Judi Dench

Dame Judi Dench was born on December 9, 1934, in York, England. Her childhood was spent in the company of performers, as her father was the resident doctor for a nearby theater company. There were consequently actors coming and going in Judi's house at all hours, and it was by watching them that the young girl found herself mesmerized by their easy-going, cavalier lifestyle. Judi knew early on that she wanted to pursue a career in the arts, though her initial inclination was toward either painting or dancing.

Following her high school years, Judi signed up for a stint at a nearby art school where she began learning some of the finer points of illustrating. She quickly came to the realization that painting wasn't her forte, and decided to follow her brother to acting school (London's Central School of Speech and Drama). It was there that Judi discovered her innate abilities as an actress, and by the time she graduated, she won a whole host of awards and kudos from professors and students alike (Judi was even named the student most likely to succeed).

Judi was quickly snapped up by London's prestigious Old Vic Theatre Company, where she was soon appearing in a wide variety of productions. Her first stint with the company arrived in the form of a 1957 revival of William Shakespeare's Hamlet, in which she played Ophelia to John Neville's Hamlet. The reviewers weren't terribly kind to her, ensuring that, by the time the decision was made to take the production to the States, Judi would be unceremoniously replaced by another actress. Undeterred, Judi devoted herself entirely to the perfection of her craft and eventually proved her worth among both her costars and critics.

It was also around that time that Judi began exploring the possibility of a career in film, and the ambitious actress began stealing time whenever she could to audition for anything being shot locally. In 1959, Judi's tenaciousness paid off as she was cast in the title role of a BBC miniseries called Hilda Lessways, which she soon followed up with a series of appearances in various made-for-television endeavors. Her primary focus, however, remained the stage, and in 1961, Judi was asked to help form the Royal Shakespeare Company. It was there that Judi firmly established herself as one of the most talented up-and-coming actresses of her generation, with her solid work ethic and astounding versatility opening doors that had previously been firmly shut.

In 1964, Judi made her cinematic debut with a small but pivotal role in The Third Secret. She consequently spent the next several years appearing in both movies and stage plays, though there was little doubt that Judi's heart remained firmly entrenched within the world of theater. She appeared alongside some of Britain's biggest names in a wide variety of productions, with a role opposite Ian McKellen in a late-?70s adaptation of Macbeth -- easily the most high-profile of her many roles. It was also around that time that Judi married her longtime friend and lover Michael Williams, and the two remained happily married for exactly three decades until his death in 2001.

Judi essentially remained an anonymous figure throughout much of her first couple of decades within the business, which allowed her to take on roles of an increasingly challenging nature (she hadn't yet been pigeon-holed as one particular type of actress). Judi's level of fame began to rise in the 1980s, however, once she started appearing in high-profile films such as 1985's best picture nominee A Room with a View and Kenneth Branagh's acclaimed 1989 take on Shakespeare's Henry V.

In 1988, she was also made Dame of Order of the British Empire, 18 years after she was named an Officer of the Order of the British Empire.