Judith Olivia Dench
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Awards
Judi Dench won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for an eight-minute performance as Queen Elizabeth I in Shakespeare in Love 1998. She is a ten-time BAFTA winner and has received seven Oscar nominations, all after age 60. Dench made history as the first woman to portray M in James Bond with GoldenEye 1995. She was appointed Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1988 and was voted Best British Actress of all time in a Sky TV poll.
Names, aliases, and relatives of Judi Dench — birth name, kin, and personal ties.
Judi Dench by the numbers — life, work, and family.
Judi Dench — early life, career, personal life, and legacy.
Judith Olivia Dench first appeared on stage as a snail at her Quaker junior school in York. She was born in York, England, on December 9, 1934, to Eleonora Olive Jones from Dublin and Reginald Arthur Dench, a doctor from Dorset. She attended a Quaker school, The Mount School, and later studied at the Central School of Speech and Drama. Her older brother Jeffery Dench also pursued acting.
Dench began her career with the Royal Shakespeare Company, playing virtually all of Shakespeare’s leading ladies. Her 1976 performance as Lady Macbeth in Trevor Nunn’s production of Macbeth was voted the second greatest Shakespearean performance of all time by the Royal Shakespeare Company. She made her film breakthrough in Mrs. Brown 1997, earning her first Oscar nomination. She won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for Shakespeare in Love 1998 and later received nominations for Notes on a Scandal 2006 and Philomena 2013. Dench is known for playing M in the James Bond series, starting with GoldenEye 1995, and she is the only actor to receive the and Judi Dench as M credit. She has won multiple BAFTA and Laurence Olivier Awards throughout her career, including a 1988 Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actress in a New Play for Antony and Cleopatra.
Dench married actor Michael Williams in 1971 after he proposed on a beach in Australia. They had one daughter, Finty Williams, born in 1972. She was six months pregnant with Finty when she completed her run of the play London Assurance. After Finty’s birth, Dench and her husband tried for another child but were unsuccessful and later looked into adoption in her 40s, but were turned down. The couple remained married until Williams’ death in 2001. Dench has a tattoo reading Carpe diem on her right wrist and is a lifelong animal lover, owning a racehorse named Smokey Oakey as well as a dog, four cats, two guinea pigs, and fish. She became a grandmother in 1997 when Finty gave birth to a son, Sam Michael Williams.
Dench’s influence extends beyond her awards; she was appointed Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1988 and Member of the Order of the Companions of Honour in 2005. She was voted the Best British Actress of all time in a Sky TV poll. A section of the River Ouse in York was named Dame Judi Dench Walk. As of 2022, she appeared in five Best Picture Oscar nominees, including A Room with a View 1986 and Belfast 2021. Her portrayal of M in the Bond franchise reshaped the role, making it central to the plot after her Oscar win. At 91, she continues to act, with recent roles in Belfast 2021 and other projects.
The complete filmography of Judi Dench — every film, TV show, and documentary credit, ranked by popularity.
Every award, honor, and recognition received by Judi Dench — Grammys, hall-of-fame inductions, civic honors, lifetime achievements.
A wall of memorable lines from Judi Dench — lyrics, interviews, and off-the-cuff remarks captured over a lifetime.
My Only Regret Is That I Didn’t Have More Children.
I Hate How People Have Been Attacking Daniel Craig. It’s Despicable and It Disgusts Me. I Have Filmed with Him in Prague and the Bahamas and He Is a Fine Actor. He Brings Something New and Edgy to the Role. His Critics Will Be Proved Wrong.
And Then It Was Working with Bob Hoskins, Who I Had Never Worked with Before – Except Radio. It Was Like Being Given a Wonderful Meal – Full of the Things You Love Most.
I Don’t Like Reading Scripts Very Much. I Like It Better for Someone to Just Explain to Me What It Is About This Story.
I Don’t Think Anybody Can Be Told How to Act. I Think You Can Give Advice. but You Have to Find Your Own Way Through It.
On Plastic Surgery: I’ve Considered It, but I’m Too Old Now. Every Time I Go to America I Wonder If There Is Some Process Where It Could All Be Sucked Out and I Could Be Out of There in Time for Dinner, but I’m Frightened It Would All Drop off Under the Anaesthetic.
Of Course I Have a Temper. Who Hasn’t? and the Older I Get the More Angry I Get About Things. It’s Not Sudden Anger, It Smoulders and Then If I Really Let It Go on for a Bit the Shit Hits the Fan. I Get Very Angry About General Injustice. I Get Angry About the Way People Say ‘Tomorrow X Will Make a Speech About X’. Just Let Them Say It. I Get Furious About the Whole Business of Not Allowing Conkers in School, and Banning Things Because They Are Supposedly Dangerous. I Am Riveted by the Current Iraq Inquiry, Though Angry Already Because I Feel It Will End with a Report and Nobody’s Actually Going to Be Arraigned for What Happened.
I Mourn That There Are so Many Repertory Companies That Aren’t Around Any More. I Don’t Want the Arts to Take the Form of a Reality Programme. I Heard Somebody Say the Other Day That It Is Good If People Can Bring Drink and Food into a Theatre and Get up and Go If They Don’t Like the Play. Well, Yes, Go Out If You Don’t Like It, but Where Do You Draw the Line? They Tell People Not to Take Pictures of Us on Stage but When You Look up You See 100 Red Lights Twinkling at You.
When You Go Abroad People Always Talk with Such Love About British Theatre, but the Irony Is It’s Not Appreciated by the Government as It Should Be. the State of the Arts Has Always Been, and Will Always Be, Precarious. but There Is Something so Alarming About the Huge Cuts Made to Companies, Particularly When You Read of the Astronomical Amounts Some People Are Earning.
Once, a Long Time Ago, I Read Some Bad Reviews and I Made the Decision Not to Read the Reviews. You Get Some Critics Who Don’t Like You, or the Play. but They Don’t Have to Do It Every Night. I Don’t Want to Be Affected Like That. I Loved Doing “Madame De Sade. a Friend Told Me Not to Apologise for Myself or the Play, and I Won’t. Then I Cast It All off and Go and Put My Feet up Under the Chimney with My Family
The Passion Doesn’t Lessen Over Time but You Get More Anxious. You Always Worry About Getting Employed. but I Love What I Do … You’re Only as Good as the Last Thing You Did. but That Anxiety Feeds What You’re Doing. It Gives You Energy. It’s Very Much Part of Me. You Know That Right Behind You, Stretching Back as Far as You Can See, Are Other People Wanting to Play the Same Part and Probably Better Than You.
I Am Very Un-divaish. Very Rarely in 52 Years in the Business Have I Met Anyone Who Has Behaved in a Selfish Way.
I’m More Comfortable on Stage, Where There Is an Audience to Tell a Story To, as Opposed to a Film Set Where You Are Not in Charge at All. on Stage You Can Hear an Audience’s Reactions. Within Two Minutes of a Play Starting You Know How the Evening Will Go. on Film You’re More Reliant on the Director. the Moment He Leaves You, You’re Like a Child Learning to Walk.
I’m Always Fearful. Fear in You Generates a Huge Energy. You Can Use It. When I Feel That Mounting Fear, I Think, ‘Oh Yes, There It Is’. It’s Like Petrol.
You Should Take Your Job Seriously but Not Yourself. That Is the Best Combination.
Celebrate the Things You Can Do and Also Try to Do New Things.
Little-known facts about Judi Dench — origins, oddities, and behind-the-scenes details from a public life.
First woman to portray the James Bond character M, which she did in GoldenEye 1995.
Despite winning many acting awards, she admits to feeling insecure and wanting to improve. She prefers stage first, television second, and film third.
Following her daughter Finty’s birth, she and her husband tried for another child. Unsuccessful, they looked into adoption when she was in her 40s but were turned down.
Her 1999 Oscar was for an eight-minute performance in only four scenes as Queen Elizabeth I in Shakespeare in Love 1998. It is the second shortest performance to win Best Supporting Actress.
In 1996 she made history as the first person to win two Laurence Olivier Awards for different roles.
As of 2014, she received seven Oscar nominations, all after age 60. No other actor had more nominations after 60; the closest runners-up had three each.
Became a grandmother at 62 when her daughter Finty gave birth to a son, Sam Michael Williams, on June 6, 1997.
Has a tattoo on her right wrist reading Carpe diem.
During filming of As Time Goes By 1992, she used to hide from the director when he left the set.
A lifelong animal lover, she owns a racehorse named Smokey Oakey, a dog, four cats, two guinea pigs, and fish.
When Royal Shakespeare Company Director Peter Hall asked her to play Cleopatra, she refused, calling herself a menopausal dwarf. Hall later coaxed her into the role, and she won rave reviews.
Counts Mrs. Brown 1997 as the movie that became her breakthrough as a film actress, earning her first Oscar nomination.
Became engaged to Michael Williams during Christmas 1970 after he proposed on a beach in Australia.
In her autobiography, she says she never understood the plot of The Chronicles of Riddick 2004 but enjoyed the set.
Created the role of Sally Bowles in the London premiere of the musical Cabaret.
Frequently co-starred with close friend Geoffrey Palmer in As Time Goes By 1992 and films such as Mrs. Brown 1997 and Tomorrow Never Dies 1997.
Awarded OBE in 1970, DBE in 1988, and Member of the Order of the Companions of Honour in 2005.
Her husband Michael Williams used to have a long-stemmed red rose delivered to her every Friday.
After her Oscar win for Shakespeare in Love 1998, Bond producers gave M a much larger role, making her past actions central to the plot in The World Is Not Enough 1999 and later films.
Supporter of Everton Football Club and named a patron of the team’s official charity Everton in the Community.
Has played virtually all of Shakespeare’s leading ladies.
Her performance as Lady Macbeth in Trevor Nunn’s 1976 production of Macbeth was voted the second greatest Shakespearean performance of all time by the Royal Shakespeare Company.
First stage appearance was as a snail in a play at her Quaker junior school.
Narrates Spaceship Earth, the dark ride at EPCOT, replacing Jeremy Irons.
She and Vanessa Redgrave attended the same drama class at Central School of Speech and Drama.
Cast as Grizabella in the original West End production of CATS, but tore her Achilles tendon and was replaced by Elaine Paige.
When starting at Central School of Speech and Drama, she wasn’t taking it seriously until an improvisation scene made her realize her commitment.
She and Cate Blanchett both received Oscar nominations for playing Queen Elizabeth I; Dench won for Shakespeare in Love 1998, Blanchett was nominated for Elizabeth 1998.
Won the 1988 Laurence Olivier Theatre Award for Best Actress in a New Play for Antony and Cleopatra.
At her first film audition, she was told every single thing was wrong with her face.
As of 2022, has appeared in five films nominated for the Best Picture Oscar: A Room with a View 1986, Shakespeare in Love 1998, Chocolat 2000, Philomena 2013, and Belfast 2021. Only Shakespeare in Love won.
Received the Film Actress Award for Chocolat 2000 at the 2002 Variety Club Showbusiness Awards but could not attend due to the Berlin Film Festival.
Was six months pregnant with Finty when she completed her run of the play London Assurance.
At the opening of the Judi Dench Theatre in London, she was introduced as Miss Judy Geeson.
Shares two roles with both Kate Winslet and Cate Blanchett. She and Winslet both played the title role in Iris 2001, and she and Blanchett both played Queen Elizabeth I. All three have played Ophelia in Hamlet.
Pictured on a 2018 British commemorative stamp with John Stride in a 1960 performance of Romeo and Juliet to celebrate the 200th anniversary of The Old Vic Theatre.
Voted Best British Actress of all time in a Sky TV poll.
Could not attend the 2007 Academy Awards due to knee surgery.
Longest gap between Oscar nominations is seven years, between Notes on a Scandal 2006 and Philomena 2013.
A section of the River Ouse in York was named Dame Judi Dench Walk.
Ranked second in the 2001 Orange Film Survey of the greatest British film actresses.
In 1999, won both the Oscar for Shakespeare in Love and the Tony for Amy’s View, becoming one of five actresses to win both in the same year.
With eight Oscar nominations, she is the most nominated British actress; only Lord Olivier has received more among British actors.
The only actor credited as and Judi Dench as M in all her James Bond opening credits.
Attended The Mount School, York and the Central School of Speech and Drama in London.
Her Best Supporting Actress Oscar for Shakespeare in Love was presented by Robin Williams on March 21, 1999 at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion.
Currently supports the Theatre Royal, Bury St. Edmunds Restoration Appeal.
Directed Kenneth Branagh in two stage productions.
As a girl, attended a Quaker school in York.
Quick answers to the questions readers ask most about Judi Dench.
Celebrities similar to Judi Dench — same craft, ranked by reach.
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