Among her many distinguished honors, Judi Dench’s work across eight different James Bond movies means she’s appeared in more 007 features than any other actor who played Bond. Her role in this series was playing a figure known as M, a character who served as the leader of Britain’s MI-6 program and James Bond’s boss. First originating in the Ian Fleming novels that inspired the James Bond film series, M’s default personality across different actors and mediums has been that of a person whose steely demeanor could intimidate even somebody as unflappable as James Bond.
M has proven to be an enduring part of the James Bond film series and has appeared in all of its movies save for For Your Eyes Only. First played by Bernard Lee across seventeen years worth of James Bond titles, encompassing eleven movies, Robert Brown was the first actor to succeed Lee in the role after Lee passed away in January 1981. Brown held the role for four films until 1989’s License to Kill.
A new gender-bent version of M was found in the form of Judi Dench for the 1995 motion picture Goldeneye, a feature that began Dench’s twenty-year occupancy of the part. Over those two decades, Dench managed to accomplish the impressive feat of appearing in more James Bond movies than any actor who played Bond.
With eight different motion pictures under her belt, she beats out Roger Moore’s seven 007 appearances for this particular honor. Dench’s time as M saw her appearing in some of the most acclaimed James Bond films of all-time, including Casino Royale (2006) and Skyfall. The latter title saw her version of M perishing, but she managed to return for her record-breaking eighth appearance in Spectre thanks to a video will the character has previously recorded for James Bond.
Dench’s prolonged presence in the James Bond series is noteworthy for a number of reasons, but it’s especially a notable achievement given that this is a series known for approaching actors as interchangeable elements. Whereas other franchises like Star Wars have characters maintain the same actors for decades on end, the nearly sixty-year-long existence of the 007 movies have seen a variety of different actors portray its most famous characters. Moneypenny, Q, Blofeld, and others have all been inhabited by a bevy of different actors over the years. Even the lead role of James Bond has been inhabited by seven different performers on the big screen, a sharp contrast to how only Mark Hamill has played Luke Skywalker in the live-action Star Wars features.
But even the James Bond series recognizes that some unbroken things shouldn’t be fixed, and that clearly was the case for Judi Dench’s take on M. She brought such a widely-beloved sense of authority to the part, not to mention a unique rapport with Bond stemming from how she’s the one woman in his life he doesn’t engage with in a sensual manner. That uncovered wholly new layers to this long-standing role. Allowing M to get fleshed out in this manner is one of the many virtues of Judi Dench’s prolonged presence in the franchise - a presence that allowed her to become the performer who has appeared in more James Bond movies than any other actor.
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- Bond 25 Release Date: 2021-10-08
