Celebrated British actress Maggie Smith dies aged 89

Legendary British actress Dame Maggie Smith, who won new fans in the 21st century as Professor Minerva McGonagall in the Harry Potter films and the dowager Countess of Grantham in the hit ITV series Downton Abbey, has died aged 89.

The news was confirmed by her publicist and Smith’s family.

A statement from her sons Toby Stephens and Chris Larkin read: “It is with great sadness we have to announce the death of Dame Maggie Smith. She passed away peacefully in 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.”

“We would like to take this opportunity to thank the wonderful staff at the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital for their care and unstinting kindness during her final days. We thank you for all your kind messages and support and ask that you respect our privacy at this time.” 

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer posted a tribute to Dame Maggie Smith, saying she was a “true national treasure”.

Smith was a celebrated stage and screen presence, establishing herself alongside friend and fellow performer Judi Dench as one of the UK’s most significant and prolific stage and screen talents.

Smith won an Oscar for The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie in 1969, the adaptation of the Muriel Spark novel in which she played a charismatic but dangerous Edinburgh schoolteacher, and a supporting actress Oscar for California Suite in 1978. Other awards the actress won include three Golden Globes, five BAFTA Awards, four Emmys, and was one of the few performers to earn the Triple Crown of Acting – a term used in the entertainment industry to describe performers who have won a competitive Oscar, Emmy and Tony Award in the acting categories.  

Margaret Natalie Smith was born in Ilford, on the eastern edge of London, on 28 December 1934. She grew up in Oxford and began acting at the city’s Playhouse theatre. She made her professional debut on Broadway in “New Faces of ’56” and took Maggie as her stage name because another Margaret Smith was active in the theater.

Laurence Olivier spotted her talent, invited her to be part of his original National Theatre company and cast her as his co-star in a 1965 film adaptation of “Othello.”

Smith said two directors, Ingmar Bergman and William Gaskill, both in National Theatre productions, were important influences.

Known for her acidic wit in comedic roles, she had an extensive career both on stage and on screen – known for her roles in countless films including A Private Function, A Room With A View, The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne, Gosford Park, Tea with Mussolini and The Lady in the Van.

Her work in 2012 netted three Golden Globe nominations for the globally successful Downton Abbey TV series and the films The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel and Quartet.

She summed up her life briefly: “One went to school, one wanted to act, one started to act, one’s still acting,” and summarized her later roles as “a gallery of grotesques,” including Professor McGonagall. Asked why she took the role, she quipped: “Harry Potter is my pension.”

Her last on screen roles were in Downton Abbey: A New Era and 2023’s The Miracle Club.

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Smith had a reputation for being difficult, and sometimes upstaging others.

Richard Burton remarked that Smith didn’t just take over a scene in “The VIPs” with him: “She commits grand larceny.” However, the director Peter Hall found that Smith wasn’t “remotely difficult unless she’s among idiots. She’s very hard on herself, and I don’t think she sees any reason why she shouldn’t be hard on other people, too.”

Smith conceded that she could be impatient at times.

“It’s true I don’t tolerate fools, but then they don’t tolerate me, so I am spiky,” Smith said. “Maybe that’s why I’m quite good at playing spiky elderly ladies.”

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Smith was made a Dame Commander of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth II in 1990.

Smith married fellow actor Robert Stephens in 1967. They had two sons, Christopher and Toby, and divorced in 1975. The same year she married the writer Beverley Cross, who died in 1998.

Maggie Smith – 1934-2024