Happy birthday, Judi Dench

[selenak]

It's Judi Dench's 90th birthday today, I'm told, and I'm so glad she's still with us. The first time I noticed her awesomeness was when I watched a video recording of Trevor Nunn's RSC production of Macbeth, with her and Ian McKellen in the leads. To this day, they are the ultimate Macbeths to me. In practically any other production I've seen, either Macbeth or Lady MacBeth weren't up to the acting standard of the respective other, and I didn't really believe them as a couple. Not with the 1970s Dench/McKellen combo. They were fantastic, together and apart. Here's Judi Dench's Lady M:

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The other role of hers that immediately comes to mind for me is of course her version of M in the James Bond movies, specifically those starring Daniel Craig. (Sorry, Pierce Brosnan. I just don't like you as 007.) Their dynamic together made me write Bond meta, which certainly wasn't on my list of life goals before, and while I liked Fiennes' Mallory, too, nothing will ever beat Craig/Dench as the ultimate Bond/M combo in those three movies they shot together for me. This scene from Skyfall being a case in point.

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Then there's her being wonderful when not in character as well. Here she's sonnet reciting in a talk show:

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And with Joan Plowright, Maggie Smith and Eileen Atkins in Tea with the Dames:

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Comments

[kathyh]

Happy birthday to her indeed. So many great roles in which she’s excelled and I am lucky enough to have seen her live several times. My own favourite is when we saw her in A Little Night Music at the National Theatre playing Desiree Armfeldt. She was mesmerising.

[selenak]

I‘ve only seen the excerpt where she sings Bring in the Clowns on YouTube, but it‘s enough to make me envious that you saw the whole performance. :)