The Oscars, 007...and how to save a goldfish
Judi Dench, who was born in 1934, originally wanted to be a set designer but her older brother went to acting school and she followed him. Their mother, Eleanora, had been a wardrobe mistress at York Theatre and the family often entertained actors.
She made her professional stage debut in 1957 with the Old Vic Company at the Royal Court Theatre, Liverpool, where she played Ophelia in Hamlet. Dame Judi has said that during her first season at the Old Vic, she watched each play from the wings because she felt she could ‘learn so much from watching others’.
For a role in A Midsummer Night’s Dream in 1962, she had a wig specially made in Paris from yak hair, which she described as being like the top of a dandelion.
Her film career didn’t get off to the best start. After an early screen test, the rather ungentlemanly casting director said to her, ‘Well, Miss Dench, I have to tell you that you have every single thing wrong with your face.’ On hearing that, she vowed never to try for a film role THE OSCAR S, As she once again takes her place at the Oscars… remarkable facts from again. It did not last long, however, and Dame Judi Dench went on to act in The Third Secret in 1964 (she played Miss Humphries). Following this, in 1965, her role in Four In The Morning earned her the first of her 10 Baftas.
Not usually known as a singer, Dame Judi received a strong review for her 1968 role as Sally Bowles in the stage musical Cabaret. At first shy, she auditioned from the wings, leaving the pianist on stage and thought it was a joke when the part was offered to her.
Sheridan Morley described her singing voice as sounding as though ‘she has a permanent cold’ and the critic Frank Marcus said ‘she sings well. The title song in particular is projected with great feeling.’
In 1995 she appeared in Sondheim’s A Little Night Music, receiving an Olivier Award For Best Actress In A Musical. To honour Sondheim on his 80th birthday, in 2010, Dami Judi performed at the BBC Proms.
On 5 February 1971, Judi Dench married Michael Williams, also an actor. She has only ever stopped working to give birth to her daughter, Finty Williams, in 1972, and to care for her husband Michael, who died of cancer in 2001.
She credited acting with helping her to get over the loss of her husband, working immediately afterwards on Lasse Hallström’s The Shipping News. ‘People, friends, kept saying, “You are not facing up to it; you need to face up to it”, and maybe they were right, but I felt I was – in the acting. Grief supplies you with an enormous amount of energy. I needed to use that up,’ she said.
She was made a Dame for services to the performing arts in 1988. Then, in 1998, Dame Judi appeared for eight minutes (across four scenes) in Shakespeare In Love, for which she won an Oscar for her portrayal of Queen Elizabeth I. It was the second-shortest performance to win an Oscar. She said, ‘I was so surprised to win it for eight minutes with bad teeth!’ The shortest winning performance was for Best Supporting Actress, awarded to Beatrice Straight, who won an Oscar in 1976 for her five minutes and 40 seconds appearance in Network.
Dame Judi has been nominated for the Best Actress Oscar for her role in Philomena
When making Mrs Henderson Presents in 2005, Dame Judi remembers that she and Bob Hoskins did not have an easy time with the dance numbers. Hoskins said to her, ‘The trouble with you is you have hooves instead of feet.’
She was the only Bond cast member from the Pierce Brosnan era to return in Daniel Craig’s first 007 outing, Casino Royale. Dame Judi said that one of her favourite lines from the films was in GoldenEye, in which she tells Bond that he is ‘a sexist, misogynistic dinosaur’.
When filming Cranford at Ealing Studios in 2009, Dame Judi lost a crown and had to pop along to the local dentist in full 1840s garb and wig because ‘there wasn’t time for me to change’.
In 2011, she was made a fellow of the British Film Institute (BFI ) and a few years ago, a British poll found that she is now the most popular and respected woman in Britain, overtaking the Queen, who was formerly No1.
Dame Judi Dench has thus far been nominated 159 times and has won 58 acting awards. In 1996, she became the first performer to win two Olivier Awards in the same year, for two different performances – A Little Night Music and Absolute Hell.
In a Channel 4 news interview in 2013, she was asked how she remembered her lines, to which she replied: ‘Good question. Please don’t ask me! I take that wonderful thing called Eye Q every morning. The Master of Magdalen told me about it. He said, you should take that for your memory, it’s wonderful.’
Dame Judi suffers from macular degeneration (an eye condition that results in the loss of central vision). At the moment she cannot read her scripts, and her friends go through them with her. For her recent role in Philomena, Steve Coogan read the script out loud to her.
Dame Judi lives in Surrey with her daughter Finty (now an actress), four cats, a dog, moorhens and ducks and a goldfish. She claims that she once had to save the goldfish by mouth-to-mouth resuscitation.
She is nominated for the Best Actress Oscar for Philomena.
She made her professional stage debut in 1957 with the Old Vic Company at the Royal Court Theatre, Liverpool, where she played Ophelia in Hamlet. Dame Judi has said that during her first season at the Old Vic, she watched each play from the wings because she felt she could ‘learn so much from watching others’.
For a role in A Midsummer Night’s Dream in 1962, she had a wig specially made in Paris from yak hair, which she described as being like the top of a dandelion.
Her film career didn’t get off to the best start. After an early screen test, the rather ungentlemanly casting director said to her, ‘Well, Miss Dench, I have to tell you that you have every single thing wrong with your face.’ On hearing that, she vowed never to try for a film role THE OSCAR S, As she once again takes her place at the Oscars… remarkable facts from again. It did not last long, however, and Dame Judi Dench went on to act in The Third Secret in 1964 (she played Miss Humphries). Following this, in 1965, her role in Four In The Morning earned her the first of her 10 Baftas.
Not usually known as a singer, Dame Judi received a strong review for her 1968 role as Sally Bowles in the stage musical Cabaret. At first shy, she auditioned from the wings, leaving the pianist on stage and thought it was a joke when the part was offered to her.
Sheridan Morley described her singing voice as sounding as though ‘she has a permanent cold’ and the critic Frank Marcus said ‘she sings well. The title song in particular is projected with great feeling.’
In 1995 she appeared in Sondheim’s A Little Night Music, receiving an Olivier Award For Best Actress In A Musical. To honour Sondheim on his 80th birthday, in 2010, Dami Judi performed at the BBC Proms.
On 5 February 1971, Judi Dench married Michael Williams, also an actor. She has only ever stopped working to give birth to her daughter, Finty Williams, in 1972, and to care for her husband Michael, who died of cancer in 2001.
She credited acting with helping her to get over the loss of her husband, working immediately afterwards on Lasse Hallström’s The Shipping News. ‘People, friends, kept saying, “You are not facing up to it; you need to face up to it”, and maybe they were right, but I felt I was – in the acting. Grief supplies you with an enormous amount of energy. I needed to use that up,’ she said.
She was made a Dame for services to the performing arts in 1988. Then, in 1998, Dame Judi appeared for eight minutes (across four scenes) in Shakespeare In Love, for which she won an Oscar for her portrayal of Queen Elizabeth I. It was the second-shortest performance to win an Oscar. She said, ‘I was so surprised to win it for eight minutes with bad teeth!’ The shortest winning performance was for Best Supporting Actress, awarded to Beatrice Straight, who won an Oscar in 1976 for her five minutes and 40 seconds appearance in Network.
Dame Judi has been nominated for the Best Actress Oscar for her role in PhilomenaWhen making Mrs Henderson Presents in 2005, Dame Judi remembers that she and Bob Hoskins did not have an easy time with the dance numbers. Hoskins said to her, ‘The trouble with you is you have hooves instead of feet.’
She was the only Bond cast member from the Pierce Brosnan era to return in Daniel Craig’s first 007 outing, Casino Royale. Dame Judi said that one of her favourite lines from the films was in GoldenEye, in which she tells Bond that he is ‘a sexist, misogynistic dinosaur’.
When filming Cranford at Ealing Studios in 2009, Dame Judi lost a crown and had to pop along to the local dentist in full 1840s garb and wig because ‘there wasn’t time for me to change’.
In 2011, she was made a fellow of the British Film Institute (BFI ) and a few years ago, a British poll found that she is now the most popular and respected woman in Britain, overtaking the Queen, who was formerly No1.
Dame Judi Dench has thus far been nominated 159 times and has won 58 acting awards. In 1996, she became the first performer to win two Olivier Awards in the same year, for two different performances – A Little Night Music and Absolute Hell.
In a Channel 4 news interview in 2013, she was asked how she remembered her lines, to which she replied: ‘Good question. Please don’t ask me! I take that wonderful thing called Eye Q every morning. The Master of Magdalen told me about it. He said, you should take that for your memory, it’s wonderful.’
Dame Judi suffers from macular degeneration (an eye condition that results in the loss of central vision). At the moment she cannot read her scripts, and her friends go through them with her. For her recent role in Philomena, Steve Coogan read the script out loud to her.
Dame Judi lives in Surrey with her daughter Finty (now an actress), four cats, a dog, moorhens and ducks and a goldfish. She claims that she once had to save the goldfish by mouth-to-mouth resuscitation.
She is nominated for the Best Actress Oscar for Philomena.