Two-time Oscar winner , Maggie Smith, the celebrated stage actress who starred in” The Prime of Miss , Jean Brodie” and burnished her long-shining star by playing the scene-stealing dowager countess of” Downton Abbey” and the exacting Professor McGonagall in the” Harry Potter” franchise, has died. She was 89.
The respectable English lady “passed away happily” early Friday in a , London , hospital, her children,  , Chris Larkin , and , Toby Stephens, said in a speech to The , Times.
She was a very personal people, and she spent time with friends and family at the end. She leaves her adoring children and two children, and they are devastated by the loss of their amazing mother and grandmother, they wrote in a statement from publicist and nbsp, Clair Dobbs.
Her children did not make the statement about her cause of death. Smith had previously been open about her health issues, including having glaucoma, Graves ‘ disease, and breast cancer, and having had hip replacement surgery in her 80s. In their speech, her children thanked the “wonderful employees at the Chelsea and , Westminster Hospital , for their attention and unfailing kindness during her last time”.
During a job that spanned six years, Smith acquired a huge following on both flanks of the , Atlantic , and became one of several to achieve the quad king of acting — winning Academy, Emmy and Tony prizes. She earned her Awards playing the innovative harridan in” The Prime of Miss , Jean Brodie” and a weak movie legend in” California Suite” in the 1970s. She even had four Primetime Emmys, three Golden Globes, a Tony, an Olivier Award and a stone of BAFTAs to her name.
The veteran actor reportedly summed up her career in a single phrase:” One went to school, one wanted to act, one started to act, and one’s also acting”.
Beginning her job in drama as a teenager, Smith played Shakespeare’s Rosalind and Beatrice. She excelled with class-conscious hipsters and imperious figures. A dominant appearance on par with contemporaries , Judi Dench , and , Vanessa Redgrave, Smith was awarded as a Friend of Honor by , Queen Elizabeth , in 1990. In people, Smith was interesting, self-deprecating and down-to-earth.
” I’ll find anxious unless I’m acting. That’s when I come truly intact, you see”, she told The , Times.
She alternated theater work with cinema and achieved Oscar nods for” Othello” ( 1965 ),” Travels with My Aunt” ( 1972 ),” A Room with a View” ( 1985 ) and” Gosford Park” ( 2001 ). In addition to” Downton Abbey” and the eight-film blockbuster” Harry Potter” saga, Smith starred in several projects teeming with established British talent, including the” Best Exotic Marigold Hotel” films and” The Lady in the Van”.
” I’ve had quite a collection as an actress”, she quipped. ” All the way from Desdemona to Virginia to acting with a pig in]1984’s ]’ A Personal Functionality.'”
Her range was a factor in her reputation with such diverse people. It was anticipated that she would receive her late-night admiration in the highly anticipated wizard company as the devoted deputy headmistress tasked with Gryffindor House. And while she was the first choice for the role, countless fresh” Harry Potter” followers had not heard of Smith before she was cast. However, her involvement in the company entraged fresh fans and generated significant financial gain.
” Harry Potter , is my income”, she told the Telegraph.
She read , J. K. Rowling ‘s , bestsellers and enjoyed playing the iconic professor, regarding her time on the films as” surreal”. However, the films did not draw her to film acting, and she was n’t always content with the exposure the part provided. Of” Downton Abbey”, ITV’s wonder mega-hit that resuscitated people broadcaster , PBS , in , the United States, Smith said she never bothered to watch the series.
” Why do I want to see it”? she told The , Times. ” I’m doing it. The tale of it is for me. Although I do have the boxed fixed, you know that may make it impossible for me to watch until the end of my life.
She delighted in her later work, though lamented the demands of” Downton” and” Harry Potter”, as well as quitting the stage. The British national treasure thinned out her agreements after being diagnosed with breast cancer but made no informed decision to stop drama. However, theatre remained her first like.
” I feel more at ease in the drama than I do in living”, she told , The , Times , in 2003.  ,” What I find amazing in theatre is the urgency of working with an audience, a full house full of people. There’s nothing quite like that to know that you can have everyone listening and reacting to what you are doing.
Smith had a strict policy of never reading her evaluations and never used the internet to learn what was written about her until Beverley Cross, the later writer, alluded to it after he scoured every column.
” I find that if you do the observes, you begin to play them. You become obsessed with one specific aspect of your performance if the critics criticize it. So I do n’t read them. My father usually says something like: ‘ They were Fine. Do n’t stress,’ and that’s enough for me”, Smith said in 1985.
Despite her notoriety as being modest, she acquired a reputation on set, intimidating managers and co-stars. She claimed it was the result of senses and anxiety.
” The terrible thing is, I’m really mindful when I’m being tough, but I’m often so scared. And that’s bullying, at the time another is”, she said.
But there was no apply changing course thus late into her occupation, and she said it had “frighten” co-workers if she were nicer.
” It’s gone too far now to get back”, she told the Telegraph. ” If I suddenly came on like Pollyanna, it would n’t work — it would frighten people more if I were nice. They’d been paralyzed with fear. and ponder my actions. But maybe I may try it…’ Hello! What joy! We’re going to be here all day! And finally nightly filming! Goodie!'”
Born , Margaret Natalie Smith , in 1934, she changed her brand to , Maggie Smith , in 1956 when she registered with Equity, the English players ‘ union, because , Margaret Smith , was taken.
She was born in the , Essex , district of , Ilford, and there was little dramatic about her qualifications: Her parents, Nat, was a medical engineer, and her British mom, Meg, was a Presbyterian. Her sons, Ian and Alistair, were triplets six years older than her. When she was five, the family moved to Oxford, and she immediately realized she wanted to be an actor.
” I was completely fascinated, which confused my parents absolutely. Both my brothers were architects, and they just did n’t know where it ]her driving ambition ] had come from”, she told the Telegraph.
Even her grandmother turned to her mother and said:” You simply ca n’t let her. You ca n’t let her. Not with that experience”.
After leaving , Oxford High School for Girls , at 16, her plans to move to , London ‘s , Royal Academy of Dramatic Art , were foiled by her parents. They claimed that she would have to be in Oxford if she wanted to pursue her wish.
She joined the , Oxford Playhouse School of Theatre, starring at 17 as Viola in Shakespeare’s” Twelfth Night”. She has talent, impeccable timing, and a gift for comedy, according to an Observer writer who described her as” she looks as bright as a carrot stick and speaks like a girl with a good mind of her own.”
Doing revues in Oxford and at events, producer , Leonard Sillman , saw her and” that’s how it happened”, Smith told , The , Times , in 2016. At 21, she starred in Sillman’s musical comedy troupe,” New Faces of 1956″, on , Broadway , and immediately was a rising sun.
She made her picture debut in the 1958 violence play” Nowhere to Go” with , George Nader. Upon her return to , Britain,  , Laurence Olivier , invited her to join , London ‘s , Royal National Theatre, and she played Desdemona opposite Olivier in” Othello”, first on level, then in the 1965 video version, for which she received her second Oscar nomination. Although it seemed intimidating, the position helped her career.
” It was scary”, she told The , Times , in 2016. ” Shakespeare , and I were a long way off because I had been doing stuff like’ New Faces ‘ and revues. I would have been terrified anyways just leaping into , Shakespeare, but that was going in at a very startling level”.
Olivier had likewise recruited charismatic fresh actor , Robert Stephens,  , with whom Smith immediately fell in love. The star couple’s onscreen chemistry was apparent in” Hay Fever” and” Many Ado About Nothing”, which were great buyers at the box office.
They were married in 1967 and had two children, Christopher and Toby, but Stephens ‘ drinking and instability caused the coalition to decline as Smith succeeded in drama while his profession stalled. They divorced in 1975 and, four weeks after it was finalized, she reunited with Cross. They remarried, and he took on her two brothers as his own.
Smith and Olivier famously did n’t get along and, after her divorce, she and her family set off for , Canada, where she spent four years with the , Shakespeare Company , at , Stratford, Ontario. Under the direction of , Robin Phillips, she tackled classical roles she had n’t in , London , — Cleopatra, Rosalind and , Lady Macbeth , among them.
” It was wonderful”, she told the Telegraph, “like starting life all over again, really”.
In swinging 1960s , London, when videos featured new mini-skirted ingenues for as , Julie Christie , and Redgrave, Smith stood aside. Directors picked up on her idiosyncratic, polite style and the so-called” Maggie Smith , personality”— the class-fixated loudmouth she perfected — was born.
She said,” I believe it’s just a problem of people not knowing what to do with you.”
Smith appeared on , Broadway , in 1975’s” Secret Life” and 1979’s” Night and Day”. Her 1970s video funds included” Like and Pain and the Whole Damned Thing”,” Murder by Death” and” Death on the Nile”. Alongside a throw that included , Jane Fonda,  , Walter Matthau,  , Michael Caine,  , Bill Cosby,  , Richard Pryor , and , Alan Alda, Smith earned her second Academy Award playing Oscar-loser , Diana Barrie, who finds herself among a motley crew of guests staying at a , Beverly Hills  , resort in , Neil Simon ‘s , 1978″ California Suite”.
Then came” Virginia”, the play about contemporary writer , Virginia Woolf , in 1981. The present was so effective that it was taken to , London. She also starred with Olivier and , Harry Hamlin , in Cross ‘ adaptation of the Greek epic” Clash of the Titans” and a slew of film comedies before landing in the 1985 Merchant Ivory production of , E. M. Forster ‘s ,” A Room With a View”. The romantic episode won three Awards, including Best Picture and Best Supporting Actress for Smith. It was her first pairing with Dench, a close friend who would work with her onstage in 2002 for , David Hare ‘s ,” The , Breath of Life”, in , Charles Dance ‘s ,” Ladies in Lavender” ( 2004 ) and the” Marigold Hotel” films.
But it was” Quartet” that kept popping up on her resume. She had first played , Lois Heidler , in , James Ivory ‘s , 1981 film version and revisited the role when the film was rebooted in 2012 in , Dustin Hoffman ‘s , directorial debut. For the past, Smith was given a BAFTA election, as well as a Golden Globe nomination.
Her nightly role as , Lettice Douffet, the eccentric tour guide at the heart of , Peter Shaffer ‘s , comedy” Lettice and Lovage”, earned her a Tony Award for best actress when it hit , Broadway , in 1990. Contemporary movie stars , Alan Bates,  , Glenda Jackson , and Redgrave were regulars on the West End, but Smith was among the European artists like as , Anthony Hopkins , and Dench, who appeared at discounted houses despite their flourishing video careers.
” You find that a lot of actors here — myself included — do film because you need that kind of money in order to work in the]subsidized ] theater”, Smith said in 1988. ” In this country, you either worked in theaters or you did movies.” We’re fortunate to be there at a time when you can do both.
The same year” Harry Potter , and the Sorcerer’s Stone” hit theaters, Smith earned wide acclaim in , Robert Altman , and , Julian Fellowes ‘ , mystery-comedy” Gosford Park”. The 2001 film earned seven Oscar nominations, including best picture. Smith won the supporting actress award.
” I’m always in costume and period things, wandering around in wigs”, she told The , Times , in 2001. ” If they want one of those snobbish English nasty people or whatever, I get into that bracket”.
Smith canceled several American awards shows in her later years despite winning numerous times for” Downton Abbey” because of her age and health. Her absence became a punchline at the 2016 Emmy Awards when host , Jimmy Kimmel , swiped her supporting actress trophy, saying they would n’t mail it but that she could get it at the lost and found.
Writing via the Masterpiece PBS Twitter account, Smith said:” I was very astonished and pleased to win the award. I feel the , Emmys , has been overly generous to me. If , Mr. Kimmel , could please direct me to the lost and found office I will try and be on the next flight”. She signed off on the post:” Love old Maggie”.
This story originally appeared in , Los Angeles Times.
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