Liverpool, as Ophelia in Hamlet, then her London debut in the same production at the Old Vic. She remained a member of the company for four seasons, 1957–1961, her roles including Katherine in Henry V in 1958 (which was also her New York debut) and as Juliet in Romeo and Juliet in October 1960, directed and designed by Franco Zeffirelli. During this period, she toured the United States and Canada, and appeared in Yugoslavia and at the Edinburgh Festival.
She joined the Royal Shakespeare Company in December 1961 playing Anya in The Cherry Orchard at the Aldwych Theatre in London, and made her Stratford-upon-Avon debut in April 1962 as Isabella in Measure for Measure. She subsequently spent seasons in repertory both with the Nottingham Playhouse from January 1963 (including a West African tour as Lady Macbeth for the British Council), and with the Oxford Playhouse Company from April 1964.
In 1968, she was offered the role of Sally Bowles in the musical Cabaret. As Sheridan Morley later reported: "At first she thought they were joking. She had never done a musical and she has an unusual croaky voice which sounds as if she has a permanent cold. So frightened was she of singing in public that she auditioned from the wings, leaving the pianists alone on stage". But when it opened at the Palace Theatre in February 1968, Frank Marcus, reviewing for Plays and Players, commented that: "She sings well. The title song in particular is projected with great feeling."
After a long run in Cabaret, she rejoined the RSC making numerous appearances with the company in Stratford and London over the next two decades, winning several best actress awards. Among her roles with the RSC, she was the Duchess in John Webster's The Duchess of Malfi in 1971. In the Stratford 1976 season, and then at the Aldwych in 1977, she gave two comedy performances, first in Trevor Nunn's musical staging of The Comedy of Errors as Adriana, then partnered with Donald Sinden as Beatrice and Benedick in John Barton's "British Raj" revival of Much Ado About Nothing. As Bernard Levin wrote in the Sunday Times: "...demonstrating once more that she is a comic actress of consummate skill, perhaps the very best we have."
But one of her most notable achievements with the RSC was her performance as Lady Macbeth in 1976. Nunn's acclaimed production of Macbeth was first staged with a minimalist design at The Other Place theatre in Stratford. Its small round stage focused attention on the psychological dynamics of the characters, and both Ian McKellen in the title role, and Dench, received exceptionally favourable notices. "If this is not great acting I don't know what is.": Michael Billington, The Guardian. "It will astonish me if the performance is matched by any in this actress's generation.": J C Trewin, The Lady. The production transferred to London, opening at the Donmar Warehouse in September 1977, was filmed for television, and later released on VHS and finally DVD. She won the SWET Best Actress Award in 1977.
She enjoyed a romantic pairing with Jeremy Irons in 1978, in the BBC television film Langrishe, Go Down, with a screenplay by Harold Pinter, directed by David Jones, in which she played one of three spinster sisters living in a fading Irish mansion in the Waterford countryside.
Dench made her directing debut in 1988 with the Renaissance Theatre Company's touring season, Renaissance Shakespeare on the Road, co-produced with the Birmingham Rep, and ending with a three month repertory programme at the Phoenix Theatre in London. Dench's contribution was a staging of Much Ado About Nothing, set in the Napoleonic era, which starred Kenneth Branagh and Samantha Bond as Benedick and Beatrice. In the same season, Geraldine McEwan and Derek Jacobi also made their directorial debuts.
She has made numerous appearances in the West End including the role of Miss Trant in the 1974 musical version of The Good Companions at Her Majesty's Theatre. In 1981, Dench was due to play the title role of Grizabella in the original production of Cats, but was forced to pull out due to a torn Achilles tendon, leaving Elaine Paige to play the role. She has acted with the National Theatre in London where, in September 1995, she played Desiree Armfeldt in a major revival of Stephen Sondheim's A Little Night Music, for which she won an Olivier Award.
In 1995, she became known to an international audience after taking over the role of M (James Bond's boss) with the James Bond film series, starting with GoldenEye. She is the only actor from Pierce Brosnan's Bond films to remain in the rebooted franchise. She has appeared in Casino Royale (2006) and its direct sequel Quantum of Solace (2008).
She has won multiple awards for performances on the London stage, including a record six Laurence Olivier Awards. She also won the Tony Award for her 1999 Broadway performance in the role of Esme Allen in David Hare's Amy's View. Alongside her numerous award winning performances, she has also managed to take on the role of Director for a number of stage productions. Dench won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress as Elizabeth I in the film Shakespeare in Love.
Judi Dench has frequently appeared with her close friend Geoffrey Palmer. They co-starred in the series As Time Goes By, where she plays Jean Pargetter, becoming Jean Hardcastle after she marries Lionel (Palmer). 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 incredible voice to many animated characters, narrations, and various other voice work. She plays the role of "Miss Lilly" in the children's animated series Angelina Ballerina (alongside her daughter, Finty Williams, as the voice of Angelina) and as Mrs. Calloway in the Disney animated film Home on the Range. She has narrated various classical music recordings (notably Mendelssohn's A Midsummer Night's Dream, and Britten's Canticles-The Heart of the Matter), and has appeared in numerous BBC radio broadcasts as well as commercials. Her many television appearances include lead roles in the series A Fine Romance and As Time Goes By. In the U.S., As Time Goes By has been run repeatedly on PBS, and may be -- along with her Bond role -- the entity for which Dench is best known to American audiences.
21st Century
Dench remains one of the biggest draws on the London stage. She is often compared and contrasted with Dame Maggie Smith, another British actress of the same generation, with whom she has appeared in several movies, including Tea with Mussolini (1999) and Ladies in Lavender (2004), and on stage in David Hare's two-role play Breath of Life (Haymarket, October 2002). Dench returned to the West End stage in April 2006 in Hay Fever alongside Peter Bowles, Belinda Lang and Kim Medcalf.
She finished off a busy 2006 with the role of Mistress Quickly in the RSC's new musical The Merry Wives, a version of The Merry Wives of Windsor. at Stratford-upon-Avon.
Dench's more recent film career has been extremely successful. She successfully garnered six Academy Award nominations in nine years: for Mrs. Brown in 1997; her Oscar-winning turn as Elizabeth I in Shakespeare in Love in 1998; for Chocolat in 2000; for the lead role of writer Iris Murdoch in Iris in 2001 (with Kate Winslet playing her as a younger woman); for Mrs Henderson Presents (a romanticised history of the Windmill Theatre) in 2005; and for 2006's Notes on a Scandal, a film for which she received critical acclaim, including Golden Globe, Academy Award, BAFTA and Screen Actors Guild nominations.
In 2007 the BBC issued The Judi Dench Collection, DVDs of eight television dramas: Talking to a Stranger quartet (1966), Keep an Eye on Amιlie (1973), The Cherry Orchard (1981), Going Gently (1981), Ghosts (with Kenneth Branagh and Michael Gambon, 1987), Make and Break (with Robert Hardy, 1987), Can You Hear Me Thinking? (co-starring with her husband, Michael Williams, 1990) and Absolute Hell (1991).
Dench, as Miss Matty Jenkins, co-stars with Eileen Atkins, Michael Gambon, Imelda Staunton and Francesca Annis, in the BBC One five-part series Cranford. The series began transmission in the UK in November 2007, and on the BBC's US producing partner station WGBH (PBS Boston) in spring 2008.
Dench narrated the updated Walt Disney World Epcot attraction Spaceship Earth.
In February 2008, she was named as the first official patron of the York Youth Mysteries 2008, a project to allow young people to explore the York Mystery Plays through dance, film-making and circus. This 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 also interested in Thoroughbred 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 will return to the West End from 13 March23 May 2009 in Yukio Mishima's Madame De Sade, directed by Michael Grandage as part of the Donmar season at Wyndham's Theatre.
Filmography
She has also lent her likeness and voice for the role of M in James Bond video games:
Theatre work
Source: "Judi Dench: With a Crack in her Voice" by John Miller
As an actress
St Mary's Abbey
The Old Vic Company
- 1957
- 1958
- Twelfth Night - Maria (also USA tour)
- Henry V - Katharine (also USA tour)
- 1959
- 1960
The Royal Shakespeare Company
The Nottingham Playhouse Company
The Oxford Playhouse Company
- 1964
- 1965
- The Alchemist - Dol Common
- Romeo and Jeannette - Jeannette
- The Firescreen - Jacqueline
The Nottingham Playhouse Company
The Oxford Playhouse Company
No Company
The Royal Shakespeare Company
- 1969
- 1970
- London Assurance - Grace Harkaway, Aldwych
- Major Barbara - Barbara Undershaft, Aldwych
- 1971
No Company
- 1973
- Context to Whisper - Aurelia, Royal, York
- The Wolf - Vilma, Oxford Playhouse (also at Apollo, Queen's & New London)
- 1974
- 1975
- The Gay Lord Quex - Sophy Fullgarney, Albery
The Royal Shakespeare Company
- 1975
- Too True to be Good - Sweetie Simpkins, Aldwych
- 1976
- 1977
- Pillars of the Community - Lona Hessel, Aldwych
- 1978
- 1979
- 1980
No Company
- 1981
- A Village Wooing - Young Woman, New End
The National Theatre Company
The Royal Shakespeare Company
No Company
- 1986
- Mr and Mrs Nobody - Carrie Pooter, Garrick
The National Theatre Company
- 1987
- 1989
- 1991
- The Plough and the Stars - Bessie Burgess, Young Vic
The National Theatre Company
The Royal Shakespeare Company
- 1992
- The Gift of the Gorgon - Helen Damson, Barbican and Wyndham's
The National Theatre Company
No Company
- 1998
- Filumena - Filumena, Piccadilly
- 1999
- 2001
- 2002
- The Breath of Life - Frances, Theatre Royal Haymarket
The Royal Shakespeare Company
No Company
- 2006
- Hay Fever - Judith Bliss, Theatre Royal Haymarket
The Royal Shakespeare Company
- 2006
- The Merry Wives - The Musical - Mistress Quickly, Stratford
Donmar Warehouse
As a director
- 1988 - Much Ado About Nothing, Reneissance Theatre Company
- 1989 - Look Back in Anger - Reneissance Theatre Company
- 1989 - Macbeth - Central School of Speech and Drama
- 1991 - The Boy from Syracuse, Regent's Park Open Air Theatre
- 1993 - Romeo and Juliet, Regent's Park Open Air Theatre
Discography
Awards and nominations
Theatre
Awards
Film and television
Awards
Nominations
Further reading
External links
- *
- at the Royal Shakespeare Company performance database
- , University of Bristol
- , BAFTA Searchable Awards Database
|-
! colspan="3" style="background: #DAA520;" | Academy Award
|-
|
| |
|
|
