At 91 years old, the dear Dame Judi Dench still shows intellect and wit, but as many feared her days on stage and in cinema may be behind her, to the great disappointment not only for aficionados of the British acting tradition, but also for those who remember her mainly as M in the Daniel Craig James Bond films. This is not a matter of fatigue, but of force majeure: Dench, a guest on the BBC Radio 4 Today programme, has confirmed that after about a decade of fighting with a personal illness, she can no longer go around it.
Judi Dench Leaves the Stage Because of Degenerative Macular Disease
The last time we saw Judi Dench on the big screen here in Italy was in the wonderful Belfast (2021) by Kenneth Branagh, even though she has lent her voice to a few characters in more recent years, while on the stage that launched her back in 1957 she appeared for the last time in a production of The Winter’s Tale in 2015. It was precisely around that period that she began to fight seriously against a degenerative maculopathy, with which she has coexisted thanks to the help of those who read the scripts to her. The situation, however, has become untenable, and thus with a great candor (a trait that has long been recognized in her), without hedging from the reality, Dench now states: “I can’t be on a stage, I can’t act in theatre any longer, I can’t do a film any longer, I can’t read anymore.” She won’t disappear entirely from circulation, though: she will accept invitations for broadcasts or events, especially if she will be allowed to discuss her condition, since she has taken it upon herself—through her celebrity—to raise awareness on the subject. Accompanying this bitter acknowledgment with her usual irony, she added that her problem has recently caused embarrassing situations: she narrowly avoided warm embraces from completely unknown people.
Judi Dench has received eight Oscar nominations (including the latest for Belfast), and she has won an Oscar only once, in 1998 for Shakespeare in Love, as Best Supporting Actress. Ten times she has won a BAFTA, dating back to the mid-1960s, in addition to a host of recognitions for her theatre work (including a Tony Award in 1999). She has twelve honorary degrees and was bestowed the title of Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth II in 1988.
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