In Memory of Maggie Smith (1934-2024)

Maggie Smith (1934-2024)

The Oscar-winning British actress Dame Maggie Smith, best known for her roles in the "Harry Potter" film series and "Downton Abbey," has died. She was 89 years old. Her sons, actors Chris Larkin and Toby Stephens, announced her passing to the press.

Born on December 28, 1934, in Ilford, Essex, as Margaret Natalie Smith, she was the daughter of a pathologist. As war approached, her family moved to Oxford, and young Maggie attended the Oxford School for Girls. Smith began her theatrical career as a prompt girl and understudy at the Oxford Repertory. At one point, she suggested that no one in her company ever got sick, so Smith never performed on stage while she was there. In 1955, her company moved to a small London theatre, where American producer Leonard Stillman spotted her and cast her in the revue New Faces, which opened on Broadway in June 1956. Between 1957 and 1958, Smith held the lead comedian role in the London revue "Share My Lettuce." She soon became a regular at London's Old Vic Theatre.

In 1956, Smith made her first film appearance in an uncredited part in "Child in the House." Two years later, she earned a BAFTA nomination for Best Newcomer for the 1958 melodrama "Nowhere to Go," in which she portrayed a girl who hides an escaped convict. In "The VIPs," Smith almost upstaged Richard Burton in a pivotal scene. In 1963, actor Laurence Olivier offered her the role of Desdemona opposite his titular character in the National Theatre stage version of "Othello." Two years later, she returned for the film adaptation with the original cast and earned an Academy Award nomination. However, in 1969, she played the role that catapulted her to international fame: the unconventional schoolteacher in "The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie," for which she received an Oscar for Best Actress.

For two more years, the actress continued her association with the National Theatre, including a role as Mrs Sullen in the Restoration comedy "The Beaux' Stratagem" in Los Angeles. She received another Best Actress Oscar nomination for her performance as Aunt Augusta in George Cukor's 1972 film "Travels with My Aunt." In 1978, she won a second Academy Award, this time for Best Supporting Actress, for her performance in Neil Simon's "California Suite." She appeared in the ensemble murder-mystery parody "Murder by Death" and the Agatha Christie adaptation "Death on the Nile," as well as its sequel "Evil Under the Sun," both of which starred Peter Ustinov as Hercule Poirot. By the 1980s, she had a string of unforgettable film roles. She won BAFTAs for "A Private Function" and "A Room with a View," and earned a Golden Globe and an Oscar nomination for the latter. She also appeared in "Bed Among the Lentils," an episode of Alan Bennett's "Talking Heads" series for the BBC.

In 1990, the Queen awarded her a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire, and she became known as Dame Maggie Smith. Afterwards, she appeared in Steven Spielberg's "Hook" as the elderly Wendy Darling and played the dismissive Mother Superior opposite Whoopi Goldberg in the two "Sister Act" movies. She also appeared in "The Secret Garden," "Richard III," "The First Wives Club," "Washington Square," and "The Last September."

At the turn of the century, she played Betsey Trotwood in the BBC adaptation of "David Copperfield," earning BAFTA and Emmy nominations. In 2001, she achieved worldwide fame at the height of her career when she played her best-known role to date as Professor Minerva McGonagall, the shape-shifting Hogwarts teacher in "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone." Smith brought her magic to the character in seven more films in the franchise. That same year, she starred in Robert Altman's English country house drama "Gosford Park," which earned her final Oscar nomination. During the shooting of "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" in 2007, Smith was diagnosed with breast cancer but recovered after two years of treatment.

She again won acclaim on both sides of the Atlantic for her performance as the sharp-tongued Violet Crawley, Dowager Countess of Grantham, in Julian Fellowes's hit British period drama "Downton Abbey." The show ran for six seasons and earned Smith three Emmys and a Golden Globe. It spawned two films, and the second, released in 2022, marked Smith's last appearance as the beloved character. Over the past several years, she has continued to work, appearing in films like "The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel," "Quartet," and "The Lady in the Van." In 2023, she appeared opposite Kathy Bates and Laura Linney in "The Miracle Club." It was her last film role.

Smith married twice: first to actor Robert Stephens, until they divorced in 1974, and again to playwright Beverley Cross from 1975 until Cross died in 1998.

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