Trivia

First woman to portray the 007 series character "M", which she did in GoldenEye (1995).

Even after winning so many acting awards, she still admits to being insecure and wanting to improve the next performance. She admits that she prefers stage first, television second and film in third place.

Following the birth of her daughter, Finty Williams, Dench and her husband immediately began trying for another child. However, having been unsuccessful, the couple looked into adoption when Dench was in her 40s, but they were turned down.

Her 1999 Oscar was awarded for an six-minute performance in only four scenes as "Queen Elizabeth I" in Shakespeare in Love (1998). It is the second shortest performance ever to win a Best Supporting Actress Oscar, the only shorter one being Beatrice Straight's five-minute performance in Network (1976).

A lifelong animal lover, Judi is the proud owner of a racehorse named Smokey Oakey. Also owns a dog, 4 cats, 2 Guinea pigs and some fish.

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

As of 2014, received seven Oscar nominations, all of them when she was already over the age of 60. No other actor or actress collected more nominations when older than 60, the closest runner-ups being Katharine Hepburn, Paul Newman, Laurence Olivier, Spencer Tracy, Melvyn Douglas and Edith Evans with a mere three nominations each.

Became a grandmother at age 62 when her daughter Finty Williams gave birth to a son, Sam Michael Williams, on June 6, 1997.

When Royal Shakespeare Company Director Peter Hall asked Judi Dench to play the title role in a staged, and then later televised, production of Cleopatra, Dench refused, saying that her Cleopatra would be a "menopausal dwarf." Director Hall was later successful in coaxing Dench into the role, of which she won rave reviews from both theatre critics and TV audiences.

During the filming of As Time Goes By (1992), she used to direct everybody to hide from the director when he left the set.

Has "Carpe diem" tattooed on her right wrist.

In her autobiography "And Furthermore," Dench says that she never really understood what was going on in the movie The Chronicles of Riddick (2004), but she enjoyed the experience of making the movie, and she thought the sets were great.

She is a frequent co-star of her close friend Geoffrey Palmer, having starred with him in one of Britain's most popular 1990s sitcoms, As Time Goes By (1992), as well as sharing credits in popular films such as Mrs. Brown (1997) and Tomorrow Never Dies (1997).

Counts Mrs. Brown (1997) as the movie that became the quintessential breakthrough event of her career as a film actress, winning her her first Oscar nomination. Even though she'd performed regularly on stage in the US in Old Vic productions almost 40 years earlier, it wasn't until after this movie that Hollywood really came calling.

Became engaged to Michael Williams during Christmas 1970 after he proposed to her on a beach in Australia.

Created the role of Sally Bowles in the London premiere of the musical, Cabaret.

In a 2004 opinion poll of the Royal Shakespeare Company, Dame Dench's performance as "Lady Macbeth" in Trevor Nunn's 1976 production of "Macbeth" was voted the second greatest Shakespearean performance of all time. Only Paul Scofield's masterful "King Lear" was ranked higher.

She was awarded the OBE (Officer of the Order of the British Empire) in the 1970 Queen's Birthday Honours List and awarded the DBE (Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire) in the 1988 Queen's New Year Honours List for her services to drama.

Her husband, Michael, used to have a long stemmed red rose delivered to her every Friday.

Dench is a supporter of Everton Football Club and she has been named as a patron of the soccer team's official charity "Everton in the Community".

Following her Oscar win for Shakespeare in Love (1998), the producers of the Bond franchise gave her character M a much larger role -- one central to the film's plot -- for the first time in the Bond franchise. While M had typically only been seen in Bond films in bookend scenes at the very beginning and end, this time around the writers made her past actions the primary motive for the film's two main villains. They did the same thing with M in Skyfall (2012), purportedly because they were planning to kill off her character and wanted her (platonic) relationship with Bond to come full circle.

Judi Dench is the new narrator of "Spaceship Earth", the dark ride at EPCOT. She replaced Jeremy Irons after Walt Disney World and Siemens decided to update the classic ride housed inside the infamous golf-ball.

She has played virtually all of Shakespeare's leading ladies.

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

She and Vanessa Redgrave were in the same class at drama school.

She was cast to play "Grizabella" in the original West End production of "CATS", but she tore her Achilles Tendon and was forced to quit the musical. Elaine Paige replaced her.

She and her The Shipping News (2001) and Notes on a Scandal (2006) co-star Cate Blanchett both received Oscar-nominations for playing Queen Elizabeth I in 1999. Dench won for her supporting role in Shakespeare in Love (1998) while Blanchett was nominated for Elizabeth (1998).

Was six months pregnant with her daughter, Finty Williams, when she completed her run of the play "London Assurance".

When she started training at the Central School of Speech and Drama, she admits she wasn't taking it as seriously as she ought to have done. She was caught out during an improvisation scene at which point she realised that that was what it was all about and studied harder than she had ever done in her life.

She was awarded the Laurence Olivier Theatre Award in 1988 (1987 season) for Best Actress in a New Play for Antony and Cleopatra.

Received the Film Actress Award for her role in Chocolat at The Variety Club Showbusiness Awards 2002. Unfortunately Ms Dench was in attendance at the Berlin Film Festival and couldn't attend the Awards ceremony, but was able to send a televised message congratulating the charity on its 50th anniversary.

As of 2022, has appeared in 5 films that were nominated for the Best Picture Oscar: A Room with a View (1985), Shakespeare in Love (1998), Chocolat (2000), Philomena (2013), and Belfast (2021). The only film to win in the category was Shakespeare in Love (1998).

Shares two roles with both Kate Winslet and Cate Blanchett. She and Winslet both played the title role in Iris (2001), and she and Blanchett have both played Queen Elizabeth. All three of them have played Ophelia in Hamlet.

Was awarded an honourary Litt.D. (Doctor in Letters) from Trinity College on Friday, 11th July, 2003.

At the opening of the Judi Dench Theatre in London in 1986 she was introduced as "Here she is, Miss Judy Geeson'.

At her first film audition she was told 'Miss Dench, you have every single thing wrong with your face'.

Pictured with John Stride on one of a set of eight British commemorative postage stamps celebrating the 200th anniversary of The Old Vic Theatre, issued 30 August 2018. The stamp shows Dench and Stride in a 1960 performance of "Romeo and Juliet". Other performers appearing on stamps in this set are Laurence Olivier, Glenda Jackson, Albert Finney, Maggie Smith, John Gielgud, Ralph Richardson, Sharon Benson, and Richard Burton.

Her father, Reginald Arthur Dench, was from Dorset, England, and her mother, Eleanora Olive (Jones), was from Dublin, Ireland.

The longest she has gone without an Oscar nomination is the 7 years between Notes on a Scandal (2006) and Philomena (2013).

Was not able to attend the Oscars in 2007, because she had to undergo a knee surgery.

She was awarded a Companion of Honour in the 2005 Queen's Birthday Honours List for her services to drama.

Provides the narration for Spaceship Earth at Walt Disney World's Epcot in the 4th version (soft opening December 2007, final opening scheduled for February 2008).

She was ranked second in the 2001 Orange Film Survey of the greatest British Film Actresses.

Voted Best British Actress of all time in a poll for Sky TV. (February 2005)

The only person to always be credited "and Judi Dench as M" in all her James Bond opening credits sequences for her appearances. Bernard Lee did not get the credit in Dr. No (1962). Robert Brown never got the credit. Ralph Fiennes was credited as Gareth Mallory in Skyfall (2012).

In 1999, Judi won the Oscar for "Shakespeare in Love" and the Tony for "Amy's View", making her one of five actresses to win the Oscar and the Tony in the same year. The others are Shirley Booth, Audrey Hepburn, Ellen Burstyn, and Mercedes Ruehl.

A section of the paved river bank alongside the River Ouse in York, upstream of Lendal Bridge near the Museum Gardens, was named Dame Judi Dench Walk in honour of the city being her birthplace.

Attended the Mount School and at the Central School of Speech and Drama in London.

Judi's Best Supporting Actress Oscar for Shakespeare in Love (1998) was presented to her by Robin Williams (21 March 1999 / Dorothy Chandler Pavilion).

She has won 8 Olivier Awards.