Dench, Dame Judi Olivia [ Dame Judith Olivia Dench] (1934– ), major English actress whose career has covered a wide variety of parts old and new. She made her first appearance in 1957 at the
Old Vic as Ophelia to the Hamlet of John
Neville, remaining with the company for four years before joining the
RSC to play Anya in
Chekhov's The Cherry Orchard followed by Isabella in
Measure for Measure. She then appeared in her first modern play as Dorcas Bellboys in the 1962 revival of John
Whiting's A Penny for a Song. She made another incursion into modern drama in
Arbuzov's The Promise in 1967, afterwards scoring a success as Sally Bowles in her first musical,
Cabaret (1968). In 1969 she returned to the RSC to play
Viola in
Twelfth Night, and in 1970 was seen both in the title-role of Shaw's
Major Barbara and as the bluestocking Grace Harkaway in
Boucicault's London Assurance. A year later she played the title-role in Webster's
The Duchess of Malfi. Other roles with the RSC included Beatrice in
Much Ado about Nothing, Lady Macbeth, Millamant in
Congreve's The Way of the World, Juno in
O'Casey's Juno and the Paycock and, in 1984,
Brecht's Mother Courage. Among her roles at the
National Theatre were a younger-than-usual Lady Bracknell in
Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest in 1982, Cleopatra to Anthony
Hopkins's Antony in 1987, and Gertrude in
Hamlet in 1989.
