Happy Birthday to performer Judi Dench, born Dec. 9, 1934, in Heworth, England. Though primarily known for her dramatic work, Dench has appeared in several high-profile musical productions. She made her professional debut in 1957 as Ophelia at the Old Vic, with whom she made her Broadway debut in 1958. Three years later, she left the Old Vic and joined the RSC. She made her TV debut in 1959 with the series Hilda Lessways and her film debut in The Third Secret (1964). She then won BAFTA awards for the film Four in the Morning (1965) and the TV series Talking to a Stranger (1968).
She made her musical debut as Sally Bowles in the London premiere of Cabaret (1968). Critic Sheridan Morley later wrote, “At first she thought they were joking. She had never done a musical, and she has an unusual croaky voice which sounds as if she has a permanent cold.” Her performance was well-received, but after a long run in the musical, she rejoined the RSC and spent the next decade primarily working in classical rep. Below is Dench and the Cabaret company rehearsing and performing “Don’t Tell Mama.”
The next phase of her career began with her TV work in On Giant’s Shoulders (1980) and A Fine Romance (1981-84), which earned her the first of three more BAFTA TV awards. Her film career took off with Wetherby (1985) and A Room with a View (1986), which earned her the first of five more BAFTA film awards. In the 1990s, she returned to the musical stage, earning Olivier nominations for her direction of The Boys from Syracuse at Regent’s Park (1991) and the prize for her performance in A Little Night Music at the National (1995).
She rose to international fame as M in GoldenEye (1995), a role she played in the Bond series until Skyfall (2012), subsequently earning her first Oscar nomination for Mrs Brown (1997) and the prize for Shakespeare in Love (1998). She returned to Broadway in the play Amy’s View (1999), which earned her a Tony, and then as the recorded voice of The Giant in the 2002 Broadway revival of Into the Woods. Her most recent musical work has been in the films Nine (2009) and Cats (2019). Below is Dench performing “Folies Bergère” in Nine.