Getting to Know Judi Dench Better

by Joi on March 10, 2007

Here’s some interesting information I rounded up about the spectacular Judi Dench:

Judi Dench was born on December 9, 1934 in York, North Yorkshire, England.
When Royal Shakespeare Company Director Peter Hall asked Judi Dench to play the title role in a staged,
(and later televised) production of Cleopatra, Dench refused. She was quoted as saying that her Cleopatra would be a “menopausal dwarf.” He persistantly wooed her and was later successful in coaxing Dench into the role. She won rave reviews from both theatre critics and TV audiences.
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 (1998). It’s the second shortest performance EVER to win a Best Supporting Actress Oscar. The only shorter performance to be awarded the Oscar went to Beatrice Straight for her six minute performance in Network (1976).
Judi Dench and her late husband, actor Michael Williams have a daughter named Finty, also in the acting profession. Finty appeared in, among other things, The Importance of Being Earnest.
After her husband’s death from lung cancer in 2001, Judi said in an interview that she felt “lopsided” without the man who sent her a red rose each Friday during their marriage.
She was to play “Grizabella” in the original “CATS” West End production, but an ailment forced her out of the play. Elaine Paige, who went on to ridiculous success in the role, replaced her.
She told an interviewer, once, that at award ceremonies, she, Michael, and Finty (Pictured below) would spend the evening, “…nudging each other and star-spotting”.
She recently won rave reviews for one of her best performances ever, as the obsessed villain Barbara Covett, alongside Cate Blanchett (pictured together above) in Notes on a Scandal. It isn’t a stretch to call this type of role the “role of a lifetime,” and she didn’t just seize the opportunity - she seized the hell out of it.