Judi Dench Shares Personal and Moving Way She Honored Friend Maggie Smith at Her Funeral
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12/30/2024 02:06 PM
After the death of her friend and fellow British dame in September, Dench shared a small tribute she paid to her friend at her funeral
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Judi Dench and Maggie Smith share a laughJudi Dench is sharing one way she honored the life of her friend and fellow dame Maggie Smith.
Dench, who has been known in the past to plant individual trees in memory of her friends in her private forest at her home in Surrey, told the BBC in an interview that, on the day of Smith's funeral, her gardener found a crab apple on the specific tree she had planted in Smith's memory.
"Joe, who works for me, came in, and he had one little crab apple," she said in the broadcast, which aired on Dec. 28, Smith's first posthumous birthday. "And so I had it in my pocket at her funeral, which was a very nice thing to have."
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Judi Dench and Maggie SmithRelated: Judi Dench Tears Up Addressing 'Grief' Over Friend Maggie Smith's Death
Dench's forest is filled with tribute trees for entertainment figures like Alan Rickman, Helen McCrory, Natasha Richardson, Stephen Sondheim, and more, the A Room With a View actress shared on an episode of British journalist Louis Theroux's interview series in November.
The recent death of her friend and multiple-time costar has impacted the Skyfall actress, 90, deeply.
In response to a question about the Sept. 27 death of her longtime friend at a Cheltenham Literature Festival event on Saturday, Oct. 5, Dench reportedly became overcome with emotion.
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Maggie Smith and Judi Dench Ladies in LavenderDuring the festival, actor Brendan O'Hea asked Dench onstage what she meant when she had once compared grief to petrol, The Times reported.
"The last week has been tricky for you because you lost your great friends," he said, referring to Smith, who died at age 89, and Frenzy star Barbara Leigh-Hunt, who died on Sept. 16 at age 88.
Related: Remembering Maggie Smith's Incredible Life and Career in Photos
"I suppose because the energy that's created by grief … " Dench responded before tearfully trailing off.
In a 2023 interview with The Times, Dench had previously said that grieving for her felt "unbelievably cathartic. You fortify yourself and use what you are going through as energy. Like petrol. It has helped me cope with the pain."
In addition to their longtime friendship, the two dames' paths crossed frequently in their professional lives.
Dench starred with the late Oscar winner in 1985 film A Room with a View, 1999's Tea with Mussolini, 2004's Ladies in Lavender, 2011's The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel and its 2015 sequel.
The two even carried their professional partnerships into different mediums — starring together in Sir David Hare's play The Breath of Life on London's West End from 2002 to 2003.
Cinecom International/Courtesy Everett Collection
Judi Dench and Maggie Smith in A Room With a ViewIn the 2018 documentary Nothing Like a Dame (released in the U.S. as Tea with the Dames), audiences were offered a glimpse into the pair's longstanding friendship, along with fellow British Dames Eileen Atkins and Joan Plowright.
Smith died peacefully in a hospital, per the Sept. 27 statement released by her sons, Toby Stephens and Chris Larkin.
"It is with great sadness we have to announce the death of Dame Maggie Smith," they said. "An intensely private person, she was with friends and family at the end. She leaves two sons and five loving grandchildren who are devastated by the loss of their extraordinary mother and grandmother.
