St Andrews University confers honorary degree on Oscar winner Dame Judi Dench
‘I’m very pleased and I’m going to boast about it a lot’ says actress, 73
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OSCAR-WINNING actress Dame Judi Dench picked up the latest in a long line of accolades at St Andrews University yesterday.
She had the honorary degree of Doctor of Letters conferred on her at the first of the university’s summer graduations in Younger Hall.
Born in York, and trained for the stage in London, Dame Judi began her career at the Old Vic Theatre. In 1961 she forged what has become a long association with The Royal Shakespeare Company.
Equally well known for her television and film work, she starred in A Fine Romance, with her late husband Michael Williams, and the television series As Time Goes By.
On the big screen, her best known roles include her portrayal of Queen Victoria in Mrs Brown, and her appearances as M in the James Bond films.
exciting
Other credits include roles in Iris, Chocolat, Notes on a Scandal, Mrs Henderson Presents and Shakespeare in Love, for which she won the Academy Award for Best Actress. She also appeared in the period BBC drama Cranford.
She was made a Dame Commander of the British Empire in 1988 and a Companion of Honour in 2005.
After the ceremony, Dame Judi, 73, said: “I feel very excited and I’m absolutely delighted to have an association with St Andrews. I had never been to St Andrews before, so I’m very pleased and I’m going to boast about it a lot.”
She added: “It was very embarrassing, you know. You see a photograph of yourself and that’s embarrassing and then you have to stand up in front of a lot of people while someone says the whole of your life to you. But it is a huge day of celebration and I’m frightfully pleased to have been asked.”
