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Dame Judi Dench By AWOYE TIMPO
Master thespian, admired director, and arts activist Dame Judi Dench is quite simply divine. A professional actress for nearly 50 years, she continues to command leading roles on stage and in film in Great Britain and the United States. Dench exudes an extreme versatility and grace, constantly exploring the depths of human complexity and emotion while floating freely between Shakespearean, musical, classic, and contemporary works.
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Judith Olivia Dench was born on December 9, 1934, in York, England, to Dr. Reginald and Eleanora Dench. At the age of 13, she began studies at the Mount School, an all-girls Quaker school in York. The school discouraged competitiveness and the young Dench once handed over her role as a queen in a production of Richard II to play a lady-in-waiting. Upon graduation she decided to become a theater designer and briefly studied the craft until seeing a production of King Lear. The design was so impressive that she became convinced she lacked the imagination to pursue such a career. At the encouragement of her brother, Jeffrey, she applied and was accepted into the Central School of Speech and Drama in London.Professors at the drama school recognized her potential and worked with her to develop her voice. Upon graduation she was cast as Ophelia in an Old Vic production of Hamlet in London. She remained a member of the Old Vic acting company until 1961, earning rave reviews and deepening her craft with roles in the plays of Shakespeare, Chekhov, Ibsen, and Shaw, among others. In 1964 she made her film debut in The Third Secret and later received two BAFTA awards for performances on television.Dench created the role of Sally Bowles in the West End production of Cabaret (1968). Her unique, husky voice received such notice from patrons that she implored the management to place a sign in the theater lobby saying: "Miss Dench does not have a cold. This is her normal speaking voice."In 1969, Judi Dench joined the Royal Shakespeare Company (R.S.C.), where she developed an impressive body of work. Her roles included Lady Macbeth opposite Ian McKellen in a now legendary performance of Macbeth, Ranyevskaya in The Cherry Orchard, Cleopatra in Antony and Cleopatra, and Lady Bracknell in The Importance of Being Earnest (a role she would reprise on film 20 years later). Judi Dench is well known to British audiences from her roles on popular television series. From 1981-84 she starred in A Fine Romance with her husband, Michael Williams, and from 1992-2002 on the "Britcom" As Time Goes By.In 1987 Dench was named Dame Commander of the British Empire in honor of her contribution to the arts. In 1996 she became the first person to win two Olivier Awards in the same year for two different roles.Her first leading role on film, at the age of 63, was Queen Victoria in the John Madden film Mrs. Brown (1997), for which she received her first Academy Award nomination. She won a Tony Award for her performance in David Hare's Amy's View in the same year. Madden later asked her to join the cast of his next film, Shakespeare in Love (1998), in which she played Queen Elizabeth I. Dench won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress (she was on screen for eight minutes). She followed this film with Tea With Mussolini and an Academy Award-nominated performance in Chocolat.Dench made her directing debut with John Osborne's play Look Back in Anger (1997). The play starred Kenneth Branagh, Dench, and Emma Thompson. She has also directed other plays in London, including Romeo and Juliet, Macbeth, and As You Like It.
When her husband died of cancer in 2001, Dench immersed herself in her work. She filmed The Shipping News (2001), Iris (2001)—for which she received her fourth Academy Award nomination—and The Importance of Being Earnest (2002), before returning to her role as M opposite Pierce Brosnan in the James Bond film Die Another Day (2002).Earlier this year Dame Judi Dench was awarded the Laurence Olivier Special Theater Award for her outstanding contributions to British theater. She is a staunch advocate of government support of the arts, a mother, a grandmother, and the recipient of numerous awards and accolades for her work. She is constantly in search of the next unlikely role with which to share her small frame and magnificent presence. At its commencement ceremony on May 21, Juilliard will present her with an Honorary Doctor of Fine Arts degree.
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