Jeffrey Danny Dench was a renowned English actor, best known for his impressive work with the Royal Shakespeare Company. Born on April 29, 1928, he was the older brother of the talented actress Judi Dench.
Dench was born in Tyldesley, Manchester, to Eleanora Olave (née Jones),a Dublin native, and Reginald Arthur Dench, a physician who met his future wife while studying medicine at Trinity College, Dublin. He grew up with his brother Peter in Tyldesley, later moving to York with his family, where his sister Judith was born.
Dench's early life was marked by a strong interest in acting. He attended St Peter's, York, where he began his acting journey with the role of Cleopatra in George Bernard Shaw's Caesar and Cleopatra.
He served his national service at an army theatre in Catterick before enrolling at the Central School of Speech and Drama, where he met his first wife, Betty, a speech therapist. After completing his studies, Dench joined the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1963, a role he would hold for many years.
With his first wife Betty, Dench had three daughters: Sarah, a teacher living in Brailes; Clare, living in Shiplake; and Emma, a Roman historian previously at Birkbeck, University of London, and Harvard University, in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Tragedy struck when Betty passed away from a heart attack on January 11, 2002. Dench later married Ann Curtis, a costume designer for the RSC and a longtime family friend. They resided in Stratford-upon-Avon, where Dench became the President of Stratford-upon-Avon Choral Society in 2012.
Sadly, Dench passed away on March 25, 2014, two days after his 85th birthday, leaving behind a legacy of outstanding work in the world of theatre.
