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Peter Dench Biography & Facts

Dame Judith Olivia Dench (born 9 December 1934) is an English actress. Widely considered one of Britain's greatest actors, she is noted for her versatile work in various films and television programmes encompassing several genres, as well as for her numerous roles on the stage. Dench has garnered various accolades throughout a career spanning seven decades, including an Academy Award, a Tony Award, two Golden Globe Awards, four British Academy Television Awards, six British Academy Film Awards, and seven Olivier Awards. Dench made her professional debut in 1957 with the Old Vic Company. Over the following few years she performed in several of Shakespeare's plays, in such roles as Ophelia in Hamlet, Juliet in Romeo and Juliet and Lady Macbeth in Macbeth. Although most of Dench's work during this period was in theatre, she also branched into film work and won a BAFTA Award as Most Promising Newcomer. In 1968, she drew excellent reviews for her leading role of Sally Bowles in the musical Cabaret. Over the next two decades Dench established herself as one of the most significant British theatre performers, working for the National Theatre Company and the Royal Shakespeare Company. She received critical acclaim for her work on television during this period, in the ITV comedy series A Fine Romance (1981–1984) and the BBC1 romantic series As Time Goes By (1992–2005), in both of which she held starring roles. Her film appearances were infrequent and included supporting roles in major films, such as James Ivory's A Room with a View (1985), before she rose to international fame as M in GoldenEye (1995), a role she went on to play in eight James Bond films, until her final cameo appearance in Spectre (2015). An eight-time Academy Award nominee, Dench won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance as Queen Elizabeth I in Shakespeare in Love (1998); her other Oscar-nominated roles are for Mrs Brown (1997), Chocolat (2000), Iris (2001), Mrs Henderson Presents (2005), Notes on a Scandal (2006), Philomena (2013), and Belfast (2021). She is also the recipient of several honorary awards, including the BAFTA Fellowship Award, the Society of London Theatre Special Award, and the British Film Institute Fellowship Award. Early life and education Judith Olivia Dench was born in the Heworth area of York on 9 December 1934, the daughter of an Irish mother and English father. Her mother, Eleanora Olive (née Jones) (1897–1983), was born in Dublin; her father, Reginald Arthur Dench MC & Bar (1897–1964), was a doctor from Dorset who grew up primarily in Dublin and who fought on the Western Front in World War I. Her parents met while studying at Wesley College, Dublin. In October 2021, Dench was the subject of BBC One's Who Do You Think You Are?, where it was revealed that she is descended from the Bille family of Danish aristocrats, and Steen Andersen Bille (1624–1698), the illegitimate son of Anders Steensen Bille (1578–1633), as well as Claus Bille (1490–1558), a grandfather of Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe (1546–1601). Judi is also distantly related to Sophie, Duchess of Edinburgh, as both descended from Robert Molesworth, 1st Viscount Molesworth. She is also a cousin of Greek-Australian actors Rebekah Elmaloglou and Sebastian Elmaloglou. Her niece, Emma Dench, is a historian of ancient Rome. Dench attended the Mount School, a Quaker independent secondary school in York, and became a Quaker. She had two elder brothers named Peter (1925–2017) and Jeffery (1928–2014), the latter of whom also became an actor. Through her parents, Dench had regular contact with the theatre: her father was the GP for York Theatre Royal, and her mother was its wardrobe mistress. Actors often stayed in the Dench household. During these years, Judi Dench was involved on a non-professional basis in the first three productions of the modern revival of the York Mystery Plays in 1951, 1954 and 1957. In the third production she played the role of the Virgin Mary, performed on a fixed stage in the Museum Gardens. Though she initially trained as a set designer, she became interested in drama school as her brother Jeff attended the Central School of Speech and Drama. She was also inspired by seeing Peggy Ashcroft play Cleopatra on stage, which she later said "changed my life". She applied and was accepted by the Central School, then based at the Royal Albert Hall, London, where she was a classmate of Vanessa Redgrave, graduating and being awarded four acting prizes, including the Gold Medal as Outstanding Student. Career 1957–1969: National Theatre Dench made her first professional stage appearance in September 1957 with the Old Vic Company at the Royal Court Theatre in Liverpool, as Ophelia in Hamlet. According to the reviewer for London Evening Standard, Dench had "talent which will be shown to better advantage when she acquires some technique to go with it". Dench then made her London debut in the same production at the Old Vic. She remained a member of the company for four seasons, 1957–1961, her roles including Katherine in Henry V in 1958 (which was also her New York City debut) and Juliet in Romeo and Juliet in 1960, both directed and designed by Franco Zeffirelli. During this period, Dench toured the United States and Canada and appeared in Yugoslavia and at the Edinburgh Festival. She joined the Royal Shakespeare Company in December 1961, playing Anya in The Cherry Orchard at the Aldwych Theatre in London and made her Stratford-upon-Avon debut in April 1962 as Isabella in Measure for Measure. She subsequently spent seasons in repertory both with the Playhouse in Nottingham from January 1963 (including a West African tour as Lady Macbeth for the British Council), and with the Playhouse Company in Oxford from April 1964. In 1960, Dench appeared on television as Anna in the very last episode ("Traviso Dam") of the TV series The Four Just Men, in 1964 as Valentine Wannop in Theatre 625's adaptation of Parade's End (shown in three episodes), and also played a juvenile trouble maker in an episode of the police series Z-Cars. That same year, she made her film debut in The Third Secret, before featuring in a small role in the Sherlock Holmes thriller A Study in Terror (1965) with her Nottingham Playhouse colleague John Neville. She performed again in Theatre 625 in 1966, as Terry in the four-part series Talking to a Stranger, for which she won a BAFTA for Best Actress. The 1966 BAFTA Award for Most Promising Newcomer to Leading Film Roles was made to Dench for her performance in Four in the Morning and this was followed in 1968 by a BAFTA Best Actress Award for her role in John Hopkins' 1966 BBC drama Talking to a Stranger. In 1968, she was offered the role of Sally Bowles in the musical Cabaret. As Sheridan Morley later reported: "At first she thought they were joking. She had never done a musical and she has an unusual croaky voice which sounds as if she has a permanent cold. So f.... Discover the Peter Dench popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Peter Dench books.