Dame Judi Dench Biography

Dame Judi Dench is known to moviegoers as star performer of the stately matron variety, thanks especially to her roles as Queen Victoria in Mrs. Brown (1997) and Queen Elizabeth in Shakespeare in Love (1998, starring Gwyneth Paltrow). Dench has been on the British stage since the late 1950s, and in television and films since the 1960s. Her many awards include an Oscar (1999, for her brief appearance in Shakespeare in Love), a Tony (1999, for Amy’s View) and nine awards from the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA). She was awarded an Order of the British Empire in 1970 and made a Dame of the British Empire in 1988 in recognition of her illustrious theater career, but it took high-profile film roles in the 1990s to make her an international celebrity. She has received six Oscar nominations, including the 2005 comedy Mrs. Henderson Presents and the 2006 drama Notes on a Scandal.

Though primarily known for costumers and period pieces, Dench co-starred in the Vin Diesel thriller The Chronicles of Riddick (2004) and played the role of M in the James Bond films starring Pierce Brosnan: Goldeneye (1995), Tomorrow Never Dies (1997), The World is Not Enough (1999) and Die Another Day (2002). On television, she starred in the popular British series A Fine Romance (1981) and As Time Goes By (1992), and in 2001 was nominated for an Emmy as outstanding lead actress in The Last of the Blonde Bombshells (2000). Her other feature films include 84 Charing Cross Road (1987, with Anne Bancroft), Chocolat (2000, with Juliette Binoche), Iris (2001, as author Iris Murdoch) and The Shipping News (2001, based on the book by Annie Proulx).