Dame Maggie Smith, a revered, multi-award-winning actor who enjoyed a decades-long career captivating audiences worldwide, particularly with her turns in “Harry Potter” and “Downton Abbey,” has died. She was 89.
Her sons, Chris Larkin and Toby Stephens, confirmed the news in a statement on Friday, saying: “She passed away peacefully in the hospital early this morning, Friday 27th September.
“An intensely private person, she was with friends and family at the end. She leaves two sons and five loving grandchildren who are devastated by the loss of their extraordinary mother and grandmother,” the brothers continued.
“We thank you for all your kind messages and support and ask that you respect our privacy at this time.”
A cause of death was not provided, but her family did thank staff at “the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital for their care and unstinting kindness during her final days.”
Smith was born on Dec. 28, 1934 in Essex and grew up in Oxford, where she studied at the Oxford Playhouse School. She lit up the stage during her time there, starring in classics like “Twelfth Night” and “Cinderella,” before she landed at Old Vic Theater in London. There, she caught the eye of actor-director Laurence Olivier. He invited her to be part of his original National Theatre company and later cast her as his co-star in a 1965 film adaptation of “Othello.”
In 1969, Smith nabbed her first Academy Award, taking home the Best Actress trophy for playing the title role in “The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie,” which also earned her a BAFTA. She scored her second Oscar — this one for Best Supporting Actress — nearly 10 years later for her work in Neil Simon’s “California Suite,” which saw her act opposite Michael Caine.
She received four Golden Globe Awards and had four additional Oscar nominations as a supporting actress — in “Othello,” “Travels with My Aunt,” “Room with a View” and “Gosford Park”— as well as a BAFTA award for supporting actress in “Tea with Mussolini.”
On stage, she won a Tony in 1990 for “Lettice and Lovage.”
More recently, Smith notably starred in all eight “Harry Potter” movies as the the acerbic Professor Minerva McGonagall, a role she continued to play even as she received chemotherapy for breast cancer in 2007. She went on to make a full recovery and returned to screens both big and small.
Her work on “Downton Abbey” as the sharp-tongued Dowager Countess of Grantham earned her three Best Supporting Actress Emmys, along with a fourth award received for her lead role in the 2003 HBO movie “My House in Umbria.”
Considered one of the best British actors of her time, Smith continued working well into her 80s, in films such as the 2022 big-screen spinoff “Downton Abbey: A New Era” and the 2023 release “The Miracle Club.”
In 1990, Queen Elizabeth II made Smith a dame, the equivalent of a knight, for her contributions to the arts.
She married fellow actor Robert Stephens in 1967. They had two sons, Christopher and Toby — who both grew up to be actors — and divorced in 1975. The same year she married the writer Beverley Cross, who died in 1998.
With News Wire Services
