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BiographyEarly lifeJudi Dench was born in York, North Yorkshire to Olave and Reginald Arthur Dench and was raised a Quaker. She also lived in Tyldesley,Greater Manchester. Her notable relatives include Emma Dench, eminent Roman historian at Birkbeck, University of London.[3] When Dench was thirteen, she entered The Mount School, York. Before starting her professional career, Judi Dench was involved in the first three productions of the modern revival of the York Mystery Plays 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.[4] CareerShe received her dramatic training at the Central School of Speech and Drama in London and made her professional debut as Ophelia in Hamlet in Liverpool in 1957. She subsequently spent several seasons in repertory in Oxford and Nottingham. In 1961, she joined the Royal Shakespeare Company and made numerous appearances with the company in Stratford and London over the next two decades, winning several best actress awards.
As she enters her seventies, Dame Judi remains probably the biggest draw on the London stage. She is often compared and contrasted with Dame Maggie Smith, another British actress of the same generation, with whom she has appeared in several movies, including the 2004 Ladies in Lavender, and on stage in David Hare's two-hander Breath of Life. She returned to the West End stage in April 2006 in Hay Fever alongside Peter Bowles, Belinda Lang and Kim Medcalf. She has finished off a busy 2006 with the role of "Mistress Quickly" in the RSC's new musical version of "The Merry Wives",[5] at Stratford-upon-Avon. Her many television appearances include lead roles in the series As Time Goes By and A Fine Romance. Dame Judi Dench has frequently appeared with her close friend Geoffrey Palmer in the series As Time Goes By and in the films Mrs. Brown and Tomorrow Never Dies, both filmed in 1997. At the opening of "As Time Goes By", the couple first shown in the photographs are in fact Judi's real-life daughter, Tara, and Geoffrey's real-life son. Dench won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for playing Elizabeth I in the film Shakespeare in Love. Dench's win was notable as her performance in Shakespeare in Love lasted for about eight minutes. Dench's late-life film career has been remarkably successful. Until 1997, she had made relatively few film appearances, especially in comparison to the number she has made since then. She has racked up six Oscar nominations in nine years for Mrs Brown in 1997, her Oscar-winning turn 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 in 2005, and for Notes on a Scandal in 2006. In 2006, Dench received almost universal critical acclaim, including Golden Globe, Screen Actors Guild and Academy Award nominations, for her fierce performance in Notes on a Scandal. Personal lifeIn 1971 Judi Dench married British actor Michael Williams and they had their only child, Tara Cressida Williams (aka "Finty Williams"), on 24 September, 1972. Their daughter later became an actress like her parents. Dame Judi starred with her husband in the 1980s British sitcom, A Fine Romance. Michael Williams died of lung cancer, at age 65, in 2001. She is a patron of The Leaveners, Friends School Saffron Walden and the Archway Theatre, Horley, UK. Judi Dench was awarded the OBE in 1970, became a Dame Commander of the British Empire in 1988, and a Companion of Honour in 2005.[6] In 2000-2001 she received an Honorary DLitt from Durham University. In 2006 Judi became president of Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts in London, taking over from Sir John Mills; Judi is also president of the Questors Theatre. In May 2006 she became an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. Filmography
She has also lent her likeness, and sometimes her voice, for the role of M in four James Bond video games:
Selected discography
Selected awards and recognitionTheatre
Film and television
References
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