Dame Maggie Smith: an intensely private national treasure

Dame Maggie Smith's flair for both comedy and tragedy made her one of Britain's most formidable actors, said The Hollywood Reporter. She won the first of six Oscar nominations in 1965, starring opposite Laurence Olivier in "Othello", before scooping the prize four years later for "The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie".

By 1990, her talent had seen her become a Dame, "but in many ways," said CNN, "her best roles were yet to come". She went on to win the hearts of young fans playing the "strict but fair" Professor McGonagall in "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone", a role she reprised in all but one of the films, before taking on what The Guardian called "arguably her most impactful TV role" as the Countess of Grantham in "Downton Abbey".

Her performance in the period drama was often highlighted as one of the show's defining strengths. She "wafts about magnificently", said Sam Wollaston in The Guardian, "stealing a scene with just a line or a haughty look". The Telegraph said her characterisation was "imperiousness personified".

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"Downton" netted Smith three Emmys and international attention, but she was intensely private and avoided award ceremonies when she could. "I truly think if I went to Los Angeles, for example, I think I'd frighten people," she said in 2017. "They don't see older people.”

'A face like that'

Born in Ilford in 1934, Smith wanted to be an actor from childhood, but claimed her mother had said she wouldn't succeed with "a face like that". Not only did Smith prove her mother wrong, but at the age of 88 she became a face for Spanish fashion label Loewe, posing for its 2024 spring/summer collection.

Her looks were often commented on in an effort to understand her talent, said The Times. Playwright Beverly Cross, who became Smith's second husband, said she was "very tall, very thin… with all this red hair", while theatre critic Kenneth Tynan remarked she had "some of the finest fingers in the business". As for her voice, it could give an "apparently innocuous remark a thousand different meanings".

Smith's voice helped launch her career; four years after making her professional stage debut as Viola in "Twelfth Night" at the Oxford Playhouse, she was recruited to be part of the Broadway revue "New Faces of 1956", performing comedy skits and songs. Further sketch-and-music shows followed until, in 1962, she starred in Peter Shaffer's "The Private Ear and The Public Eye", netting her an Evening Standard best actress award and the attention of Olivier, playing Desdemona to his Othello at the National Theatre and then on the big screen.

Roles and awards followed in droves over the years, with her work including films from "Death on the Nile" to the Merchant Ivory "A Room with a View" and theatre ranging from Oscar Wilde to Edward Albee. Her last performance was in 2023's "The Miracle Club".

'Courage and talent'

"A master at classical and contemporary roles," according to Variety, Smith played tragedy or comedy "with equal facility", her theatre roles ranging from Shakespearean drama to Shaffer's satire "Lettice and Lovage", which he wrote especially for her. She "consistently had the courage and talent to do unexpected things", said Mark Lawson in The Guardian.

Critics came up with many different answers to the source of her skill as an actor, said The Telegraph, but for Smith, her career was simple: "One went to school, one wanted to act, one started to act, and one’s still acting."

Smith was married twice, to fellow actor Sir Robert Stephens, from 1967 to 1975, and then to Cross, from 1975 until his death in 1998. She is survived by her two sons, Chris Larkin and Toby Stephens, who are both actors, and five grandchildren.