Maggie Smith, the masterful, scene-stealing actor who won an Oscar for 1969 film 鈥淭he Prime of Miss Jean Brodie鈥 and gained new fans in the 21st century as the dowager Countess of Grantham in 鈥 Downton Abbey鈥 and Professor Minerva McGonagall in the Harry Potter films, died Friday. She was 89.
Smith's sons, Chris Larkin and Toby Stephens, said in a statement that Smith died early Friday in a London hospital.
鈥淪he leaves two sons and five loving grandchildren who are devastated by the loss of their extraordinary mother and grandmother,鈥 they said in a statement issued through publicist Clair Dobbs.
Smith was frequently rated the preeminent British female performer of a generation that included Vanessa Redgrave and Judi Dench, with a clutch of Academy Award nominations and a shelf full of acting trophies.
She remained in demand even in her later years, despite her lament that 鈥渨hen you get into the granny era, you鈥檙e lucky to get anything.鈥
Smith drily summarized her later roles as 鈥渁 gallery of grotesques,鈥 including Professor McGonagall. Asked why she took the role, she quipped: 鈥淗arry Potter is my pension.鈥
Richard Eyre, who directed Smith in a television production of 鈥淪uddenly Last Summer,鈥 said she was 鈥渋ntellectually the smartest actress I鈥檝e ever worked with. You have to get up very, very early in the morning to outwit Maggie Smith.鈥
"Jean Brodie," in which she played a dangerously charismatic Edinburgh schoolteacher, brought her the Academy Award for best actress, and the British Academy Film Award (BAFTA) as well.
Smith added a supporting actress Oscar for 鈥淐alifornia Suite鈥 in 1978, Golden Globes for 鈥淐alifornia Suite鈥 and 鈥淩oom with a View,鈥 and BAFTAs for lead actress in 鈥淎 Private Function鈥 in 1984, 鈥淎 Room with a View鈥 in 1986, and 鈥淭he Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne鈥 in 1988.
She also received Academy Award nominations as a supporting actress in 鈥淥thello,鈥 鈥淭ravels with My Aunt,鈥 鈥淩oom with a View鈥 and 鈥淕osford Park,鈥 and a BAFTA award for supporting actress in 鈥淭ea with Mussolini.鈥 On stage, she won a Tony in 1990 for 鈥淟ettice and Lovage.鈥
From 2010, she was the acid-tongued Violet Crawley, Dowager Countess of Grantham, in hit TV period drama 鈥 Downton Abbey,鈥 a role that won her legions of fans, three Emmy Awards, a Golden Globe and a host of other awards nominations.
She continued acting well into her 80s, in films such a 2022 big-screen spinoff 鈥淒ownton Abbey: A New Era鈥 and 2023 release "The Miracle Club."
Smith had a reputation for being difficult, and sometimes upstaging others.
Richard Burton remarked that Smith didn鈥檛 just take over a scene in 鈥淭he VIPs鈥 with him: 鈥淪he commits grand larceny.鈥 However, the director Peter Hall found that Smith wasn鈥檛 鈥渞emotely difficult unless she鈥檚 among idiots. She鈥檚 very hard on herself, and I don鈥檛 think she sees any reason why she shouldn鈥檛 be hard on other people, too.鈥
Smith conceded that she could be impatient at times.
鈥淚t鈥檚 true I don鈥檛 tolerate fools, but then they don鈥檛 tolerate me, so I am spiky,鈥 Smith said. 鈥淢aybe that鈥檚 why I鈥檓 quite good at playing spiky elderly ladies.鈥
Critic Frank Rich, in a New York Times review of 鈥淟ettice and Lovage,鈥 praised Smith as 鈥渢he stylized classicist who can italicize a line as prosaic as 鈥楬ave you no marmalade?鈥 until it sounds like a freshly minted epigram by Coward or Wilde.鈥
Smith famously drew laughs from a prosaic line 鈥 鈥淭his haddock is disgusting鈥 鈥 in a 1964 revival of Noel Coward鈥檚 鈥淗ay Fever.鈥
鈥淏ut unfortunately the critics mentioned it, and after that it never got a laugh,鈥 she recalled. 鈥淭he moment you say something is funny it鈥檚 gossamer. It鈥檚 gone, really.鈥
She repeated the gift for one-liners in 鈥淒ownton Abbey,鈥 when the tradition-bound Violet acidly asked, 鈥淲hat is a weekend?鈥
Margaret Natalie Smith was born in Ilford, on the eastern edge of London, on Dec. 28, 1934. She summed up her life briefly: 鈥淥ne went to school, one wanted to act, one started to act, one鈥檚 still acting.鈥
Her father was assigned in 1939 to wartime duty in Oxford, where her theater studies at the Oxford Playhouse School led to a busy apprenticeship.
鈥淚 did so many things, you know, round the universities there. ... If you were kind of clever enough and I suppose quick enough, you could almost do weekly rep because all the colleges were doing different productions at different times,鈥 she said in a BBC interview.
She took Maggie as her stage name because another Margaret Smith was active in the theater.
Laurence Olivier spotted her talent, invited her to be part of his original National Theatre company and cast her as his co-star in a 1965 film adaptation of 鈥淥thello.鈥
Smith said two directors, Ingmar Bergman and William Gaskill, both in National Theatre productions, were important influences.
Alan Bennett, preparing to film the monologue 鈥淎 Bed Among the Lentils,鈥 said he was wary of Smith鈥檚 reputation for becoming bored. As the actor Jeremy Brett put it, 鈥渟he starts divinely and then goes off, rather like a cheese.鈥
鈥淪o the fact that we only just had enough time to do it was an absolute blessing really because she was so fresh and just so into it,鈥 said Bennett. He also wrote a starring role for Smith in 鈥淭he Lady in the Van,鈥 as Miss Shepherd, a redoubtable woman who lived for years in her vehicle on Bennett鈥檚 London driveway.
However extravagant she may have been on stage or before the cameras, Smith was known to be intensely private.
Simon Callow, who acted with her in 鈥淎 Room with a View,鈥 said he ruined their first meeting by spouting compliments.
鈥淚 blurted out various kinds of rubbish about her and she kind of withdrew. She doesn鈥檛 like that sort of thing very much at all,鈥 Callow said in a film portrait of the actress. 鈥淪he never wanted to talk about acting. Acting was something she was terrified to talk about because if she did, it would disappear.鈥
Smith was made a Dame Commander of the British Empire, the equivalent of a knight, in 1990.
She married fellow actor Robert Stephens in 1967. They had two sons, Christopher and Toby 鈥 who both grew up to be actors 鈥 and divorced in 1975. The same year she married the writer Beverley Cross, who died in 1998.
Hilary Fox in London contributed. Associated Press writer Robert Barr contributed biographical material to this obituary before his death in 2018.
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