Actress Maggie Smith, known for the Harry Potter and Downton Abbey films, died on Friday at the age of 89, her family announced.
Actress Maggie Smith PHOTO: Archive
“It is with great sadness that we announce the death of Dame Maggie Smith. She died peacefully in hospital this morning, Friday September 27. She leaves two loving sons and five 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 Chelsea and Westminster Hospital for their tireless care and kindness during her final days,” her sons Toby Stephens and Chris Larkin said in a statement, according to the BBC.
Born in Essex in 1934, Dame Maggie became an internationally recognized actress and one of the most versatile, accomplished and meticulous performers of her generation.
The role that brought Dame Maggie Smith international fame came in 1969, when she played the determined and maverick teacher in The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie.
This role earned her an Oscar for Best Actress. She also married her co-star Robert Stephens.
The actress continued with the National Theater for two more years, including a performance as Mrs. Sullen in the restoration comedy The Beaux’ Stratagem in Los Angeles.
She received another Academy Award nomination for Best Actress after playing Aunt Augusta in George Cukor’s Travels With My Aunt in 1972.
She and Stephens divorced in 1975, and a year later she married playwright Beverley Cross and also moved to Canada, spending four years with a repertory company, where she took on heavier roles in Macbeth and Richard III.
One critic, writing of her performance as Lady Macbeth, stated that “he fused his own vivid personality with that of his charismatic subject’.
Despite her success, she was modest about her achievements, stating simply that “someone went to school, wanted to play, started playing and is still playing.”
She continued to work in cinema playing alongside Peter Ustinov in the 1978 film Death on the Nile and, in the same year, the role of Diana Barrie in Neil Simon’s California Suite.
