Maggie Smith

**Dame Margaret Natalie Smith**  (28 December 1934 – 27 September 2024) was a British actress. She made her stage debut in 1952 and her career lasted for over 70 years. She 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.

## Career

Her award-winning movies included _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. Smith said that acting in the _Harry Potter_ movies was not fully satisfying. However, she said she enjoyed being a part of the franchise because it allowed her to bond with her grandchildren. Smith underwent intensive chemotherapy for breast cancer while filming _Half-Blood Prince_. The treatment left her feeling "horribly sick", but she eventually made a full recovery.

She had a role in the drama _Downton Abbey_ as Violet Crawley, the Dowager Countess of Grantham, for which she has won an Emmy.

## Personal life

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

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.

Smith died on 27 September 2024 at the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital in London, at the age of 89.

### Television and cinema

|Year|Title|Role|class="unsortable"|Notes|
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
|1958|_Nowhere to Go_|Bridget Howard|Nominated — BAFTA Award for Best Newcomer||
|1962|_Go to Blazes_|Chantal|||
|1963|__|Miss Mead|Nominated — Golden Globe Award for New Star of the Year – Actress||
|1964|__|Philpot|||
|rowspan=2|1965|_Othello_|Desdemona||
|_Young Cassidy_|Nora|Nominated — BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role|||
|1967|__|Sarah Watkins|||
|1968|_Hot Millions_|Patty Terwilliger Smith|||
|1969|__|Jean Brodie|||
|1969|_Oh! What a Lovely War_|Music Hall Star|||
|1972|_Travels with My Aunt_|Aunt Augusta|||
|1973|_Love and Pain and the Whole Damn Thing_|Lila Fisher|||
|1974|__|Gwendylspire Boughgrough|||
|1975|__|Ms. Collins|||
|1976|_Murder by Death_|Dora Charleston|||
|rowspan=2|1978|_Death on the Nile_|Miss Bowers|Nominated — BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role|
|_California Suite_|Diana Barrie||||
|rowspan=2|1981|_Quartet_|Lois Heidler|Nominated — BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role|
|_Clash of the Titans_|Thetis|Nominated — Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actress|||
|rowspan=3|1982|_Evil Under the Sun_|Daphne Castle||
|__|Lady Isabel Ames||||
|_Better Late Than Never_|Miss Anderson||||
|rowspan=2|1984|__|Joyce Chilvers|BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role|
|_Lily in Love_|Lily Wynn|Nominated — British Academy Television Award for Best Actress|||
|1985|__|Charlotte Bartlett|||
|rowspan=2|1987|__|Judith Hearne|BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role|
|_Talking Heads_|Susan|Nominated — British Academy Television Award for Best Actress|||
|1991|_Hook_|Wendy Darling|||
|rowspan=2|1992|_Sister Act_|Reverend Mother||
|_Memento Mori_|Mrs. Mabel Pettigrew|Nominated — British Academy Television Award for Best Actress|||
|rowspan=3|1993|_Suddenly, Last Summer_|Violet Venable|Nominated — Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress – Miniseries or a Movie|
|_Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit_|Reverend Mother||||
|__|Mrs. Medlock|Nominated — BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role|||
|1995|_Richard III_|Duchess of York|||
|1996|__|Gunilla Garson Goldberg|National Board of Review Award for Best Cast||
|1997|_Washington Square_|Aunt Lavinia Penniman|Nominated — Chlotrudis Award for Best Supporting Actress||
|rowspan=5|1999|_Curtain Call_|Lily Gale||
|__|Lady Myra Naylor||||
|_Tea with Mussolini_|Lady Hester Random|BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role|||
|_All the King's Men_|Queen Alexandra||||
|_David Copperfield_|Betsey Trotwood||||
|rowspan=2|2001|_Gosford Park_|Constance, Countess of Trentham||
|_Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone_|Professor Minerva McGonagall||||
|rowspan=2|2002|_Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets_|Professor Minerva McGonagall|Nominated — Phoenix Film Critics Society Award for Best Cast|
|_Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood_|Caro Eliza Bennett||||
|2003|_My House in Umbria_|Emily Delahunty|||
|rowspan=2|2004|_Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban_|Professor Minerva McGonagall||
|_Ladies in Lavender_|Janet Widdington|Nominated — European Film Award for Best Actress|||
|rowspan=2|2005|_Keeping Mum_|Grace Hawkins||
|_Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire_|Professor Minerva McGonagall||||
|rowspan=3|2007|_Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix_|Professor Minerva McGonagall||
|_Becoming Jane_|Lady Gresham||||
|_Capturing Mary_|Mary Gilbert|Nominated — Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress – Miniseries or a Movie|||
|rowspan=2|2009|_Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince_|Professor Minerva McGonagall||
|_From Time to Time_|Linnet Oldknow||||
|2010|_Nanny McPhee and the Big Bang_|Mrs. Docherty|||
|2010–2022|_Downton Abbey_|Violet Crawley, the Dowager Countess of Grantham|Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Miniseries or a Movie TV Times Award for Best Actress Nominated — BAFTA Award for Best Supporting Actress Nominated — Broadcasting Press Guild Award for Best Actress Nominated — Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress - Series, Miniseries or Television Film Nominated — Monte Carlo Television Festival Award for Outstanding Actress Nominated — Satellite Award for Best Supporting Actress - Series, Miniseries or Television Film Nominated — Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Miniseries or Television Movie||
|rowspan=2|2011|_Gnomeo & Juliet_|Lady Bluebury||
|_Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2_|Professor Minerva McGonagall||||
|rowspan=2|2012|_The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel_|Muriel Donnelly||
|_Quartet_|Jean Horton|_post-production_|||

### 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

## Infobox (person)

- **honorific-prefix**: Dame
- **honorific suffix**: Order of the British Empire, DBE
- **name**: Maggie Smith
- **image**: Dame Maggie Smith 1973 (front side) (cropped).jpg
- **caption**: Smith in 1973
- **nationality**: British people, British
- **birth place**: Ilford, Essex, England, UK
- **death place**: London, England, UK
- **birth name**: Margaret Natalie Smith
- **occupation**: Actress
- **years active**: 1952–2024


## Infobox (infobox)

- **child**: yes
- **decat**: yes
- **title**: Academy Awards
- **label1**: 42nd Academy Awards, 1969
- **data1**: Academy Award for Best Actress, Best Actress
- **label2**: 51st Academy Awards, 1978
- **data2**: Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, Best Supporting Actress


## Infobox (infobox)

- **child**: yes
- **decat**: yes
- **title**: British Academy Film Awards
- **label1**: 23rd British Academy Film Awards, 1969, 38th British Academy Film Awards, 1984, 39th British Academy Film Awards, 1986, 42nd British Academy Film Awards, 1988
- **data1**: BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role, Best Actress
- **label2**: 53rd British Academy Film Awards, 1999
- **data2**: BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role, Best Supporting Actress
- **label3**: BAFTA Academy Fellowship Award, 1996
- **data3**: BAFTA Academy Fellowship Award, Fellowship


## Infobox (infobox)

- **child**: yes
- **decat**: yes
- **title**: Golden Globe Awards
- **label1**: 36th Golden Globe Awards, 1978
- **data1**: Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy, Best Actress - Motion Picture Musical or Comedy
- **label2**: 44th Golden Globe Awards, 1986
- **data2**: Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress – Motion Picture, Best Supporting Actress - Motion Picture


## Infobox (infobox)

- **child**: yes
- **decat**: yes
- **title**: Screen Actors Guild Awards
- **label1**: 8th Screen Actors Guild Awards, 2001
- **data1**: Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture, Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture


## Infobox (infobox)

- **headerstyle**: background:#F0E68C;
- **labelstyle**: background:#ddf;
- **datastyle**: background:#DCDCDC;
- **header1**: Film Awards