KATHMANDU:

She is M in the recent Bond movies and Judi Dench is as enigmatic as Ian Fleming’s character.

Judith Olivia Dench was born on December 9, 1934, in York, England. It was her father who introduced her to the world of theatre.

As a child, as she is now, Dench was very vivacious, hot-tempered and loquacious. She lived in a Victorian house with her parents and two elder brothers Michael and Jeffrey. Dench later described her young life as being “like swallows and amazons”, playing with bikes and rollerskates, making phone systems out of string and tin cans”.

Dench claimed she first became enthused by acting when taken to see Jeff perform Shakespeare at his boys’ school. Quickly, she joined in herself when the family became involved in the York Mystery Plays where her mother was wardrobe mistress.

From 1947 to 1953, she was a boarder at York’s Mount School. Dench came to believe her way into theatre would be as a designer and began training at art school. She stayed for just one year as, demoralised by the quality of set at Stratford and enthused by Jeffrey’s tales of life at London’s Central School of Speech and Drama, she decided to try acting. She wasn’t sure what she wanted to be and hadn’t enjoyed stage work at Mount School, even when starring as Ariel in The Tempest. She graduated with a first class degree and four acting prizes, one being the Gold Medal as Outstanding Student. A note on the honours board marked her as the student most likely to succeed.

And success was immediate when Dench was snapped up by the Old Vic Company and made her debut as an elfin Ophelia in Hamlet in Liverpool. Her rocket-like ascent was hyped heavily, to the fury of Hamlet himself, John Neville, who believed too much pressure was being put on an inexperienced actress. On Neville’s suggestion she re-started her career with renewed vigour, gaining vast experience in what was a golden period for British theatre. The year 1958 saw her Broadway debut as maid Maria in the Old Vic’s Twelfth Night, as well as playing Lady Macbeth at a tribal gathering in West Africa. In 1964, she’d finally make her screen debut in The Third Secret, helmed by the legendary English director Charles Crichton. Then there would be Four In The Morning, for which she won a BAFTA as best film newcomer.

The 60’s proved that Dench was one of the country’s finest young actresses, and versatile enough to succeed on both the small and silver screens. Since then Dench has proved her acting mettle on both screen and stage with varieties of roles done till perfection making them vividly fresh in everyone’s memory.

On February 5, 1971 Dench got married to actor Micheal Williams after two years of courtship. Williams sent her a red rose every Friday for the next 30 years, a tradition that continued after his death from cancer in January 2001 by the couple’s daughter Finty Williams though now the rose would be pink.

Amazingly, she never reads the scripts sent to her, preferring someone else to give her the general gist, a job performed for many years by her beloved husband. Whilst on the subject of being loved, Dench has become one of the UK’s best-loved performers. Indeed, a Youguv poll in 2002 made her second only to the Queen as Britain’s best-loved person.

As if single-handedly setting out to prove that actresses aren’t necessarily finished when they reach a certain age, Dame Judi Dench achieved her greatest fame and loudest plaudits while in her mid-sixties. Formerly known as one of the UK’s finest Shakespearians, once she’d taken to screen acting in earnest she was continually Oscar-nominated, for her roles in Mrs Brown, Shakespeare In Love, Chocolat, Iris and Mrs Henderson Presents, and this despite a general aversion to film-making. Dench has stated that, in films, people are cast primarily because they look like a character, whereas on

stage, in an hour-and-a-half, she has the opportunity and ability to convince the audience she is whatever she chooses to be. That’s acting.

More about Dench

• Her first stage appearance was as a snail in a play at her junior school.

• She made history in 1996 as the first person to win two Laurence Olivier awards (for British theatre) for different roles.

• Her 1999 Oscar was awarded for an eight minute performance in only four scenes as Queen Elizabeth I in Shakespeare in Love.

• Awarded an honorary DLitt by Oxford University in 2000, from Trinity College in 2003 and from the University of St Andrews in 2008.

• Shares two roles with both Kate Winslet and Cate Blanchett. She and Winslet played the title role in Iris, and she and Blanchette have both played Queen Elizabeth. All three have played Ophelia in Hamlet.

• She was awarded an OBE in ‘70, was made a Dame of the British Empire in ‘88 and a Companion Of Honour in 2005.

• Dench’s respect for royalty did not prevent her and Ian McKellen sneaking away and sitting on the throne when both were invited to Buckingham Palace.

• In 2001 Dench was asked by the 77 British families who lost loved ones in the World Trade Centre attack to read at the memorial service in Westminster Abbey.

Her laurels

• 1966 Won BAFTA Film Award Most Promising Newcomer to Leading Film Roles for Four in the Morning

• 1987 Won BAFTA Film Award Best Actress in a Supporting Role for A Room with a View

• 1998 Won BAFTA Film Award Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role for Mrs Brown

• 1998 Won Golden Globe Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture Drama for Mrs Brown

• 1999 Won Oscar Best Actress in a Supporting Role for Shakespeare in Love

• 1999 Won BAFTA Film Award Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role for Shakespeare in Love

• 2001 Won Screen Actor Guild Awards for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role for Chocolat

• 2002 Won BAFTA Film Award Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role for Iris

• 2007 Won British Independent Film Award Best Actress for Notes on a Scandal