What I really love about Judi Dench is that she didn’t become the icon that she is now, until she was older. She had an early interest in the theatre as her father was the General Practitioner to York Theatre Royal and her mother was wardrobe mistress there. She followed her brother’s footsteps to acting school and started her stage career in 1957. For the next decades she worked in theatre, honing her craft and then started branching off into film and TV.
Although always a wonderful actress, she didn’t gain international recognition until 1995 as M in the James Bond film Golden Eye. In 1998 she won an Oscar for her role as Queen Elizabeth I in Shakespeare in Love and since has been nominated for seven more Academy Awards. What can we learn? Success builds slowly. It isn’t defined to a specific timeline.
Her journey, which led her to be one of the most authentic and self-assured actresses I’ve ever witnessed, was a long road of hard work and determination. What keeps you on your journey? How do you feel it’s going and what is it teaching you that will build toward your success? We’d love to know.