She's best known worldwide as MI6 spymaster M, in the James Bond 007 movie franchise.
But Dame Judi Dench has lived a rich, creative life and still has exciting plans for the future.
Dame Judi was born in 1934 in northern England's Yorkshire, on December 9. She shares this birthdate with Michael Dorn (the Klingon Worf), Felicity Huffman (Desperate Housewives), Tre Cool (Green Day), Donny Osmond, Margaret Hamilton (Wicked Witch of the West), Kirk Douglas, Redd Foxx and others.
Judi started her acting career at the Old Vic Theatre in London, England, playing mostly in Shakespeare classics. Although not known as a singer, she drew rave reviews for her part in the London-staged version of CABARET in 1968.
She played the lead role of the English-born young cabaret performer Sally Bowles and her career was launched.
The Queen of British Theatre has played a couple real-life queens herself -- Queen Victoria in the movie MRS BROWN (1997) and Queen Elizabeth I in SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE (1998).
For many fans, her most beloved role is that of Jean Pargetter in the acclaimed television Britcom AS TIME GOES BY. In the 1992 to 2005 romantic comedy, her character and Second Lieutenant Lionel Hardcastle (played by Geoffrey Palmer) are separated when Lionel goes off to the Korean War. They are reunited decades later and their love is rekindled. The series is still shown around the world, including regularly on PBS in the U. S.
She has played in a number of acclaimed stage, television and film projects, but gained world renown in 1995 when she was first cast as M in the James Bond thriller GOLDENEYE, with Pierce Brosnan in his first appearance as 007.
Geoffrey Palmer played alongside Judi in Bond feature TOMMOROW NEVER DIES, where real life ex-Royal Marine Palmer played the part of British Admiral Roebuck. They've also played together in MRS BROWN.
The latest rumor has it that Dame Judi is retiring from her role as M (SKYFALL being her last appearance) but with the surprise success of the film THE BEST EXOTIC MARIGOLD HOTEL, is still busy with other single-appearance projects.
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"I never want to stop working," Dame Judi said in a recent UK interview. "I think it is our business to do as many things as we can."
When asked about her early life, young Judi Dench, she responded, "going to the Vic and all those plays. Stratford days on bikes. Then theatre in Oxford and Nottingham and being in West Africa with the company."
About her role as M, Judi muses that it is the only role most Americans know her as. She is often asked by American fans, "Apart from M, have you done anything else?"
Describing playing M as "Great fun," she continues that when using all the MI6 high-tech gadgets she gets "completely drunk with power, because I can't mend anything, or even put the ironing board up properly. But I would hate people to think bossy is all I can do."
Even with all her accomplishments, she still feels that she isn't as good as the "really good film actors, proper ones, who will always look at a take after it is done. I find it too hard to cope with that idea that you can't change it. I love the way in the theatre that you can change it every night."
About watching herself on screen she says, "I think it is always appalling to see yourself on film. I think John Gielgud used to say that he would love to have had a performance of a play he had been in to put on his mantelpiece so he could live with it and see exactly the ways he could have done it better. Because there are always ways. In the theatre you can change things ever so slightly. It's an organic thing. Whereas in film you only have that chance on the day, and you have no control over it at all."
About Clint Eastwood, who asked her to play in his J EDGAR, she replied, "He rang me up, and I thought at first it was a friend sending me up. So I didn't take it seriously to start with. And then I realised it was really him and that was a tricky conversation. I hadn't met him by the time I got on set, really. Then I felt a hand on my shoulder and there was this immensely tall man standing there, a bit terrifying, but brilliant."
When asked if she has been overawed by other celebrity figures, she replied, "Oh, lots of them. George Clooney - I was bit in awe there. And my daughter was mad about Antonio Banderas, and we were at a party and he came over and asked for a light. I thought she was going to faint. We love going to awards for that reason, to see these huge larger-than-life figures."
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When her husband of thirty years, Michael Williams, passed away, did she throw herself into acting roles as a means of escape? "Yes, it came to my rescue, really. I went out to Nova Scotia almost immediately after Michael's funeral and made THE SHIPPING NEWS with Kevin Spacey for four weeks. And then I came back and the day after started IRIS and did all of that. And then I immediately went back to Canada to finish THE SHIPPING NEWS. And then I was into PRIDE & PREJUDICE. People, friends, kept saying: 'You are not facing up to it; you need to face up to it,' and maybe they were right, but I felt I was - in the acting. Grief supplies you with an enormous amount of energy. I needed to use that up."
When she has any spare time, Judi paints, explaining "So much better than taking photographs, because it really makes you look and remember," she says. "Painting is your decision when it comes to it, whereas if you are playing a character it is also everybody else's decision, really, what it should be."
Her latest movie role is in PHILOMENA, based on the true account of an Irish-born woman who searched five decades for her son, born illegitimately, and taken from her by nuns and given to a rich American family.
About her continued career, Dame Judi concludes, "I just feel I have to keep doing it. I never want to stop. I need to learn every day. I don't question the curiosity. It's like I love quizzes and things. Did you know what Nostradamus's first name was? Michel! It's not likely, is it?"
