007 Screen Diva Turn 80, Happy Birthday!!!!

Happy birthday, Judi Dench! Reflecting back on Judi’s life, Dame Judi Dench had a somewhat less-than-auspicious beginning in theatre.
At her Quaker junior school in York, the celebrated actress appeared in Four And Twenty Tailors Went To Kill A Snail, in the title role as the snail. Oh, if the tailors could see her now.

Judith Olivia Dench was born on December 9, 1934, in North Yorkshire, England. After attending Mount School in York she went on to study at the Central School Of Speech And Drama. She was discovered, aged 22, at the famed Old Vic theatre playing a tortured Ophelia in Hamlet. She later undertook a string of legendary roles including Lady Bracknell in Oscar Wilde's The Importance Of Being Earnest and Lady Macbeth in the Shakespeare classic.

In the course of her career she has appeared in over 80 plays worldwide and enjoyed success in genres ranging from the TV sitcom notably in A Fine Romance to Hollywood blockbusters, including the James Bond franchise. She played the super spy's boss M, becoming the first female actress ever to play the role.

She often shared the screen with her late husband Michael Williams, whom she met in the Sixties when they were both promising young talents in the Royal Shakespeare Company. It wasn't, however, until nearly a decade later that romance blossomed between the pair.

When Judi left for a six-week tour of Australia, Michael followed and finally proposed. "Ask me on a rainy night in Battersea, and I'll think about it," she replied. And that's exactly what he did. The two were married in 1971 and enjoyed a unique partnership until he succumbed to cancer in January 2001. Their love was something out of the theatre; he sent her a single red rose every Friday, no matter where she was in the world and losing him proved particularly difficult.