We Love Judi Dench Brit Actress Dame Judi Dench Inspires Youth Boomers
We Love Judi Dench! Brit Actress Dame Judi Dench Inspires Youth, Boomers Javascript must be enabled to use this site. Please enable Javascript in your browser and try again. × Search search POPULAR SEARCHES SUGGESTED LINKS Join AARP for just $9 per year when you sign up for a 5-year term. Get instant access to members-only products and hundreds of discounts, a free second membership, and a subscription to AARP the Magazine. Leaving AARP.org Website You are now leaving AARP.org and going to a website that is not operated by AARP. A different privacy policy and terms of service will apply. Close
1998: Judi Dench won a Best Supporting Actress Oscar for the roughly 8 minutes she was on screen as Queen Elizabeth I in "Shakespeare in Love." Universal Pictures/Everett Collection
Ain t Nothin Like Dame Judi Dench
The Philomena star and likely Oscar nominee doesn t know how to grow old
August 2013: Judi Dench walks the red carpet at the Venice International Film Festival. Dave Bedrosian/Geisler-Fotopress/AP Images In need of some inspiration? Look no further than . The British actress is poised to receive her seventh Academy Award nomination for her role as an Irish woman who seeks the son she was forced to give up for adoption in the just-opened . "Dench gives a performance of grace, nuance and cinematic heroism," raved the . Get instant access to members-only products and hundreds of discounts, a free second membership, and a subscription to AARP the Magazine. Not bad for someone . Even more impressive is that Dench didn't become an international movie star until she was in her 60s. She was too busy commanding the London stage for more than a half-century while building a reputation as one of the finest interpreters of since . February 1968: Judi Dench at age 33. Getty Images With her fashionably short silver hair and penetrating blue eyes, she gloriously defies the adage that age is a deterrent for actresses when it comes to longevity in the film business. In fact, her younger costars often look upon her in awe. It's a natural response, perhaps, given that two of her best-known roles are as in 1997's (her first Oscar nomination) and in 1998's (her second and the source of her lone win). But as her Philomena costar, , 48, discovered, this is one dame who knows how to break the ice on the set: Make them laugh. "We'd tease each other, take the mickey out of each other. That makes you comfortable," he has said. Here are seven ways the ageless Dench sets an example for her admirers, young and old.1 Don t let ailments keep you down
Dench had six weeks before Philomena's London premiere, but the actress informed her surgeon that she was determined to walk the red carpet unassisted. And there she was, strolling in , no cane in sight. The actress is also coping with , a common late-life eye ailment, by asking Finty, her daughter, or colleagues such as Coogan, who cowrote Philomena's screenplay, to read scripts to her. once declared, "Railings should be built around her so that all may admire her in an orderly and respectful fashion." , her costar and fellow Oscar nominee for 2001's , claimed she "would work with Judi if I had to be a tea lady hovering in the background." Entertainment $3 off popcorn and soft drink combos See more Entertainment offers > But if you want to rile Dame Judi, refer to her as a national treasure. "I hate that," she says. "Too dusty, too in a cupboard, too staid. I always want to do the most different thing I can think of next." Next page: 1968: Judi Dench as Queen Titania in Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream." Everett Collection3 Wear your age — proudly
As someone who was named one of , this tamper-free septuagenarian has little to worry about. Her many wrinkles-and-all close-ups in Philomena are a testament to her enduring loveliness. Still, she admits to considering plastic surgery. "I'm too old now," she says. "Every time I go to America, I wonder if there is some process where it could all be sucked out and I could be out of there in time for dinner."4 Find a soulmate who sends you flowers every week
She and colleague Michael Williams were friends for years before they wed in 1971. While she was upbeat and outgoing, he was more of a pessimist and dour. "He was a Cancerian, I'm a Sagittarian," Dench says. "He would say, 'I am always rushing for the dark, you're always rushing for the light. If we hold in the middle, there's a kind of balance.' " He would send her a red rose every Friday for 30 years until his death from at age 65 in 2001. AARP Members! AARP NEWSLETTERS %{ newsLetterPromoText }% %{ description }% Subscribe . When it comes to , no one tops Dench. When the James Bond franchise was rebooted in 1995 after a six-year hiatus, Dench was hired as the first female to play , 007's superior, even before was in place as the sixth official actor to play the secret agent. Her character would set the tone in their first movie, , referring to Bond as "a sexist, misogynistic dinosaur." She and Brosnan teamed on three more Bond movies and the actress carried on as M when took over the lead. She would show him the ropes in (2006) and (2008) before M met her demise in last year's .6 Work as long and as much as you can
Dench's output would be astonishing for a woman half her age. She did eight films in 2011-12. That's not even counting plays or TV. What motivates her? "I just feel I have to keep doing it," she told the Observer last year. She already has her next two jobs lined up: A sequel to last year's surprise success, , that begins shooting in India in January, and a BBC comedy opposite , based on .1998: Judi Dench won a Best Supporting Actress Oscar for the roughly 8 minutes she was on screen as Queen Elizabeth I in "Shakespeare in Love." Universal Pictures/Everett Collection