Dame Maggie Smith Dies at 89

Obituaries

Dame Maggie Smith Dies at 89

The Tony winner was one of the most prolifically beloved British actors of her generation.

Acclaimed actress Maggie Smith has passed away. News of her death was announced by her family via her longtime publicist Clair Dobbs. Ms. Smith was 89.

A treasured wit throughout her 50-plus years-long career, Ms. Smith was one of the most prolifically beloved British actors of her generation, winning two Academy Awards, five BAFTA Awards, four Emmy Awards, three Golden Globe Awards, and a Tony Award, with six additional Olivier Award nominations under her belt. Ms. Smith is one of the few performers to earn the Triple Crown of Acting, which is denoted by having won a competitive Academy Award, Emmy, and Tony for performance, exhibiting a mastery of the big screen, stage, and television.

Ms. Smith began her career on the stage in 1952, working at the Oxford Playhouse before debuting on Broadway in New Faces of ’56. Alongside her close friend Judi Dench, her career would blossom into one of the most significant on the British stage, working with the National Theatre and the Royal Shakespeare Company to reimagine the power a woman could wield in the West End. 

By the early 1960s, her legendary status had begun to take hold, winning a record-breaking six Best Actress Evening Standard Awards. She personally caught the eye of Laurence Olivier, who welcomed her into his new National Theatre Company soon after it was formed. Alongside Derek Jacobi and Michael Gambon, she became a fixture at the company, spending eight years on its boards.

Said British theatre critic Michael Coveney “[Olivier] knew immediately he’d met his match—that she was extraordinary. He said that anyone who can play comedy that well can also play tragedy and he offered her the likes of Desdemona in Shakespeare’s Othello. But having got her into the company they became not enemies, but professional rivals. Never before had anyone on stage been quicker than him and now, it seemed, there was a contest.”

On Broadway, Ms. Smith received Tony nominations for Noël Coward’s Private Lives and Tom Stoppard’s Night and Day, but it was 1990’s Lettice and Lovage that led to her winning the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play.

Ms. Smith first appeared uncredited on film in 1956, but like her stage career, it was the beginning of the ’60s that marked her meteoric ascent. In 1959, Ms. Smith received the first of her 18 British Academy Film Award nominations for her role as Bridget Howard in the film Nowhere to Go, which was her first credited screen appearance. She earned her first Oscar nomination for her performance in the 1965 film adaptation of Othello, which kicked off her final season with the National Theatre before turning much of her focus to the screen.

After enjoying a rock solid career throughout the latter half of the 20th century, Ms. Smith experienced a major resurgence in the 21st, receiving international fame for her role as Violet Crawley in the period drama Downton Abbey as well as her performance as Professor Minerva McGonagall in the Harry Potter film series. 

Ms. Smith is survived by her two sons, Toby Stephens and Chris Larkin, and five grandchildren. Her impact on generations of admirers is incalculable.