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Born in York, England, on Dec. 9, 1934, to amateur-actor parents, Judith Olivia Dench has been acting since she was 5 years old. Dench rose quickly through the ranks of British theatre, eventually joining the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1961.

She made her film debut in The Third Secret (1964) and has appeared in several Shakespeare adaptations, including Kenneth Brannagh's Henry V (1989) and Hamlet (1996). Dench is best known by many Americans as British spy commander "M" in recent James Bond films (beginning with 1996's GoldenEye).

Dench has been Oscar-nominated several times: for Her Majesty, Mrs. Brown (1997), Chocolat (2000), Iris (2001), Shakespeare in Love (1998), for which she won Best Supporting Actress for an eight-minute performance as Queen Elizabeth, Mrs. Henderson Presents (2005) and Notes on a Scandal (2006). Another honor came in the form of the moniker Dame Judi Dench in 1988.