Oscar-winning British actress Dame Judi Dench says she can no longer perform onstage or act on film because of an incurable degenerative eye disease.
Ms. Dench, 91, first revealed that she has macular degeneration in 2012. In a BBC Radio 4 interview on Thursday, she called aging “rubbish” and said she tries not “to think about it too much.”
She said that her illness has progressed to the point that it makes her unable to perform.
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“I can’t be on stage, I can’t do a play anymore, I can’t do a film anymore, I can’t read anymore,” Ms. Dench said. “So, you’ve got to adjust to all that.”
In November 2025, Ms. Dench revealed that she could no longer see during an interview with fellow British stage veteran Ian McKellen.
“I can see your outline, and I know you so well,” she told Mr. McKellen. “But I can’t recognize anybody anymore.”
Ms. Dench, who has appeared on stage and in films since 1957, won the Academy Award for best supporting actress in 1998’s “Shakespeare in Love,” in which she portrayed Queen Elizabeth I.
She was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in 1970 and Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1988.
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