Dame Margaret Natalie Smith  (born 28 December 1934) is a British actress. She is better known as Maggie Smith. She made her stage debut in 1952 and is still performing after 60 years. She has won many awards for acting, both for the stage and for movies, including seven BAFTA Awards (five competitive awards and two special awards including the Bafta Fellowship in 1996), two Academy Awards, two Golden Globes, two Emmy Awards, a Laurence Olivier Award, two SAG Awards and a Tony Award.

Her award winning movies include Othello (1965), The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1969), Travels with My Aunt (1972), California Suite (1978), Clash of the Titans (1981), A Room with a View (1985) and Gosford Park (2001). She has also been in a number of widely-popular movies, including Hook (1991), Sister Act (1992) and as Professor Minerva McGonagall in the Harry Potter movie series. She currently stars in the drama Downton Abbey as Violet Crawley, the Dowager Countess of Grantham, for which she has won an Emmy.

Smith was born in Ilford, Essex. She moved to Oxford at age four and went to Oxford High School.

Personal life
Smith has been married twice. She married actor Robert Stephens on 29 June 1967 at Greenwich. The couple had two sons: actors Chris Larkin (born in 1967) and Toby Stephens (born in 1969). They divorced on 6 May 1974.

She married playwright Beverley Cross on 23 August 1975 at Guildford. He died on 20 March 1998.

In 2007, the Sunday Telegraph''' reported that she had breast cancer. She has made a full recovery.

Filmography
Television and cinema

Theatre roles
 Twelfth Night, Oxford Playhouse, 1952
 He Who Gets Slapped, Clarendon Press Institute, 1952
 Cinderella, Oxford Playhouse, 1952
 Rookery Nook, Oxford Playhouse, 1953
 The Housemaster, Oxford Playhouse, 1953
 Cakes and Ale (revue), Edinburgh Festival, 1953
 The Love of Four Colonels, Oxford Playhouse, 1953
 The Ortolan, Maxton Hall, 1954
 Don’t Listen Ladies, Oxford Playhouse, 1954
 The Government Inspector, Oxford Playhouse, 1954
 The Letter, Oxford Playhouse, 1954
 A Man About The House, Oxford Playhouse, 1954
 On the Mile (revue), Edinburgh Festival, 1954
 Oxford Accents, New Watergate Theatre, London, 1954
 Theatre 1900, Oxford Playhouse, 1954
 Listen to the Wind, Oxford Playhouse, 1954
 The Magistrate, Oxford Playhouse, 1955
 The School For Scandal, Oxford Playhouse, 1955
 New Faces (revue), Ethel Barrymore Theatre, New York, 1956
 Share My Lettuce (revue), Lyric Hammersmith and Comedy Theatre, 1957
 The Stepmother, St. Martin's Theatre, 1958
 The Double Dealer, Old Vic, 1959
 As You Like It, Old Vic, 1959
 Richard II, Old Vic, 1959
 The Merry Wives of Windsor, Old Vic, 1959
 What Every Woman Knows, Old Vic, 1960
 Rhinoceros, Strand Theatre, 1960
 Strip the Willow, UK Tour, 1960
 The Rehearsal, Bristol Old Vic and Globe Theatre, 1961
 The Private Ear and The Public Eye, Globe Theatre, 1962
 Mary, Mary, Queen's Theatre, 1963
 The Recruiting Officer, National Theatre/Old Vic, 1963
 Othello, National Theatre/Old Vic, 1964
 The Master Builder, National Theatre/Old Vic, 1964
 Hay Fever, National Theatre/Old Vic, 1964
 Much Ado About Nothing, National Theatre/Old Vic, 1965
 Trelawney of the Wells, National Theatre/Old Vic, 1965
 Miss Julie, National Theatre/Old Vic, 1966
 Black Comedy, National Theatre/Old Vic, 1966
 A Bond Honoured, National Theatre/Old Vic, 1966
 The Country Wife, Chichester Festival Theatre, 1969
 The Beaux Stratagem, National Theatre/Old Vic and Ahmanson Theatre, Los Angeles, 1970
 Hedda Gabler, National Theatre/Cambridge Theatre, 1970
 Design For Living, Ahmanson Theatre, Los Angeles, 1971
 Private Lives, Queen's Theatre, 1972
 Peter Pan, London Coliseum, 1973
 Snap, Vaudeville Theatre, 1974
 Private Lives, US tour and 46th Street Theatre, New York, 1975 [Tony nomination]
 The Way of the World, Stratford, Canada, 1976
 Antony and Cleopatra, Stratford, Canada, 1976
 Three Sisters, Stratford, Canada, 1976
 The Guardsman, Stratford, Canada and Ahmanson Theatre, Los Angeles, 1976
 A Midsummer Night's Dream, Stratford, Canada and Ahmanson Theatre, Los Angeles, 1977
 Richard III, Stratford, Canada, 1977
 As You Like It, Stratford, Canada, 1977
 Hay Fever, Stratford, Canada, 1977
 Macbeth, Stratford, Canada, 1978
 Private Lives, Stratford, Canada, 1978
 Night and Day, Phoenix Theatre, Washington D.C. and ANTA Playhouse, New York, 1979 [Tony nomination]
 Much Ado About Nothing, Stratford, Canada, 1980
 The Seagull, Stratford, Canada, 1980
 Virginia, Stratford, Canada, 1980 and Theatre Royal Haymarket, 1981
 The Way of the World, Chichester Festival Theatre and Theatre Royal Haymarket, 1984
 The Interpreters, Queen's Theatre, 1985
 The Infernal Machine, Lyric Hammersmith, 1986
 Coming Into Land, National Theatre/Lyttelton, 1987
 Lettice and Lovage, Globe Theatre, 1987
 Lettice and Lovage, Ethel Barrymore Theatre, New York, 1990 [Tony win]
 The Importance of Being Earnest, Aldwych Theatre, 1993
 Three Tall Women, Wyndham's Theatre, 1994 and 1995
 Talking Heads, Chichester Festival Theatre and Comedy Theatre, 1996
 A Delicate Balance, Theatre Royal Haymarket, 1997
 The Lady in the Van, Queen's Theatre, 1999
 The Breath of Life, Theatre Royal Haymarket, 2002
 Talking Heads, Australian tour, 2004
 The Lady From Dubuque'', Theatre Royal Haymarket, 2007

References

Other websites 
 

Academy Award winning actors
Actors from Essex
Actors from Oxfordshire
BAFTA Award winning actors
Breast cancer survivors
Emmy Award winning actors
English movie actors
English stage actors
English television actors
Golden Globe Award winning actors
People from Ilford
People from Oxford
Tony Award winning actors
1934 births
Living people

Knights and Dames Commander of the Order of the British Empire
Laurence Olivier Award winners