Who's Your Favorite Dame?
Friday, January 1, 2016 at 10:00AM 
Imelda Staunton. Photographed by David Rose. [Source]Here's Murtada on his favorite subject; British ladies of a certain age who delight on screen and stage.
Happy New Year! Some Brits usher in the new year celebrating their newly bestowed knighthoods. This year Queen Elizabeth II honors, among others, Idris Elba and David Oyelowo. There are different designations to the honor. For example Imelda Staunton became a CBE i.e. not yet a Dame but well on her way. It’s obvious The Queen hasn’t ventured out to the theater in 2015 or Staunton would be Dame Squared for her triumphant Mama Rose alone.
This year’s newly minted Dames are British TV stalwart Barbara Windsor (EastEnders, the Carry On movies) and Welsh stage veteran Sian Phillips (Daniel Day Lewis’ mother in The Age of Innocence), who was once Mrs. Peter O’Toole.
But when we talk dames we mostly talk about the holy trinity who still have vibrant movie careers: Judi, Maggie and Helen. No last names necessary if you say Dame first. Oscars and other awards, big successes on the boards on both sides of the Atlantic and long thriving careers for all three.
But who is your favorite? To help you decide let’s dig a bit deeper. [More...]
Maggie Smith
Perhaps everyone’s perfect embodiment of a Dame. You know, someone who’s a bit grand, a bit acerbic and has a way with a quip. A lot of that is due to her most recent and perhaps best known part as the Dowager Countess in Downton Abbey. Some of the Dowager Countess' condescending humor spills over to Maggie's public appearances. Just behold her recent admonishment of “Sir King Bensley” on The Graham Norton Show for using his title professionally. Most unbecoming. The best shade I’ve ever seen. Which is probably why the clip is no longer available.
Let’s go back in time with Dame Maggie to 1964 and Noel Coward’s Hay Fever. Here she is sly and sexy as the vampish Myra Arundel but still has a fabulous way with a line. Every minute of this clip is a delight but most of all her delivery of the line “Your conceit is outrageous".
Judi Dench
Dench is the Dame with the most range and varied character work. Her 1976 Lady Macbeth on stage opposite Ian McKellen is often cited as the definitive performance of that famous character. She can devastate in a Shakespere tragedy but also with sweet palpable romantic chemistry like she did, alongside Bill Nighy, in The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (2015). Oscar celebrated her with many nominations for her late starting movie career; the crown of which is Barbara Covett in Notes on Scandal (2006). Brittle and devious, but also painfully lonely it’s a brilliant characterization and a fun time at the movies, for which she should’ve snatched her second Oscar from that other Dame. Or at least screamed at her as she went up to accept the award “ You are not young. I say this to help you”.
But did you know that she was the original Sally Bowles on the London stage? And that she‘s an amazing musical theater performer, winning an Olivier for her Desiree Armfeldt in the 1995 London revival of Stephen Sondheim's A Little Night Music. This clip is from the BBC's 2010 80th birthday celebration of Sondheim.
[Trivia Aside: Dames Maggie & Judi, whose birthdays are just 3 weeks apart (December 1934), are also best friends and frequent co-stars in films like Ladies in Lavender, A Room With a View, and The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel). Their portraits even face each other in the National Gallery]
Helen Mirren
Dame Helen as The Queen. Illustration by Gary Smith. Click for more.
Queen Elizabeth II is Dame Helen’s signature role. She has played the reigning Queen on screen and stage winning an Oscar and a Tony. She won an Emmy playing her ancestor Queen Elizabeth I for HBO. So she’s the queenest of queens even when playing someone as far from royalty as can be like Hedda Hopper in Trumbo. Her mannerisms, a tilt of the head or a downturn at the corners of her mouth, now seem familiar even repetitive. Yet she is still a commanding presence.
My favorite performance of hers though remains Jane Tennison in Prime Suspect. In that show which ran between 1991 and 2006, she's sexy, steely, a bit dangerous and a bit overwhelmed. Prime Suspect revived a long career that started on the London stage in the late 1960s and led to her current flourishing movie career.
Other notable Dames, almost Dames and should be Dames
- Legends Angela Lansbury and Julie Andrews.
- Character actresses Eileen Atkins (Cranford, Magic in the Moonlight) and Harriet Walter (Atonement, Star Wars:The Force Awakens), and 60s pin-up Diana Rigg (Game of Thrones).
- Last year Kristin Scott Thomas was a surprising and young-ish addition and Joan Collins a surprising and late-ish one.
- Inexplicably neither of the swinging 60s It Girls are Dames yet. Known for her lefty politics it is assumed Julie Christie has turned down the title. And maybe living in Paris is taken as a mark against Charlotte Rampling.
- Vanessa Redgrave famously refused the title for years until she acquiesced but way past her punk Communist 1970s and is now the lower CBE.
- Also a CBE are two of 2015's notable actresses, Julie Walters (Brooklyn) and Kate Winslet (Steve Jobs).
- And finally believe or not Angelina Jolie. Her Damehood is for her efforts to end sexual violence around the world and not for acting.
Who is your favorite Dame and why? Which performance perfectly embodies what a Dame means to you?
Reader Comments (44)
What's interesting about Kristin Scott Thomas is that she left Paris to live in London just before it was announced that she would be a Dame. Coincidence?
Maggie Smith. Repetitive or not, she's the unique one to me.
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie is one of the best performances on film. It also won the Oscar, which is nice.
MIranda Richardson and Emma Thompson should both be Dames.
I like all three, but it's Judi by a mile! I know Mirren is hated by a lot of people here, but I'm really interested in going back and watching her earlier work, which seems much more brave/interesting.
helen's not quite in the same league as maggs & judi
i love the very idea of dame barbara windsor [for services to bawdy humour, i suspect]
thefilmjunkie: Her work in The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover is most of the reason I don't resent Mirren's win.
No offense to the "holy trinity" (I like all of them, and as others have mentioned The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie is amazing), but my favorite is Kristin Scott Thomas. That's probably, in part, due to the fact that I grew up watching her career take flight. But it's also probably due to the fact that she's had such a remarkably varied career, and I've enjoyed seeing her do so many things - a Prince movie, a Polanski movie, 4 Weddings, the McKellen Richard III, a Pollack/Harrison Ford movie, the phenomenon that was The English Patient, as well as the kind of works you'd expect of a dame, from Handful of Dust in the 80s to Gosford Park. Even when I just think of her more recent performances that've stuck with me - I've Loved You So Long, Nowhere Boy, Only God Forgives - I find her fascinating to watch, and I appreciate that she tries so many things.
Though I'm also 100% with Luke - Miranda Richardson and Emma Thompson should be dames.
Redgrave accepted the CBE title in 1966, but turned down damehood when it was offered to her in 1999.
She, Kristin, and Judi are my favorites.
Luke - def agree on Thompson. I wonder why she's untitled... couldn't find anything on the subject while researching.
par - agree that Mirren is not the same level of the other two, that's why she gets less words. But all 3 are unequivocally very successful.
re - thanks for correction re Redgrave.
I love all three of those ladies very much but my favorite would have to be Diana Rigg, now and always. She's undervalued and has a tremendous dry wit.
When she was awarded the title she also won the Tony for Medea in the same week and then announced that the play was closing. When reporters asked her why she said "Because I'm a very tired Dame and want to go home!"
Her book of collected bad reviews for decades of theatre legends and plays called "No Turn Unstoned" is great fun as well.
Oh and yeah for Imelda! I'm perplexed that Emma Thompson hasn't been showered with honors especially since both Kate Winslet and Helena Bonham Carter have both been given a CBE at this point.
When I think of a Dame I think first of Maggie Smith. There are a few reasons for this.
1) Back in the 70's when I was coming of age, Smith, Vanessa Redgrave, and Julie Christie really personified British acting for me. (So I have a soft spot for the 3 of them, for me they are of the same rank, whether they have officially accepted it or not.)
All of them are great actresses whose main roles have stood the test of time.
2) A Dame -yes, but not a snob - On the Graham Norton Show Maggie Smith was very specific about how her title should not be used in conversation with her, or on a poster or for advertising a film. This was why she made fun of Ben Kingsley who insists on putting Sir Ben Kingsley on posters.
3) Part of my liking for Smith is that she is such great friends with Judi Dench and with Kristin Scott Thomas, and others. She's always up for a bit of ensemble acting with other talented actors. (I love that KST was made a Dame last year, she's played Smith's daughter twice)
Maggie Smith has played Desdemona opposite Laurence Olivier,Jean Brodie, Minerva Mcgonagall, everyone's favourite Dowager Countess, and everything in between, and always does it with A Touch of Class.
For me she's the quintessential Dame.
Emma Thompson is the biggest surprise for me! She is the epitome of a credit to the British Empire. Class. Talent. Intelligence. Humor.
And Richardson - her back to back revelatory performances in Damage and The Crying Game blew me away back in the day. "... and I WOULD have wept!" Seared into my mind.
Can we please get the Dame Tilda Swinton buzz started on this blog.
How has no one mentioned Elizabeth Taylor?!
No one can throw shade like Smith. She could've used the best line from her movie Murder by Death- "Oh, that's tacky. That's really tacky." The way she reacts before speaking, at first horrified, and amused is just wonderful.
My favorite Dame is Kristin Scott Thomas. I think she's the best actress of the bunch, and I like how outspoken she is.
Hope Helena Bonham Carter gets the top title soon. Janet McTeer, Emily Watson, and Brenda Blethyn also deserve upgrades.
Weird that Kate Winslet got a CBE at 39.
Regarding Emma Thompson - During the Thatcher/Major years a number of notable people in Britain turned down honours due to political differences. It was rumoured that Thompson was one of these. However when Blair/Brown took office she never appeared on the list,although former husband Branaugh did.
I think the reason may have to do with her family, specifically her mother Phyllida Law. Last year her mother received an OBE. I'm speculating that Thompson has held off out of deference to her mother. Now that Law has received an OBE, Thompson may accept one, or she may wait until after her mother dies.
As everyone has noticed, clearly she is due for recognition should she decide to accept.
Hayden: because she, unlike the others mentioned here, is deceased.
Joel6: I have Rigg's book, have loved it for years. And she and KST are my personal favorite dames.
Mary: Yes!
Dame Maggie had me when she pronounced "bizarre" like "bee-zzzaaahr" in California Suite. #Awesomeness
[BTW: Happy new year, everyone!]
Dames to be:
Kate Winslet
Cate Blanchett
I will love if they will be:
Naomi Watts
Saoirse Ronan
Eva Green
Rachel Weisz
And my favorito dame is Julie Andrews!!! The perfect nose for this LOL
Definitely need Dame Imelda Staunton (I'm assuming the CBE for "services to drama" pertains to her turn in 'Gypsy')
Also: Dame Patricia Routledge.
Angelina Jolie's damehood is only honorary, but it's still so much fun to call her Dame Angie.
Maggie Smith is my idol, forever and always.
Vanessa Redgrave, of all people, should have been made a dame!
Julie Andrews seems like the perfect Dame to me, but they're ALL magnificent.
John - Blanchett and Green? They'd have to be British for that! Unless they were to get honorary damehoods, like Jolie´s, but those are normally only given out for philanthropic work, not so much career achievements.
Maggie is my love, forever and always - Judi is near perfect and her performance in notes on a scandal is my favourite thing.
How could you forget Dame Miriam Margolyes! She's my third favourite and also the least dame-like of them all! Her attitude, persona and salt of the earthiness make her the most real dame.
I met her once! She came into my library to do some photocopying and told the noisy children off before telling them stories about her time filming Harry Potter!
Dames Harriet, Judi, and KST form my holy trinity, and Diana, Maggie, and Helen follow close behind. Some made their first and biggest impact on me on TV years and years ago, and it’s been a huge thrill to see most of them on stage — for me the true blessing of the British system is their catholic approach to form — but any way you slice it these dames are all perfectly unique and uniquely delightful.
Dame Harriet = mostly for her Harriet Vane in the BBC’s Lord Peter Wimsey series; also Mary Stuart on Broadway
Dame Judi = everything, but especially, sentimentally, for Cranford; also A Midsummer Night’s Dream onstage and for the pure cozy comfort of As Time Goes By
Dame Kristin = Four Weddings and a Funeral, The English Patient, I’ve Loved You So Long, Tell No One, Gosford Park, Angels and Insects, The Seagull on Broadway
Dame Diana = The Avengers, The Mrs. Bradley Mysteries, The Worst Witch, On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, The Great Muppet Caper
Dame Maggie = A Room with a View, Gosford Park, Keeping Mum
Dame Helen = Prime Suspect forever, The Queen, Calendar Girls, Gosford Park, White Nights
Dame Judi for mine, with Dame Helen a close second. Dame Maggie reminds me too much of my scary late Grandmother.
Nicole Kidman is the closest we have to a Dame in actressing in Australia. She was awarded 'Companion in the Order of Australia' courtesy of Queen Elizabeth II in 2007.
Cate Blanchett as an Australian would qualify as a Dame, as the Queen is Head of State.
@Tom: I was going to single out that Maggie Smith line, too! It's Maggie by a mile for me, mostly because I always got a sense that she's a little bawdy underneath her put-on stiff upper lip, a little earthy.
dame anne motherfuckin heche
I wish the almost forgotten Deborah Kerr was honored as a Dame too. She' was the quintessential British grace & genteel Lady.
Vivien Leigh was earned her Ladyship title thru her famous ex-husband, a pity she was never recognised on her own contributions
From the ones still with us and not yet mentioned,
Dame Angela Lansbury
Dame Joan Plowright
Dame Eileen Atkins
and Dames Joan Collins and Angelina Jolie :P
When I studied in London, my acting teacher was seriously offended that Judi Dench is considered to be such a great actress and ever since he brought it up I couldn't look at her the same, lol. He was like "What role have you seen her in that you thought was really amazing?" and my classmate was like "I thought she was great in Skyfall, lol..." and he scoffed, but I cited Notes on a Scandal and he actually respected that.
I honestly like Judi the best, but I've never seen any of Maggie's work aside from like...Harry Potter. So I don't know.
All I know is I am NOT a fan of Helen Mirren.
I remember seeing an interview with Jacki Weaver and she was sad that Australia stopped doing this kind of thing, because she wanted to be a Dame one day. Cute
What about Dame Joan Plowright? She is a dame as well, though never mentioned alongside Judi, Maggie, and Helen.
Also, would love to see Sarah Miles receive recognition (she was also one of the sixties' ladies), and Brenda Blethyn as well. Though I hope Imelda Staunton also receives it soon.
As a Brit the only Dame I want is Dame Julie Walters.
Angela Lansbury is a Dame - right? Heaven forbid if she isn't.
Emma Thompson - oh definitely worthy. Hopefully she will be honoured in the future.
Nicole Kidman and Cate Blanchett are American and Australian born respectively and don't think are eligible for a Damehood.
Naomi Watts however was born in England and is probably eligible.
I believe once Charles becomes King he will be a bit more flexible with Dame hoods.
No love for Glenda Jackson? Maybe now that she's back to acting, the greatest of them all would be duly recognized.
Hell - she should be made a Dame for her tribute to Thatcher alone.
Can Julianne Moore become a Dame one day?
She has a British passport because of British mother.
Yes to Dame Patricia Routledge!
Here's to Edina Monsoon and Patsy Stone receiving their proper damehoods!
Maggie Smith. The Dowager Countess always wins for me.
Dame Judi forever!
My favorite Dame has been deceased for over 20 years, and that is Dame Judith Anderson. Her Mrs. Dancers is the equivalent of Downton Abbey's O'Brien, her Medea, Queen Gertrude and Lady MacBeth legendary on stage, and her Queen Herodias the Judean equivalent of Empress Livia of "I Claudius".
Modern day is definitely Dame Maggie, losing her head as a Goddess to tell off the Greek queen Cassiopeia of " Clash of the Titans", a vain but not deadly distant relative to the one and only Livia, both played by Dame Sian Phillips.