Judi Dench Turns 92 on December 9, and Eight Minutes in Shakespeare in Love Won Her an Oscar

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Dame Judi Dench turns 92 on December 9, and she remains one of the most admired British actors of all time. She was born in York in 1934 and trained for the stage, joining the Old Vic company in the 1950s before building a long career with the Royal Shakespeare Company and the National Theatre. For a long time she was known mainly to theatregoers, and it took cinema a while to catch up.

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The film breakthrough came late. She played Queen Victoria in Mrs Brown in 1997, and then, in 1998, she appeared in Shakespeare in Love as Queen Elizabeth I. The role lasted only a few minutes of screen time, famously fewer than ten, but she won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress, and it is one of the tightest, funniest performances of that decade.

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Bond fans know her as M, the head of MI6, whom she played from GoldenEye in 1995 through Skyfall in 2012. She made the character dry, unsentimental and unmistakably in charge, and her death scene in Skyfall is one of the most memorable moments of the Daniel Craig era.

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Later parts include Iris, Mrs Henderson Presents, Notes on a Scandal, Philomena in 2013 and Victoria and Abdul in 2017. She was made a Dame in 1988 and has received almost every major acting award there is. In recent years her sight has deteriorated, and she has spoken openly about learning lines by having them read to her.

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Which Judi Dench role do you remember best? I could watch Philomena any time, and her scenes with Steve Coogan are a lesson in comic timing.