From Hollywood to Hogwarts: The seven-decade career of legendary actress Maggie Smith

27 September 2024, 15:30 | Updated: 27 September 2024, 15:56

Dame Maggie Smith, who was known in recent years for her role in Downton Abbey, has died at the age of 89.

Her sons say she passed away peacefully in hospital in London this morning.

Dame Maggie won a best actress Oscar for The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie in 1969 and best supporting actress for California Suite in 1978.

Her role as Violet Crawley in Downton won her three Primetime Emmy Awards.

However, she captured the hearts of the younger generation as strict but loving Professor McGonagall in the Harry Potter film franchise.

Margaret Natalie Smith was born in Ilford, Essex, on December 28, 1934.

She was educated at Oxford High School for Girls and later the Oxford Playhouse School.

She first appeared on the stage as a girl of 18 in Twelfth Night.

She made an early mark in revues, as a singer and dancer.

One fan who saw her on Broadway in New Faces of '56, said he laughed so much he ended up banging his head on the seat in front of him.

She was spotted by Laurence Olivier, who saw her as much more than just a vaudeville performer and invited her to join the newly-formed Royal National Theatre Company in London.

There, and at the Old Vic, she excelled in both tragedy and comedy, moving easily from Shakespeare to Noel Coward, to Restoration comedy to Ibsen.

As a "rep" actress, she was able to develop her incredible range, skill and talent among some of Britain's best actors, including Robert Stephens, who was to become her first husband. They married in 1967 but divorced in 1974.

The film industry began to recognise her abilities and she was given several supporting roles.

But she first emerged as an international star with her virtuoso performance as the fanatical teacher Jean Brodie in The Prime Of Miss Jean Brodie.

Dame Maggie won a best actress Oscar for the role in 1970.

Other film roles include her portrayal of a drunken Oscar loser in California Suite, the dying older lover in Love, Pain And The Whole Damn Thing, the tragic lodger in The Lonely Passion Of Judith Hearne, and the so-called "funny old bat" in Gosford Park, which brought her a sixth Oscar nomination.

Even in smaller roles she could upstage the film "giants".

In one film, Richard Burton described her scene-stealing as "grand larceny".

Dame Maggie won over a whole new generation of fans when she played Professor McGonagall in the Harry Potter films.

In 2010 she was central to the success of ITV series Downton Abbey, in her Emmy-award winning role as the acerbic Violet Crawley, Dowager Countess of Grantham.

But she later told ES Magazine: "I am deeply grateful for the work in (Harry) Potter and indeed Downton (Abbey) but it wasn't what you'd call satisfying.

"I didn't really feel I was acting in those things."

Her numerous awards also covered her performances in Tea With Mussolini, A Room With A View, A Private Function and The Lonely Passion Of Judith Hearne.

She starred alongside Dame Judi Dench in the 2004 film Ladies In Lavender, and on stage in the David Hare play The Breath Of Life.

One of her most famous roles was as a bag lady in The Lady In The Van, the 2015 adaptation of Alan Bennett's memoirs.

She recently starred in the 2022's Downton Abbey: A New Era, where Violet's health deteriorates and she dies in an emotional end to her character.

The next year, she appeared in The Miracle Club, which follows a group of women from Dublin who go on a pilgrimage to the French town of Lourdes.

Despite the fame Harry Potter and Downton Abbey brought her in the later years of her career, the iconic actress was not full of praise for her performances.

She told ES Magazine: "I am deeply grateful for the work in (Harry) Potter and indeed Downton (Abbey) but it wasn't what you'd call satisfying.

"I didn't really feel I was acting in those things."

Speaking about her career, said: "Honest to God, I have no idea where the urge [to act] came from. It was such a ghastly time and we didn't go to the theatre.

"I got into terrible trouble once because the neighbours took me to the cinema on a Sunday, but I had a wonderful teacher, Dorothy Bartholomew, who also taught Miriam Margolyes, and who encouraged me."

Dame Maggie's second husband, the playwright Beverley Cross who she married in 1975, died in 1998.

She had two sons from her first marriage, Toby Stephens and Chris Larkin, who are both actors.