Dame Judi Dench refuses to be beaten by age. The Philomena star, who celebrates her 90th birthday on December 9, has lost much of her sight due to the age-related condition macular degeneration. But will that stop her sucking the marrow out of life? Not a chance!
“Getting old is just a number,” she says with a sparkle in her eye. “If you’re in your eighties, you don’t have to act like you’re in your eighties. You can get up in the morning and think, ‘I’ll fool everybody today and they’ll think I’m in my sixties!’
“We’ve got to keep going and not think of age too much. If you start looking ahead, you miss the bits that are happening now.”
It seems Judi’s irrepressible enthusiasm hasn’t changed a bit since she landed her first acting role as a child.
She laughs, “I was a snail at kindergarten. I had to creep on up with this enormous shell and all I had to do was put my horns out. Then quite suddenly, I got a bit excited, so I stood up and the headmistress – who was standing at the side – said, ‘Get down, Judith!’”
Despite her headmistress’ admonishments, the little girl in the snail costume went on to have a long and distinguished career in both theatre and film.
And all these years later, as far as Judi is concerned, facing the prospect of a future with no sight is better than having no future at all.
“It’s hard to adapt,” concedes the actor of the degenerative condition that has taken away her ability to read or recognise familiar faces. “I just cope with it and get by, and I’ve got terribly good friends. And my family, of course.”
One day, she believes, there will be a cure. “I don’t know when that answer will be… but I think there will be. Roll on, I say!”
After a lifetime in theatre and cinema, Judi has a plethora of pals “whom I can laugh with and talk to about absolutely anything”.
Many of them will join the Oscar winner for her 90th birthday celebrations, along with her actor daughter Finty Williams, 52, her grandson Sam, 27, and her “chap”, dairy-farmer-turned-conservationist David Mills.
Judi’s beloved husband Michael Williams died of lung cancer, aged 65, in 2001, and the actor said his loss created a “great well of despair” that she knew she would never entirely overcome.
Love came knocking again, though, in 2010 with David, who is in his seventies.
“It’s different – it’s never the same,” says Judi. “But it makes me happy. I feel very fortunate to have somebody to have a good laugh with. We don’t live together or anything, but it’s very nice to have somebody who is such a good friend. I don’t call him my partner because I loathe that word. I just say ‘chap’.”
Along with her indomitable spirit, another of Judi’s qualities that has endured the test of time is her wonderful sense of humour.
The star, who played “M” in seven James Bond movies, has a tongue-in-cheek 007-themed doormat at her house and her grandson calls her every day with a different joke, “which is extremely nice”.
She’s also infamous for her habit of giggling on set at inopportune times.
“I can find a lot of humour in a lot of things, sometimes things that are very serious,” Judi admits wryly. “And I’ve got myself into severe trouble for it. I don’t do it intentionally!”
Due to her fading eyesight, Judi hasn’t had an acting role since 2022, but she’s still open to offers.
“Retirement”, she insists, is “the rudest word in my dictionary. And ‘old’ is another one. I don’t allow that in my house. And people calling her ‘vintage’. I don’t want any of those old words. I like ‘enthusiastic’.”
There’s one other word Judi can’t stand when it’s applied to herself: celebrity.
“I loathe that word,” she says. “I absolutely loathe it. To call someone that makes them sound so much better than anyone else, so much grander. You think, ‘Oh, my God, you’ve got to shine and be all red nails and red lipstick.’ And I don’t want that. I really don’t think of myself as a celebrity. I think of myself as an actor who has been fortunate to have done a lot of things.”
Timeline
Ninety years and counting! From her early days treading the boards to marriage, motherhood and acquiring her first tattoo at 81, we take a look at Judi’s amazing life and career…
1957
Judi kicked off her career in 1957, aged 22, as a Shakespearean stage actor. Her debut performance was in the role of Ophelia in Hamlet for The Old Vic theatre company. A review of the production said she had “talent which will be shown to better advantage when she acquires some technique to go with it”.
1968
The actor filled the shoes of Sally Bowles in the musical Cabaret in 1968, despite telling the director at her audition, “I’m not a singer at all.” That same year, she took home a BAFTA for her part in the TV drama Talking to a Stranger.
1971
She said, “I do!” Judi met fellow actor Michael Williams through mutual friends in a London pub. They tied the knot in 1971 and remained devoted to each other until Michael died of lung cancer in 2001, three weeks before their 30th wedding anniversary. “Oh, God, how he used to make me laugh,” says Judi. “He used to make me absolutely howl. We had a lovely time. It was never a tricky time. I was lucky to meet Mike.”
1972
The year after getting hitched, Judi and Michael welcomed their first and only child – a daughter they named Finty. Judi later confessed she was ready to walk away from acting for the sake of her daughter. “I wanted to give it up because I wanted to be a proper mother and be around. Michael said, ‘No, please don’t do that!’” Actor Finty is now 52. She has collaborated with her famous mum a few times on projects such as Angelina Ballerina and Ladies in Lavender.
1981
Judi and Michael became a celebrated TV couple when they starred together over four seasons of the TV series A Fine Romance. “People expect us to be like [their characters] Laura and Mike. Though, we are nothing at all like them!” laughed the actor.
1988
Judi was made a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1988 for her services to acting. The down-to-earth star makes little of her title. But, fellow actor Sir Roger Moore once told an anecdote about the time a distracted Judi walked into the path of a London taxi. The driver, he said, called her a “five-letter expletive”, to which she responded, “It’s Dame * to you!”
1998
She’s the queen of British drama, so it seemed fitting when Judi scored a Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her role as Queen Elizabeth I in Shakespeare in Love. She was awarded the gong despite only having eight minutes of screen time in the two-hour movie.
2015
Daughter Finty is a tattoo lover – at last count she had 11. So on Judi’s 81st birthday in 2015, Finty took her mother to get her first ink. She chose to get the words “carpe diem” (Latin for “seize the day”) on her wrist. “The tattooist asked if she was absolutely sure,” says Finty, “and she said, ‘Just do it.’” Adds Judi, “I have an irrational fear of boredom. That’s why I now have this tattoo that says ‘carpe diem’. That’s what we should live by.”
2019
Even beloved stars can put a paw wrong from time to time and for Judi, her critical disaster came in the movie adaptation of Cats. The actor starred as Old Deuteronomy in the film, which was both a box office and critical flop. Before the movie came out, Judi confessed she looked “like a battered, mangy old cat”, adding, “The cloak I was made to wear! Like five foxes f***ing on my back.” Upon learning she was nominated for a Razzie Award for Worst Supporting Actress, she responded with, “Oh, am I? That would be good! As far as I know, that’s a first!”
2022
In 2022, Judi was nominated for yet another Academy Award (she’s had a total of eight nominations) for her role in Kenneth Branagh’s Belfast. The octogenarian walked arm-in-arm on the red carpet with her grandson Sam. The pair made a series of TikTok videos during the Covid lockdown, which fans couldn’t get enough of. Although, Judi had some complaints about Sam’s quest for perfection. “He was a tyrant!” she laughs.
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