Happy Birthday, Judi Dench! 20 Heavenly Old Images of the Stage and Screen Icon

Judi Dench’s incredible career has spanned decades, and seen her inhabit a plethora of memorable leading roles both on stage and on screen. Dench made her theatre debut in 1957 as one of Shakespeare’s most famous female characters, Ophelia, in the Old Vic Company’s production of Hamlet. It would be the first of Dench’s many brushes with the Bard—she went on to deliver some of the most celebrated performances in the history of the Royal Shakespeare Company.  

She’s an old hand at playing a monarch, and has embodied Queen Victoria and Queen Elizabeth I to much acclaim. The latter performance, in John Madden’s Shakespeare in Love (1998), saw Judi add a best-supporting-actress Oscar to her bulging mantelpiece (despite the fact she spent less than 10 minutes on screen in total). It sits next to multiple Golden Globes, BAFTAs, Olivier Awards, and a Tony.  

Here, we take a look back at Dame Judi’s six decades in the public eye through some heavenly archive images—proof that her pixie crop has been almost as permanent a fixture as the trademark twinkle in her eye.