With an acting career that spanned nearly 70 years, Dame Maggie Smith was one of the greatest actors of the modern era. She performed on stage, for television, and in many films, earning 58 acting awards in her long career. Smith passed away at the age of 89 at the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital in London on September 27, 2024. The sad news was announced in a public statement issued by her sons: “She leaves two sons and five loving grandchildren who are devastated by the loss of their extraordinary mother and grandmother.”
Smith was born in 1934 in London and went on to attend the Oxford Playhouse School. She ended up taking Maggie as her stage name because another Margaret Smith was already working as an actress. She preferred the stage over the screen and one of her first big stage roles was in New York for New Faces of ’56 which ran for 220 shows on Broadway. Her first impressions of America were that the food portions were large and that it was incredibly bright. She said, “It was like being in a movie, instead of watching them.”
Smith largely kept to stage performances (some televised) until the late 1960s when she began acting for films. Her first big film role was in The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1969). Television acting came later. Her role as the fierce Professor McGonagall in the Harry Potter films made her a popular star on both sides of the pond, as well as her role as the intractable matriarch of the Downton Abbey series which ran for 6 seasons and had several follow up films.
Many of her co-stars and producers from various projects have remarked on her intelligence and wry sense of humor. She will be remembered not only for her sparkling wit, but for her famously uncomfortable relationship to fame. Smith did not love to watch herself on screen and once remarked about Downton Abbey, “Why do I want to see it? I’m doing it. I know the story of it. I do have the boxed set, but you know that would take me to the end of my life to watch.”
She loved starting new projects, as evidenced by the fact that as of her death she still has at least one film unreleased. She was acting until her last days and said in interviews that it was truly her life’s work. She said that after they had filmed the last episode of Downton Abbey she was free to pursue other roles finally.
Smith starred in so many great roles that it’s hard to say which one was her best. We will each remember her in our own favorite roles, each one uniquely hers. To older generations she was an It girl, to younger ones a witty auntie or grandmother figure. She stole our hearts in so many scenes that it would be impossible to count them. So, in honor of her passing here are just a few of her best lines from over the years, delivered as only she could.
“Perhaps it would be more useful if I were to transfigure Mr Potter and yourself into a pocket watch? That way, one of you might be on time.” as Professor Minerva McConagall in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone
“What is a week-end?” as The Dowager Countess in Downton Abbey
“Go with God, Crispy.” as Mother Superior in Sister Act 2
“Now, there is one rule I insist be obeyed while you are in my house: No growing up. Stop this very instant. And that includes you, Mr. Chairman-of-the-Board Banning.” as Wendy Darling in Hook
“I had counted on my prime lasting until I was at least 50.” as Jean Brodie in The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
“You must learn to surrender yourself to extravagance.” as Aunt Augusta in Travels with My Aunt
On the experience of being appointed a dame:
“I was just so thrilled that my father was alive. But, that’s mostly the point, isn’t it? It’s for other people who’ve helped got you where you are. It’s not really you.” as herself in Tea with the Dames
“There’s no such thing as an ending, just a place where you leave the story.” as Muriel Donnelly in The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel
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