Judi Dench



""It is true that there are few plays of Shakespeare that I haven't done.""

- Judi Dench

Dame Judi Dench (1934- ) is an award-winning English actress and right up there with Helen Mirren and Emma Thompson in terms of being completely awesome. While she was at first mostly working in theater - notably the Royal Shakespeare Company - she became more prominent as a movie actress after she took on the role of M in the James Bond series.

She's also famous for winning an Academy Award for her role in Shakespeare in Love, in which she had roughly nine minutes of screentime and thoroughly managed to steal the film.

Ofcom, who handle complaints about television shows in the UK, sometimes refer to the Judi Dench effect, noting that any swearword spoken by Judi Dench will result in more complaints than the same swearword spoken by anyone else.

Word of God says she DM's for her grandkids, which is made of so much ridiculous awesome and win. Once word of this got out, no self-respecting geek will call her anything less than "Dame Judi Dench".

Unfortunately, it has come to light that her eyesight is failing and her career may be coming to an end.

Film:
 * James Bond
 * GoldenEye
 * Tomorrow Never Dies
 * The World Is Not Enough
 * Die Another Day
 * Casino Royale
 * Quantum of Solace
 * Skyfall
 * Hamlet (1996)
 * Shakespeare in Love -- One-Scene Wonder that earned her the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress
 * Notes On A Scandal -- Second Academy Award nomination.
 * The Chronicles of Riddick -- Was cast because Vin Diesel was apparently a huge fan of hers, and begged her to take the part. In-between shooting, she DM'd for Diesel and Karl Urban.
 * The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel

Television:
 * As Time Goes By
 * A Fine Romance
 * A BBC rendition of Macbeth, playing Lady Macbeth opposite Sir Ian McKellen