Kendal was made a CBE in 1995 for services to drama.
In 1995 (at age 49) Kendal was selected as one of the "100 sexiest women in the world" by FHM magazine.
She made her London stage debut in Minor Murder (1967), and went on to star in a number of well regarded plays.
Kendal's first marriage to Drewe Henley (1968–79) and her second to Michael Rudman (1983–90) ended in divorce. Kendal has two sons: Charley, from her marriage to Henley, and Jacob, from her marriage to Rudman. In 1991 she left Rudman, and subsequently started a relationship with Playwright Tom Stoppard. The affair with Stoppard ended in 1998, and Kendal has since reunited with Michael Rudman.
In 1975 Kendal had her big break on television with the BBC sitcom The Good Life. She and Richard Briers starred as Barbara and Tom Good – a middle-class suburban couple who decide to quit the rat race and become self-sufficient, much to the consternation of their snooty but well-meaning neighbour Margo and her down-to-earth husband Jerry Leadbetter (played by Penelope Keith and Paul Eddington). Kendal appeared in all 30 episodes which extended over four series from 1975 to 1978.
From 1976, Kendal has appeared as herself in about 40 television shows and documentaries, the most recent being:
Kendal's stage career blossomed during the 1980s and 1990s when she formed a close professional association with Sir Tom Stoppard, starring in the first productions of many of his plays, including The Real Thing (1982), Hapgood (1988), Arcadia (1993), and Indian Ink (1995). This last was originally a radio play and the role was written for her.
She won the Evening Standard Theatre Award in 1989 for her performances in Much Ado About Nothing and Ivanov.
In 1995 (at age 49) Kendal was selected as one of the "100 sexiest women in the world" by FHM magazine.
In 1998 Kendal published a book of memoirs titled White Cargo.
In 2002, Kendal starred in Charlotte Jones's play, Humble Boy, when it transferred from the National Theatre to the West End. In 2006 she starred in the West End revival of Amy's View by David Hare.
In 2008 she appeared in the West End in a revival of Noël Coward's play The Vortex.
In 2009 she appeared in the play The Last Cigarette (by Simon Gray) and in 2010 in Mrs. Warren's Profession (by Shaw). Both played at the Chichester Festival Theatre and subsequently in the West End.
When asked (by The Guardian in 2010) whom she would invite to her "dream dinner party", Kendal replied "Emmeline Pankhurst, Gandhi, Byron, Eddie Izzard, George Bernard Shaw, Golda Meir, and Marlene Dietrich".
In 2013 she starred in the first London revival of Relatively Speaking by Alan Ayckbourn at the Wyndham's Theatre. In 2014, she toured the UK and Australia as Judith Bliss in Noël Coward's Hay Fever, which then played in the West End.
In 2017 she starred with Maureen Lipman in a revival of Lettice and Lovage at the Menier Chocolate Factory.
