Maggie Smith was a renowned British actress who worked for over 60 years in theater, film, and television. She was eighty-nine.
Her sons, Toby Stephens and Chris Larkin, gave the Press Association a statement confirming her passing.
Smith, who starred in over 50 movies, was regarded as one of the most well-known actresses in Britain. Her portrayals as Professor Minerva McGonagall in the “Harry Potter” films and the Dowager Countess of Grantham on television’s “Downton Abbey” won her the affection of younger audiences.
Smith received five BAFTA Awards, four Emmy Awards, three Golden Globes, five Screen Actors Guild Awards, a Tony Award, and two Academy Awards in addition to his two wins. She received the title of Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1990.
Smith was born in Ilford, Essex, and moved to Oxford, England, with her family when she was four years old. Her father was employed by Oxford University as a public health pathologist. Smith went to Oxford High School until she left at the age of sixteen to pursue acting training at the Oxford Playhouse.
She debuted on stage with the Oxford University Drama Society in 1952. Ten years later, she was starring opposite Laurence Olivier in “Othello” (1965) and received her first Oscar nomination.
She had received her first Oscar in 1979 for “The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie.” In 1979, there was another for “California Suite.”
During the 1980s and 1990s, Smith starred in a number of movies, such as the comedy “Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit” alongside Whoopi Goldberg in 1993 and the 1985 picture “A Room with a View.” However, she shot to fame in the globe in the fall of her career as a star of the 2001–2011 “Harry Potter” film series.
When she was cast as the witty Dowager Countess in “Downton Abbey” in 2010, she won numerous accolades, including a Golden Globe and three Emmys.
