 Dame Judi's stage, TV and film career spans almost 50 years |
Oscar-winning actress Dame Judi Dench has been made a Companion of Honour by the Queen at Buckingham Palace. The 70-year-old became one of only 65 people in the UK to hold the award marking service of national importance.
As well as her Academy Award-winning turn in Shakespeare in Love, Dame Judi has appeared extensively on stage, in four James Bond films and Mrs Brown.
She was made an OBE in 1970 and a dame in 1988. The Companion of Honour was instituted by George V in 1917.
Dame Judi earned four Oscar nominations in five years between 1998 and 2002, and has won five film Baftas for Iris, Shakespeare in Love, Mrs Brown, A Room with a View and Four in the Morning.
She has played the role of "M" in the James Bond films since 1995's Goldeneye.
Her television successes include the 1980s sitcom A Fine Romance, with her late husband Michael Williams who died of cancer in 2001, and As Time Goes By with Geoffrey Palmer.
She made her stage debut playing Ophelia in the Old Vic production of Hamlet in Liverpool in 1957, and later joined the Royal Shakespeare Company.
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