Maggie Smith

Actor, Soundtrack

Birthdate: December 28, 1934

Birthplace: Ilford, Essex, England, UK

Died: September 27, 2024

One of the great actors of her generation, Dame Maggie Smith (birthname: Margaret Natalie Smith) makes a rare claim to two Oscars, a Tony, and four Emmys, plus five SAG, seven BAFTA, and three Golden Globe Awards. She has won 58 awards out of 157 nominations for her performances in film, TV, and stage.

Smith’s film career spans eight decades, as early as 1956 and continuing into 2022, with her appearance as the beloved and snarky Violet Crawley in Downton Abbey: A New Era. She appeared in 2022 in lead roles as Joseph Goebbels’ secretary in Christopher Hampton’s A German Life and in Thaddeus O’Sullivan’s The Miracle Club with Laura Linney and Kathy Bates.

It is difficult to find a career among living actors with such longevity and vitality, in which the artist continues to perform at the height of her powers—and popularity—well into her 80s. Maggie Smith is one of a handful of actors who can be rightly termed an “institution,” an heir to the kind of stature secured by Sir Laurence Olivier in the previous generation.

Following lauded early stage performances, Maggie Smith made an impression in The V.I.P.s (1963), with Richard Burton, Elizabeth Taylor, and Orson Welles; Jack Clayton’s The Pumpkin Eater (1964) with Anne Bancroft; a first Oscar nomination as Desdemona in Othello (1965) with Laurence Olivier, Derek Jacobi, and Michael Gambon; and in Richard Attenborough’s Oh! What a Lovely War (1969).

Smith won her first Oscar for Best Actress for The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1969). This was followed by another Oscar-nominated performance in George Cukor’s Travels with My Aunt (1972), and Neil Simon’s California Suite (1978) with Michael Caine, for which Smith won Best Supporting Actress (for portraying an actress character who just lost the Oscar!).

Highlights of Maggie Smith’s busy 1980s include two standout Merchant-Ivory productions, including Quartet (1981) with Alan Bates and Isabelle Adjani; and the universally acclaimed, multi-Oscar nominated adaptation of Virginia Woolf’s A Room with a View (1985), with Daniel Day-Lewis, Helena Bonham Carter, Judi Dench, and Simon Callow. In 1987, Smith delivered one of her greatest—if often most overlooked—performances in Jack Clayton’s superb The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne, with Bob Hoskins.

The decades of the 1990s, 2000s, and 2010s proved Maggie Smith’s wily durability and rich talents in comedy, in which she mastered the art of stealing scenes away in colorful supporting roles—which reached its apotheosis with Downton Abbey. Whether it was in Steven Spielberg’s Hook (1991), two films with Agnieszka Holland (1993’s The Secret Garden and 1997’s Washington Square), or the mega-hits Sister Act (1992) and Sister Act 2 (1993), Smith used less physical and older roles to her advantage as an actor perhaps unmatched for delivering a killer line of dialogue.

This was never better demonstrated than her superb turn in Robert Altman’s ensemble mystery, Gosford Park (2001), and to cap Maggie Smith as a legendary figure with a new generation, Professor Minerva McGonagall in the Harry Potter film series from 2001 to 2011, the third-highest grossing to date. Maggie Smith continued to thrive in roles in hit movies, such as The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel films (2012, 2015), with Dench, Bill Nighy, and Dev Patel, followed by the revered Downton Abbey, first on its highly successful British TV run and the second feature sequel, Downton Abbey: A New Era.

Other recent non-Downton triumphs in Smith’s remarkable career include a lauded turn in Alan Bennett’s The Lady in the Van (2015), and her award-winning 2019 stage performance as Joseph Goebbels’ secretary in Christopher Hampton’s play, A German Life, in which Smith re-created for the screen in 2022.

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Personal Life
Movies
Facts

Personal life

Born in Essex to Margaret and Nathaniel Smith, Maggie Smith has two brothers, Alastair and Ian. She grew up in Oxford, England, where her father worked as a pathologist at Oxford University. After graduating from Oxford High School, Maggie Smith studied acting at the Oxford Playhouse. She was married to actor Robert Stephens until their divorce in 1975. They had two children, actors Chris Larkin and Toby Stephens. Two months after her divorce, Smith married author Beverley Cross, with whom she was married until his death in 1998. Smith has five grandchildren. Her philanthropy includes support for the International Glaucoma Association, the Royal Theatrical Fund, and the U.K.-based feline protection group Cats Protection. Her height is 5’ 5”.

Known For

Gosford Park

Constance Trentham (2001)

A Room with a View

Charlotte Bartlett, a Chaperon (1985)

The Lady in the Van

Miss Shepherd (2015)

The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie

Jean Brodie (1969)

Awards

Two-time Winner, Best Actress/Best Supporting Actress, Academy Awards (1969, 1978); Four-time Winner, Outstanding Lead/Supporting Actress, Emmy Awards (2003, 2011, 2012, 2016); Five-time Winner, Best Actress, BAFTA Awards (1969, 1984, 1986, 1988, 1999); BAFTA Special Award (1993); BAFTA Academy Fellowship (1996); Three-time Winner, Best Actress/Supporting Actress, Golden Globe Awards (1978, 1986, 2012); Five-time Winner, Outstanding Actress/Ensemble, Screen Actors Guild Awards, (2001, 2012, 2013-2015).

BAFTA Film Award

BAFTA Film Award

BAFTA Awards

Golden Globe

Golden Globe

Golden Globes, USA

Oscar

Oscar

Academy Awards, USA

Maggie Smith Movies

Actor

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Previous (13)

2023 |
The Miracle Club
The Miracle Club
2023
Comedy, Drama
There's just one dream for the women of Ballygar to taste freedom: to win a pilgrimage to the sacred French town of Lourdes.
asLily Fox
2021 |
A Boy Called Christmas
A Boy Called Christmas
2021
Adventure, Drama, Family, Fantasy
In this origin story of Father Christmas, an ordinary boy--with a loyal pet mouse and a reindeer at his side--sets out on an extraordinary adventure to find his father, who is on a quest to discover the fabled village of Elfhelm.
asAunt Ruth
2019 |
Quartet
Quartet
2019
Drama, Romance
Finding herself penniless after her art-dealer husband Stephan is convicted of theft, Marya Zelli accepts the hospitality of a strange couple, H.J. and Lois Heidler, who let her live in their home.
asLois Heidler
2019 |
Downton Abbey
Downton Abbey
2019
Drama, Romance
The Crawleys and their servants prepare to host King George V and Queen Mary at Downton Abbey.
More Info
asViolet Crawley
2018 |
Tea With the Dames
Tea With the Dames
2018
Documentary
Dames Judi Dench, Eileen Atkins, Joan Plowright, and Maggie Smith get together for tea to reminisce and discuss their acting careers.
asSelf
2015 |
The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel
The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel
2015
Comedy, Drama, Romance
As the Best Exotic Marigold Hotel has only a single remaining vacancy, posing a rooming predicament for two fresh arrivals, Sonny Kapoor (Dev Patel) pursues his expansionist dream of opening a second hotel.
More Info
asMuriel Donnelly
2015 |
The Lady in the Van
The Lady in the Van
2015
Biography, Comedy, Drama
A man forms an unexpected bond with a transient woman living in her van that's parked in his driveway.
asMiss Shepherd
2012 |
The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel
The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel
2012
Comedy, Drama, Romance
British retirees travel to India to take up residence in what they believe is a newly restored hotel. Less luxurious than advertised, the Marigold Hotel nevertheless slowly begins to charm in unexpected ways.
asMuriel Donnelly
2001 |
Harry Potter
Harry Potter
2001
Adventure, Family, Fantasy
An orphaned boy enrolls in a school of wizardry, where he learns the truth about himself, his family and the terrible evil that haunts the magical world.
asProfessor McGonagall
1996 |
The First Wives Club
The First Wives Club
1996
Comedy
Reunited by the death of a college friend, three divorced women seek revenge on the husbands who left them for younger women.
asGunilla Garson Goldberg
1991 |
Hook
Hook
1991
Adventure, Comedy, Family, Fantasy
When Captain James Hook kidnaps his children, an adult Peter Pan must return to Neverland and reclaim his youthful spirit in order to challenge his old enemy.
asGranny Wendy
1986 |
A Room with a View
A Room with a View
1986
Drama, Romance
Lucy Honeychurch shares a brief romance with George Emerson in Florence. Yet as she tries to move on with her life and look for marriage elsewhere, can she truly forget the events of that summer?
asCharlotte Bartlett, a Chaperon
-- |
as Aunt Ruth

Facts About Maggie Smith

Oscar Queen: Not only has Maggie Smith received four Oscar nominations and two Oscars over four decades, but she is also one of only seven actors to win an Oscar in both lead and supporting categories (The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, California Suite). Oscar Record: Smith is the only actor to win an Oscar for portraying an Oscar nominee—and one who loses. Rare Honor: Maggie Smith is only the third female actor to become a Member of the Order of the Companions of Honour, for her services to drama. The other two women are Dame Judi Dench and Dame Sybil Thorndike. University Honors: Smith has received four honorary Doctorates or Degrees from institutions of higher learning, although she never attended university. They are Mansfield College (Oxford) Fellowship; University of St. Andrews Doctor of Letters; University of Cambridge Doctor of Letters; University of Bath Doctor of Letters. Awards Record: Maggie Smith is the only male or female actor to win the prestigious Evening Standard Theatre Award six times, and incredibly enough across five decades, first in 1962, and most recently in Christopher Hampton’s 2019 play, A German Life. Health Scares: Smith recovered fully from both a bout of Graves’ disease in 1988 and breast cancer in 2007.

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