1934-present
Judi Dench Today: Worsening Eye Condition Hampers Her Acting
Oscar-winning actor Judi Dench, 88, revealed in an interview with Notebook magazine on July 30 she is barely able to see because of her macular degeneration. “I mean I can’t see on a film set anymore,” she told the Daily Mirror publication. “And I can’t see to read. So I can’t see much. But, you know, you just deal with it. Get on.” The actor was first diagnosed with the degenerative eye condition in 2012.
Who Is Judi Dench?
Dame Judi Dench is an actor who made her stage debut in Hamlet in 1957. After building a following for her theater, film, and TV roles, she gained international recognition in the 1990s as a character in the James Bond film franchise. Dench won an Academy Award in 1999 for her supporting role in Shakespeare in Love and earned additional nominations for her work in Chocolat and Philomena, among others. The octogenarian is still acting today, and her most recent movies include Belfast and Allelujah.
Quick Facts
FULL NAME: Judith Olivia Dench
BORN: December 9, 1934
BIRTHPLACE: North Yorkshire, England
SPOUSE: Michael Williams (1971-2001)
CHILDREN: Finty Williams
ASTROLOGICAL SIGN: Sagittarius
Early Years
Judith Olivia Dench was born on December 9, 1934, in North Yorkshire, England, to parents Reginald, a doctor, and Eleanora. From an early age, Dench received considerable exposure to the world of acting. Dench’s father was the resident doctor for the Theatre Royal in York, and it wasn’t uncommon for her to tag along during his visits there.
Even as a young girl, Dench showed a passion for performance. She loved to dress up and sing as her mother played the piano. Her first foray onto the stage came with the York Mystery Plays, where Eleanora helped out with the wardrobes and her father also did some acting.
Dench attended an all-girls Quaker school, then followed with a brief stop at the York School of Art before changing course and heading off to London’s Central School of Speech Training and Dramatic Art. The decision, Dench would later say, could be blamed on her brother, Jeffrey, another aspiring actor who also attended the school and pushed his sister to pursue stage work. “I’d never have thought of acting if it wasn’t for Jeff,” she has said.
Professional Acting Debut: Theater and TV Roles
Dench’s innate talent and versatility were hard to ignore. She made her stage debut in 1957 with the Old Vic Production Company at the Royal Court, turning heads as Ophelia in Shakespeare’s Hamlet. Dench continued work with the Old Vic for another four years.
In 1961, Dench joined the Royal Shakespeare Company, the start of a 30-year run with that playhouse that would see the actor take on every leading female Shakespeare role.
But Dench wasn’t just content with Shakespeare or drama. In 1959, she made her television debut in the series Hilda Lessways. She stretched herself even more by taking on comedic work, including stage productions of Oscar Wilde’s plays. In 1968, she had a starring role as Sally Bowles in Cabaret.
Movies and Oscar for ‘Shakespeare in Love’
The 1960s brought Dench to the big screen, as well. Her performance as a young wife in Four in the Morning (1965) earned Dench her first British Academy of Film and Television Award. Other strong performances in additional British movies followed. Coupled with her continued stage work, Dench’s name only grew in stature in her native England.
Gaining a foothold with American audiences was another matter. Dench’s early play work had brought her to the States, and she later earned more of an international following as the star of the TV romantic comedy series As Time Goes By. However, it was her role as M, James Bond’s boss in GoldenEye (1995), that established her as a legitimate Hollywood presence. Dench reprised the character for another six Bond films, ending with the 2012 release Skyfall.
In 1997, she endeared herself to movie audiences in her first leading role as Queen Victoria in the biopic Mrs. Brown. But it was another royal performance, this time as Queen Elizabeth I in Shakespeare in Love (1998), that proved Oscar-worthy. Despite an onscreen time totaling just eight minutes, Dench’s performance was so dazzling she walked away with the Best Supporting Actress Award. The movie swept both best actress categories, as Gwyneth Paltrow won for her lead role as well.
Other memorable roles followed in films such as Chocolat (2000), Iris (2001), Mrs Henderson Presents (2005), and Notes on a Scandal (2006). Dench joined an ensemble cast of acclaimed British actors for the surprise 2011 hit The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel and returned for its 2015 sequel, The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel. She also delivered a moving performance as the titular character of Philomena (2013), based on the book about a mother’s real-life search for a son given up to adoption.
In 2015, Dench co-starred opposite Dustin Hoffman in the adaptation of Roald Dahl’s Esio Trot. In 2016, she appeared in Tim Burton’s film adaptation of Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, and the following year, she earned a Golden Globe nomination for her performance as Queen Victoria in Stephen Frear’s Victoria and Abdul, a film about the unlikely friendship between the Queen and one of her Indian subjects.
After pairing with director Kenneth Branagh for an update of Murder on the Orient Express (2017) and the Shakespeare-focused All Is True (2018), Dench headlined a star-studded film adaptation of the Broadway musical Cats (2019) as Old Deuteronomy. Her most recent movies include Oscar-nominated Belfast (2021), Allelujah (2022), and Spirited (2022).
Awards and Achievements
In 1996, Dench won an unprecedented two Laurence Olivier Awards for Best Actress and Best Actress in a Musical. Two years later, she took home an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in Shakespeare in Love. In 1999, Dench earned a Tony Award for her leading role in Amy’s View.
Dench’s approach to her work is unusual. She famously doesn’t read parts before accepting them, choosing instead to rely on the word of her friends and colleagues to help her make a decision. With her stage work, she often comes to rehearsals not having read the entire play. “Not reading pushes me to a kind of dangerous edge, and there is something in me that needs that,” she has explained.
It’s hard to argue with the results. Over the course of her career, Dench has been recognized like few other actors. Along with her 1998 Oscar, she’s received seven additional Academy Award nominations, including five for Best Actress. She’s also won two Golden Globes, six Lawrence Olivier Awards, and 10 British Academy of Film and Television Awards.
In addition, Dench was named an Order of the British Empire in 1970 and honored with the title of Dame Commander of the British Empire in 1988. She was recognized with a Fellowship at the Royal Society of Arts in 2006, as well as a Fellowship from the British Film Institute in 2011.
Personal Life: Husband, Daughter, and Grandson
Dench married actor Michael Williams in 1971. The couple worked several times together, including in the British television series A Fine Romance and the 1999 film Tea with Mussolini. The two remained together until Michael’s death from lung cancer in 2001. Dench and Williams had one daughter together, the actor Finty Williams.
Williams and her son Sam maintain a very close relationship with Dench, which Williams described as “three-way Velcro.” Sam moved in with Dench during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, with the pair later went viral for a series of TikTok videos they made during lockdown.
Dench hasn’t remarried is in a relationship with David Mills, a dairy farmer and wildlife conservationist, that dates back to 2010. She affectionately calls him her “chap.”
According to Celebrity Net Worth, Dench is believed to have a net worth of roughly $45 million as of July 2023.
Health: Eye Condition and Surgery
In 2012, Dench was diagnosed with age-related macular degeneration but has continued to act. However, she was forced to give up driving as her vision worsened, and in July 2023, Dench revealed in an interview with Notebook magazine that she can no longer see on film sets and has to rely on her photographic memory. “It’s the most terrible shock to the system,” she has said of the condition. “Ghastly. It’s terrible to be so dependent on people.”
In 2013, Dench underwent knee replacement surgery after suffering from chronic pain.
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