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Patrons
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Dame Judi Dench (born
December 9 1934) was raised in Heworth, York. She made her professional
debut in the York Mystery plays in 1957, after training at The
Central School of Speech and Drama. Dame Judi Dench has had and
continues to have a prolific career as an actress for stage, film
and television.
Much of her notoriety in the theatre can be attributed
to her work with Shakespeare: from her performances as Ophelia,
Katherine and Juliet with The Old Vic Theatre Company (1957-1960),
to her many appearances with the RSC in England and around Africa
and Australia (1960-70). |
Most notably, she played Lady Macbeth in Nunn’s acclaimed
RSC production in 1976; and made her directorial debut with a production
of Much Ado About Nothing starring Kenneth Branagh and Samantha Bond.
Dame Judi has also had an illustrious film career. She famously plays
M in the James Bond films, a role she has now upheld for fourteen years.
She received Oscar nominations for her roles as Queen Victoria in Mrs.
Brown (1997), for her role in Chocolat (2001), in Iris (2001) and in
Notes on a Scandal (2006). Dame Judi Dench has received seven Laurence
Olivier Awards and in 1988 she was awarded a DBE in honor of her contributions
to the Arts.
In 1998, Dame Judi Dench received an Oscar for her role as Queen Elizabeth
in the film Shakespeare In Love. During filming for Shakespeare
In Love, Dame Judi Dench was given the stunning replica Rose Theatre,
built for the film. In 2009, Dame Judi Dench donated this theatre to
the British Shakespeare Company to create a home for Shakespeare in
the North of England where she was born.
'Shakespeare stands as a hallowed
giant oak on our cultural landscape. Dame Judi's extraordinary gesture
of faith in the British Shakespeare Company shows yet again her generosity
and foresight, thereby strengthening our cultural vigour in the North
of England.' Sir Ben Kingsley
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Sir Ben Kingsley (born
December 31 1943) was born in Snaiton, Yorkshire. He was of English,
East Indian and South African descent and was originally named
Krishna Bhanji. Kingsley began his theatrical career as a member
of an amateur theatre troupe in Manchester, before making his professional
debut at the age of twenty-three. In 1967, he joined the Royal
Shakespeare Company and devoted himself to theatrical work for
the next fifteen years. |
In 1982 Ben Kingsley made his transition into film
work with a bang. He won an Oscar for his title role in Richard Attenborough’s
film, Ghandi. Kingsley would go on to play an extremely wide range
of characters from an Arab potentate in Harem (1985), a quiet, shy
bibliophile in Turtle Diary (1985), a gangster in Bugsy (1992), a Jewish
Bookkeeper in Schindler’s List (1993)
and a suspected Nazi war criminal in Dorfman’s Death of a Maiden (1994).
Kingsley bought his love of Shakespeare to the screen in 1996 when
he played the Fool in Trevor Nunn’s adaptation of Twelfth Night.
Kingsley continued to take on challenging roles,
playing Sweeney Todd for Schlesinger’s The Tale of
Sweeney Todd and gaining a third
Oscar nomination for his role in Sexy Beast (2001).
He earned a fourth Oscar nomination, a Golden Globe and a Screen Actors’ Guild
award for his stupendous performance in House of Sand and Frog (2003).
In 2008, Kingsley was awarded the Cinema for Peace Honorary Award,
for the portrayal of the humanitarian role-models Simon Wiesenthal,
Itzhak Stern and Gandhi. Ben Kingsley is currently developing a biopic
of William Shakespeare adapted by Christopher Rush from Rush’s
novel Will. The film will be produced by Sir Ben Kingsley’s production
company, SBK and Kingsley himself will play William Shakespeare In 2008, Sir Ben Kingsley became a patron of the British Shakespeare
Company and is playing an active role in guiding the rebuilding of
Shakespeare’s Rose Theatre in his native North.
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